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The United Bases Of America And The Paradox Of Imperialism
The United States is estimated to have anything from 700 military bases around the world to more than 1000. Hans-Hermann Hoppe asks "how can democracy be a stable equilibrium if it is possible that it be transformed democratically into a dictatorship, i.e., a system which is considered not stable?" Concluding it may be better to heed the advice of Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn and, instead of aiming to make the world safe for democracy, we try making it safe from democracy - everywhere, but most importantly in the United States.
Excerpted from Hans-Hermann Hoppe via the Ludwig von Mises Institute,
"Democracy has nothing to do with freedom. Democracy is a soft variant of communism, and rarely in the history of ideas has it been taken for anything else."
...
On theoretical grounds: How can democracy be a stable equilibrium if it is possible that it be transformed democratically into a dictatorship, i.e., a system which is considered not stable? Answer: that makes no sense!
Moreover, empirically democracies are anything but stable. As indicated, in multi-cultural societies democracy regularly leads to the discrimination, oppression, or even expulsion and extermination of minorities — hardly a peaceful equilibrium. And in ethnically homogeneous societies, democracy regularly leads to class warfare, which leads to economic crisis, which leads to dictatorship. Think, for example, of post-Czarist Russia, post-World War I Italy, Weimar Germany, Spain, Portugal, and in more recent times Greece, Turkey, Guatemala, Argentina, Chile, and Pakistan.
Not only is this close correlation between democracy and dictatorship troublesome for democratic-peace theorists; worse, they must come to grips with the fact that the dictatorships emerging from crises of democracy are by no means always worse, from a classical liberal or libertarian view, than what would have resulted otherwise. Cases can be easily cited where dictatorships were preferable and an improvement. Think of Italy and Mussolini or Spain and Franco. In addition, how is one to square the starry-eyed advocacy of democracy with the fact that dictators, quite unlike kings who owe their rank to an accident of birth, are often favorites of the masses and in this sense highly democratic? Just think of Lenin or Stalin, who were certainly more democratic than Czar Nicholas II; or think of Hitler, who was definitely more democratic and a "man of the people" than Kaiser Wilhelm II or Kaiser Franz Joseph.
According to democratic-peace theorists, then, it would seem that we are supposed to war against foreign dictators, whether kings or demagogues, in order to install democracies, which then turn into (modern) dictatorships, until finally, one supposes, the United States itself has turned into a dictatorship, owing to the growth of internal state power which results from the endless "emergencies" engendered by foreign wars.
Better, I dare say, to heed the advice of Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn and, instead of aiming to make the world safe for democracy, we try making it safe from democracy — everywhere, but most importantly in the United States.
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for great justice
Irony is that without the Empire we probably wouldn't be making comments on this website.
Must Watch! Documentary about the Plunder, Hypocrisy and Violence of Empire: The Power Principlehttp://www.planbeconomics.com/2013/05/documentary-about-plunder-hypocris...
good thing we live in a constitutionally limited republic, and definitely not a democracy/mob rule.
without individual rights, no rights exist.
Yeah, I agree. It's limited to unlimited wiretapping, unlimited wars and unlimited debt. Otherwise it's pretty limited. </sarcasm>
I pledge allegiance to the MIC, and the United Bases of a'Murica.
As for the public, I will demand
Democratization
Under the gun
Indisputable
For Security and Compliance, or Else.
Hi Big Bro! FU
It is not a paradox..
It is an analytically complete and empirical example of hypocrisy.
good thing we live in a constitutionally limited republic, and definitely not a democracy/mob rule.
without individual rights, no rights exist.
The way things are now are the natural result of mixing Capitalism & Representative Democracy together for a few hundred years. It ends up here with super powerful banks and corporations controlling the biggest military in the world. There were good intentions at the start, but when the few rule the many, the few can be bribed and threatened. If we reset this thing again to the beginning, I think it would just get here again, perhaps even faster the next time.
A constitutionally limited participatory democracy wouldn't lead us here because you can't bribe and threaten everyone. It may lead us to other mistakes, but it wouldn't lead us to the banks and corporations controlling he world.
Disagree. What we have here is not necessarily the natural result of capitalism (I mean free market capitalism) and representative democracy. That may be so in lesser countries but in the USA the problem is that the people rolled over and let the elected ones centralize power. We gave it up even though we had the means (voting and shooting) to stop them.
All you do with what you said above is pass the blame. Take responsibility. We are all at fault for not doing more to stop this charade.
It is time for take number two. All the people who believe in centralizing power need to go away. Individualism needs to be ruggedly pursued. Cooperation must be voluntary or not at all.
Don't invest in gold. Invest in cheap metals like lead and brass. Rope manufacturers should also do very well in the times ahead.
Our democratic republic was suspended on 9/11.
try about 140 years sooner...
Oh Jesus H Christ. Fucking southern retards...
good thing we used to live in a constitutionally limited republic
There, I fixed it for you.
PS - FBI and NSA, go to hell.
Uhm. Those bases protect the interests of multi-national corporations. Most embassies are a conduit for trade, and to expand interests of American business owners in the region.
Imperialism is the projection of American power for corporate influence, not national security. It's been going on from the Spanish American War to United Fruit Company to Iraqi Oil. Though some would argue that a docile employed population protects against domestic strife.
America is entering its police-surveillance state stage as previous failing Empires before it. It's losing control of its peripheral territories so its redirecting control over its core.
what is needed now are the barbarians
thats amnesty
There are 3 forms of power: military, political and economic.
You can have military power but no economic like the old Soviet Union
You can have economic power but no military like old Japan.
But if you have military and economic power.....you have real, behind the scenes political power. Not the fake kind like you see 99% of the time.
No military=no true power.
That's why it's so gargantuan. I'm not saying I agree with it, I don't as I do not like interventionalism.
But the fact remains: play ball the way the US wants or suffer the consequences. Unless you have nukes.
The US's three-legged power stool is balancing on a pole named reserve currency/petrol dollar. Its position is neither earned nor deserved.
Ain't gonna stay standing much longer.
What country do you suggest will take its place?
countries in the plural will take its place
Which countries? And how many Divisons do they have?
My money is on Oceania.
That you still think in "Divisions" should be answer enough for you
I do not believe the U.S. is interested in an old world empire, like Rome or Napoleonic France, otherwise, physical armies would be marching everywhere and after WWII we would have conquered everyone left...and we could have.
What I think is that the U.S. wants to manage the whole world which requires sticking our nose into everyone's business in various ways. We want to hold economic and military supremacy which gives us the influence and standing. The problem is that we end up supporting bad guys against worse guys, a.k.a. Vietnam and eary Sadam Hussein. We make enemies and bribed friends everywhere and eventually we have to engage in shooting. We also engage in economic bailouts and sometimes unfavorable trade deals at the public's expense.
I believe that many Americans, including myself do not desire this. I want to tell S. Korea and Europe and Japan to all defend themselves. I want mirrored trade policies based on reciprocal openness. I want to quit supporting bad dictators agains worse dictators or unknowns. Let the chips fall where they may without our help and money.
In the end I believe we will have more respect and more influence even from our enemies. Most of all we will have self respect and be closer to a balanced budget.
FreedomGuy - I see your point about physical armies not marching everywhere. But I am seeing drones starting to fly everywhere...
You make a good point, add in redlight cameras, speed cameras, permission to do anything, etc. I am arguing historically. I do not doubt for a second we could go autocratic and that is in fact the trend. Look at the IRS, the spying on AP, etc. I do not need dark conspiracies. Those are front page items.
Just remember as we go full statist how it was sold as "good for us" all along the way...each incremental step.
... the U.S. wants to manage the whole world which requires sticking our nose into everyone's business in various ways. We want to hold economic and military supremacy which gives us the influence and standing... I have to take issue with that.
Far too few Merikans understand the difference between what they... and the dual-citiiZend usurpers of their 'government' want. Because of the failure to recognize this key distinction, Merikans willingly take on responsibility for crimes committed in their names, executed by the agents of a foreign power, designed to benefit that power at the expense of the core interests of the Merikan peeple.
Why the conflation of these two very different interests does not receive attention is as interesting a question as why Merikans accept their role as proxy gladiators and debt slave for\to a tiny clique of bandits who have adroitly gathered to themselves the organs of state and media...placing themselves in a position to control both information and debate. But those two questions are ultimately one and the same!
It's a form of magic trick; everyones aware of who is pulling the strings... but afraid to talk about...let alone talk back to... the majicians whose sleight of hand tricks are so obvious to the informed eye as to seem risible/Only a long overdue discussion of the pervasiveness of sio-nazi imposed mindcontrol technologies can give insight into the strange detachment of the denizens of the western fallen lands from controlling their own fates.
There is no "American Empire" ... there is a global dominance of Merikan cultural norms which has been accepted by, rather than imposed upon, populations all over world who have chosen to emulate the consumerist lifestyles offered them...at the expense of values endemic to their own cultural continuum.
The only the true hegemonist "Imperial" power in the world is the Talmudist continuum... it has used it's slippery facility with words....democracy...revolution... equality... etc., to invert the values by which societies maintain equilibrium, and create an atmosphere of 'permanent revolution' beloved to the trotskyite bolshevik talmudist and the trotskyite neoCon talmudist alike... a state of perpetual war, turmoil, and social decline.
That is the current state of Merika...bowed down under the imposition of talmudic law * which bureacratizes every aspect of their lives... and those same usurpers of the Merikan peeples peace n plenty are seeking to impose it now as a global standard of perpetual rack n ruin...global slavery to the racial hegemonist vision of a tiny clique of millenialist madmen.
The author of this piece has brought up some interesting notions about the weakness of democracy as a social theory...but do to their stubborn insistence on treating the subject through the unifocal lense of their Austrian hobby-horse... have failed to get to grips with the real dynamic... and the real players behind the false gods of "Democracy" "Equality" and the rest of the false-front stand-ins for Mammon and Baal!
*the biggest Goebbelian-style lie ever is perpetrated by those enablers of the moneypower who attempt to wave impostion of 'sharia law' in front of their dupe goy audience as a fearful future folly... the imposition of talmudic law is in fact a fait accompli of the the entire western world... and has replaced English common law in all critical applications... but we cannot discuss this fact!
edit: first downtick within 1 minute of posting! New record...luv it! Big shoutout to the guys in the drone-jock duty room... say hello to the boyz at the coffee machine\water cooler when you take your ADL mug out for a refill! lol...
You are a little heavy on the conspiracy side for me, but I will cede you bring up some good points. Long ago as a young man I contemplated the question that as a democratic republic if we could vote ourselves into socialism or some autocratic form of government.
My view is that not only that we can but we are doing it...without a single Constitutional amendment. We just let the Supremes reimagine the Constitution as they wish and the executive-bureaucratic gets its way.
I a'int heavy... I'm yur brother\in arms... in tryin to bring this around before the gift of freedom and independence- from the slavers who have ruled such much of human history -///that our forebears left us with as their ultimate legacy...
is wrested from us due to inattention... and failure to understand what is the real consequence when a peeple fails to pass from one generation to the next the only real inheritance of value....we are that peeple... will we betray all those whom came before us... and would come after us as free peeple too... but for our own weakness and arrogance?
all I ask is that you read this — US Congress, HR 104 Public Law 102-14*
and if you think that we should be impeded from discussing the implications of such a direct betrayal of our heritage as free Europoid peeples...freely aligned with a black\brown\red\yellow coalition of the willin... gainst the 'usual suspects' so beloved of killin...by the lapdog political prostitutes who have infected your body politic... then I will rest my case.
Only two choices remain... endless war...on behalf of an alien power...or
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCkap5iS5Qs
which tune will you dance to bro? ////got the screenshot dudes!
Try reading "The Controversy of Zion" by Douglass Reed. There is nothing extraordinary in Joyful's comment, beyond the general ignorance of the problem. Of course it's a conspiracy- that is the definition of many people acting together towards a single purpose. The fact you use the term as you do denotes a naivate concerning geo-political events.
There are two types of conspiracies in my mind. The first is a conspiracy of interests. These are relatively universal and generally visible like farmers lobbying for more subsidies, national industries lobbying for higher tariffs at home and lower tariffs abroad, bankers lobbying for bailouts, etc. It also includes central bank coordination and the desire of Islam to conquer the world. The other type which I was referrring to are the dark, mulitnational, hidden power, puppet master, manchurian candidate, zionist, bildeberger, alien race, masonic, tri-lateralist, etc. hidden organizations that no one but conspiracy theorists know about. I am much more skeptical of these. Part of the reason is that the conspiracists often inadvertantly reason themselves into corners. I do not wish to talk about these at length. That is for other places.
I tend to believe most of the problems in the world are reasonable visible, can be reasoned out and if dealt with properly will also thwart most if not all of the possible conspiracies. As simplistic as it seems I firmly believe in the general libertarian answer which is to severely limit power and the rule of governments. That alone neuters most conspiracies.
Then, first you must explain how this system is established. Second, you have created separation in conspiracies, where none exists. This is what I meant about naivete. If the source of the problems you think exists is not visible to almost everyone, who will you reason it out with? Third, there is no general libertarian answer, there is no agreed upon libertarian philosophy. If you cannot define your answer in terms that are understandable by many, how do you think your reason will be persuasive?
Read the book I recommended. It is a start.
Well, you have to decide what system you wish to analyze. In free societies they arise separately and spontaneously through voluntary actions. Government systems develop along mission and lines of power. They all go to the same endpoint...power for the sake of power, not anyone's good as the idiots on the Left suppose.
What I categorically reject is the sloppy use of conspiracies as an answer to everything by people not particularly well informed. NOTHING is as it appears. Once you start with that then you can break into any of a dozen conspiracy answers as to the truth of anything. Frankly, they are maddening, elusive, slippery and not terribly useful. What solutions do conspiracy theorists offer? If they have solutions I would posit they align reasonably well with libertarian philosophy. Generally, they want to hang someone like bankers and take away power and establish some sort of openness.
There is a libertarian answer. I do not know what you have been reading but it is not too hard to distill. While getting libertarians to do anything in unison is like herding cats, every one I ever met universally rejects the ideas of the "goodness" of governments as well as it's claims to power over our lives. The libertarian answer is we own ourselves, government should be minimilazed to the point of nonexistance, if possilble and severely limited where it is necessary. The primary rule in life is to live as you wish but do no harm. All relationships between each other are voluntary. Sound money. Competing money. Go to any area of trade, science, industry, monetary policy, and there is a libertarian answer. The debate tends to just be degree.
I like to read, trying to finish Bastiat right now. He appears to be a genius well ahead of his time. Anyway, i like learning new things but I despise "secret" knowledge crap. That is the stuff of cults and basement blogs.
FreedomGuy
you're mistaking a want for a need. You need oil plain and simple that's IT. Without the oil the M1 Abrams are parked because they don't run on piss (JP8 jet fuel). Why do you think the krauts lost wwII (other than stalingrad), their tanks ran out of fuel. you're empire is a passive global military dictatorship than runs on fuel, without it, you're.........south canada
Well, Prains, I will not argue the importance of oil or other resources. But, if you are right then when the USA becomes a net exporter of oil it would imply we will stop screwing with the rest of the world. My instincts tell me we will not. So, it has to be more than oil.
net exporter ?? maybe on paper......that's all the american economy has been able to conjure up for the last 40 years, paper profits based on paper ideas, nothing tangible. so to now all of a sudden believe that the shale play will turn the US into a net exporter is a huuuuuge stretch but for arguments sake and I'm wrong which my wife says is more often than not, then even if there is a real net export effect (highly questionable) what's the time frame on that expectation 1,5,10 years.
as an aside I think the real reason for the hard on to have Keystone XL go through is so the boys in Texas can mess with the data and voila alberta bitumen when refined will <on paper> become american crude and help drastically with the net exporter meme.
No Power can March over the whole world;
The State(s) IS trying to do just that and
HAS BEEN TRYING to do just that ever since it developped into an Imperialist State.
But it can't. Besides, the People of Mogadishu did kick their asses out!
I guess they could nuke the whole world and reign over a Nuclear Winter,
But even retarded Dictators know better than THAT!
.
...or overextended military power and a dying economy like the current USSA.
Or overextending ourselves domestically in providing everything to everyone for "free", as well as helping the rest of the world. I think our social programs will kill us economically first.
Let's help the rest of the world, but don't help ourselves. been working brilliantly for the past few decades, right?
Cut more education and promote sink or swim. Don't be surprised when the sinkers start fucking you up your ass because you thought you could just isolate yourself from them and they'd just sink away, though.
Dingus Berrious is right - drone him
Fixing Churchill's quote:
Democracy is the worst form of government just like all those others forms that have been tried from time to time.
"aiming to make the world safe for democracy"
Who still buys this?
Every person that enlists in the US armed forces.
I have a retarded brother who just signed up for the Army.
Dumbass.
sorry to hear that, another lost soul to the oligarchs control
When you need a job you will work for an organization that you would never have anything to do with otherwise. If you had specified the officer corps you would have been closer to speaking the truth.
We gonna have to launch every zig. And pay for our hamburgers on tuesday.
fuck. somebody set up us the bomb.
@ Incubus
It was The Bernak ... monetary bomb - kills all hope, lots of change and leaves the population ready for servitude
Launch all zig!
All your base are belong to us
In AD 2013
War was begining
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVsijmCFs50
This article conflates democracy with imperialism. While clearly the United States has become an imperialist power, that has nothing whatsoever to do with democracy (or being a Constitutional Republic, for the boneheads that want to debate democracy versus being a Republic). The problem is that a few thousand people own most of the wealth of the world, and they are using the U.S. military to keep it.
Using is probably not the right term. There is plenty of willful or ignorant complicity in what's being done. Especially at the top or it wouldn't be the way that it is. So they are allowing themselves to be used, re-used, abused and amused.
They probably wouldn't like to be called street walkers or hookers. That's too low class for these fine upstanding whores in uniform. Call girls is more their style. Mostly outcall right now. Incall coming soon to an American city near you.
+1 for the Zardoz referance.
The inertia of the USG today and the military industrial complex simply continues from WWII.
Cutting the central government by 50%, across the board, while repealing the 16th and 17th amendments, woud be a good start toward rejuvenating the Republic.
democracy=mob rule. Two wolves and a lamb deciding on what's for lunch.
It is others deciding what is best for me, instead of voluntaryism where they persuade and if I agree I will do the action/buy whatever it may be of my own accord.
The spectrum is not this false L/R one; it is from where I want to be, laissez faire, to the other side, statism.
Democracy is buying up the right to use force against someone else. These voters use a third party surrogate to do the theft (taxation or inflation), government, and it is no more noble than outright robbing a person.
So we have a Constitutional Republic that resulted in the imperialistic shit described by this article. Is your point that a pure Democracy would be better?
I'm an anarcho-capitalist. I am my own agent.
Sadly people fall for the siren songs of 'security' and give up liberty.
So the guys who corrupted our Republic should be given the keys in your anarcho-capitalist fairy land. Sounds great.
in voluntaryism there are no 'keys'. There is no government. People would arrange voluntary contracts and private owners would establish rules for using their property.
You should jump on Oprah's couch. And smile, knowingly. Think.
I will burn an effigy in memory of you and Oprah. :)
Yes, when people talk about anarcho capitalism etc. they always leave out the most important factor in their calculations... force.
So wouldn't enforcement of said "contracts" be left to the biggest bully? And they set the rules? Sounds a bit like, now. Almost feudal. Regardless, one volunteers for the choices they are given. Private owners may need gun turrets or divine right or something.
Divine something or other. Where've you been tick?
in voluntaryism there are no 'keys'. There is no government. People would arrange voluntary contracts and private owners would establish rules for using their property.
so what do you do with all the monopolies and oligarchs that just tilt the game only in their favor and your misery? remember this is not a meritocracy you are a part of.
so no merit based answer please
3 junks yet no CREDIBLE answer to an honest question, Liberty is a theory, nothing more. Humanity and all its shitty little nuances are not theory
I didn't junk you, and I don't want to pick on you, but maybe the concept of "Anarchism" is of interest in this regard ( not to be confused with "Anomie", as most often is the case ).
Anomie: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anomie
while
Anarchism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchism
;-)
my point has less to do with societal deconstruction but the masquerade of Liberty as an idea when taken off the page of theory it is nothing more than a disguise behind which Oligarchy operates. Liberty is the disguise from which oligarchy best hides itself and operates to dominate and control. The last 100 years of American political and economic development is all the exactly what the idea of "liberty" has produced because oligarchy can use the theory of it to practice what we are living in right now.
it's all right here;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oligarchical_collectivism
Until they arrange a government under voluntary contract, and then proceed to exert their power over thos ewho didn't volunteer to gain more of it, as is the nature of so many humans and their insatiable will to power. You, like all Libertarians, are living in a rationalist la la land.
I come from the libertarian angle. A Constitutional Repbulic was the best we could produce but we have found guys in black robes who reimagine, reinterpret and redefine the Constititution so that in essence it means nothing and is therefore no more than a speed bump to greater centralized power.
If we had a "do-over" I woiuld write laws with two sections, the letter of the law as we have it now and another section the intent or meaning. Everything would have to be judged against both parts.
I think the founders were essentially prescient when they noted that liberty tends to yield to authority over time. It is the great lie of history that governments of any sort will work for our good.
We used to have a Republic. It lasted about 80 years or so. It ended a long, long time ago.
Yep, dead by 1840.
"This article conflates democracy with imperialism"
American democracy did that for itself, in case you've missed the last 200 years of its history - the author merely pointed it out. Sorry to be the one to tell you; letting go of the 'democracy = good' conditioned response isn't easy.
Apart from being the political system most conducive to tyranny (due to its implicit legitimation of politics, political outcomes, and the state on a large or universal scale), it is inherently incompatible with the promotion of individual liberties, contrarily, it serves to legitimize and promote the abuse of individuals by other individuals - by extending to ever more people the (promise, at least, of the) use of state power, as a proxy, to accomplish self-serving ends.
Democracy = mob rule => totalitarian govt.
Bait and switch works really well in politics.
Just who will fuck with us?
.
Same as always: the US government.
They left off the secret nazi base under antarctica.
Well, it is a secret.
it was moved to the moon a long time ago
newest one Mars ROFL
Worst rash ever.
But but but! If good people vote, only good people can be elected right??? And if by any miracle there's bad guys that are elected... the just-us system will take care of them right???
/lulz
lolmao - right on! I will know when good guys get elected when they make bitcoin the formal currency
Like the Roman Empire, the American Empire was originally constructed to protect the American people and the American way of life. Now it is transforming into an empire that exists to protect the Ruling Class and their income streams. Sorry, there's no turning back, and we know how the story ends. We are on our own.
Dark Ages Part Deux.
What did happen, or who was the real ruler in Christendom during the Dark Ages ?
Constantinople
and, for the most part, the "dark ages" were not nearly as dark as the official, simplified, historical narrative suggests. Anyway, we are at/coming to the end of the anglo/american imperial era (250 years or so) and it is hard to say what will come out of it.
Excellent observation...
long after the "roman" popes had become subverted puppets of the Florentian\Venetian banking houses... and the Medicis had funded the spread of Hermetic Cabbalism into and beyond the Vatican... a variant form of the religion stayed afloat along the shores of the Bosphorus, the Aegean, and the Black Sea... although history has described it as "eastern orthodox" christianity, in essence it was a melding of various strains of eastern religious practices, all of which coalesed in the veneration of saints and holy men.
Exactly as original Islam had contained a strong basis of reverence for individual teachers, prophets and iconoclastic figures whose poetry, words, and scriptural interpretations strayed far from either orthodoxy or allegiance to the secular state, the holy men of Byzantinian(later Greek and Slave variations)xhristianity were mystics and individualists... not interested in building vast empires like the western sects like Benedictines, Franciscans, and later the infamous Jesuits...
When the western freemason inspired 'Wahabi" fundamentals were created to sow division and discord amongst Muslims, xactly like the Protestant\Catholic divide in christendom...the first thing they did was ridicule, and later ban the of the mystical holy men of Islam... who had been iconoclastic thorns in the side of rulers and religious hierarchies... and champions of the common people.
We are drinking from that bitter cup now... as the same usual suspects trying to pit east and west against each other conspire to degrade both Islam and Xhristianity into millenialist fanatical cults without any spiritual sustenance...
we can only hope that what comes out of our common refusal to get sucked into these strategies of terror and hegemony will be a reawakening of our common heritage as evinced by sites like the Santa Sofia... and the end to factionalist religious divisions based upon corrupted interpretations of the original spiritual impulses behind them. Istanbul is a city... Constantinople was a civilization... Viva el Byzantium Nuevo!
Democracy is crap. What you need is a constitutional republic... with a good constitution. And then good, non-corrupt judges who will follow the constitution per the letter...
We have a good constitution. It's an amazing work, unfortunately 95% of the sheeple don't know what it is or how it's designed to protect them. Throw in 200 years of corrupt judges, lawyers, and politicians and its easy to see how they gutted the thing.
And let's not forget the corrupters. They have a small role in the corruption of the Republic.
A good constitution? I don't think so. A simple word count will show that 95% of the damned thing is parliamentary language and articulating government power. The other 5% is reserved for the rights of the individual and those are littered with all kinds of equivocations. On the value of the constitution I'm in agreement with Lysander Spooner - “But whether the Constitution really be one thing, or another, this much is certain - that it has either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it. In either case it is unfit to exist.”
That's ridiculous. Of course the majority of it articulates government power. The constitution lays out how our government is to operate. The bill of rights draws a line in the sand of areas government cannot cross. If there is a change that needs to be made then the constitution has a format in which to change it.
As far as Spooner's dumb ass comment it's not the constitution that allowed our current government , it's the stupidity of people and the corruption of men. No document can stand forever against stupidity.
Shit if they tried to write a constitution today, what took the founding fathers 6 pages would take 6,000 pages. Tacitus said it best; the more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws. We certainly are living at the height of corruption.
Spooner's treatise on the Constitution is classic and hardly a "dumb ass comment".
The Constitution was written by merchantilists for the benefit of a ruling class. This is why they wanted Washington to be King. It was also a coup 'tat over the Articles of Confederation(which included the same format for change). Their greatest concern was the effects of popular passion. This is the reason sufferage was so slow in being allowed.
The jewel in the Constitution is the first ten amendments (Bill of Rights). Unfortunately, they have been eviscerated through additional amendments. It is obvious that a line in the sand was not drawn at all. However, they still provide a better source of protection from tyranny than any other governmental promises.
Law is a great source of the problem, especially talmudic influence and persuasion through law. Corruption is normal, you need to see the driver of the corruption and gauge it's menace.
'We have a good constitution.'
The constitution was a coup d'etat against the Articles of Confederation. It gave birth to the hateful federal leviathan.
Fuck you, James Madison.
How about a strictly defined mutual defense treaty between the states and no federal government.
--> Standing Army?
--> Citizen militia?
excellent post.
Hitler was a true democrat, elected and most Germans loved him... like 90%+ easy...
Dancing with the Swastikas.
historical revisionism and made up statistics. Your dissembling of historical reality only helps convince the uninformed but, in reality, makes you look foolish. Hitler was not elected with a majority of Germans, but through the mechanations of a proportional democratic system he won a slight majority of the seats in the Reichstag.
He murdered 77,000 of his own people and they had families. Guess they didn't feel the love. USA seems to be following the German script.
America!! FUCK YA!
+1 for the nice rack dude...
In AD 2101
War was beginning
Captain: What happen?
Mechanic: Someone set up us the bomb
Operator: We get signal
Captain: What!
Operator: Main screen turn on
Captain: It's you!
Cats: How are you gentlemen
ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US
I'll bite. What the fuck are you talking about?
He's reciting the intro of the 1989 computer game "Zero Wing".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icVy7Ve6y6A
Time to re-read Plato's "Republic".
Problem is our current leaders in government and the corporatocracy think they are elites when they are mostly a bunch of jack-booted dopes.
Affirmative action doth not intelligence make.
What I find incredibly ironic is how TPTB can transfor a gay, jewish, cocaine head, racist, commie, lying fucktard, who cannot even hold his law license and does not even know his real name , where he is borna nd whether he needs a green card or a fake SS card into the penultimate symbol of power in the western half of earth.
It is a joke, no?
Clearly, the problem is too many "transfors" of gay jewish commie cocaine heads. Oh look, "ow my balls" is on!
Great! What channel
CNBC.
Democracy and capitalism are one and the same thing. Where they fall down is when:
1. Public officials and politicians are not punished for being unfaithful to their citizens and the nation.
2. Private individuals steal from the public and are not punished (Corzine etc)
3. Private businesses are not allowed to fail
4. Government is allowed to grow faster than the rest of the nation.
I'm glad that someone here gets it. Spot on Peterpan....
Military-Industrial Complex Speech, Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961
http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~hst306/documents/indust.html
This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the militaryindustrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
We never stopped fighting WWII........
I saw that too on Gillian's Island.
"Democracy" is mob rule by the dumbest 50%+1.
Hoppe is one of our times most brilliant thinkers, he articulates the message so well that once it takes hold you truely understand how to think, act and behave as a free man. I listened to him take Hayek to the woodshed today. 100 years from now his name will be as common as Plato in acedamic circles. He aslo lays to waste the U.S. doctrine of "spreading democracy" and the reasoning that "we will have peace by spreading democracy since democracy's do not war against one another" by pointing out that of all the so called "democratic governments" around the globe they all have a substantial presence of United States Military standing on their soil which would be akin to saying "a state will not war against itself"
Also, since the rise of "democracy" taxes in Europe have risen to 50% of GDP and America, 40% of GDP from single digits under monarchs.
"The New York State Senate today passed a bill that creates the crime of aggravated harassment of a police or peace officer. The bill (S.2402), sponsored by Senator Joe Griffo (R-C-I, Rome) would make it a felony to harass, annoy, or threaten a police officer while on duty."
http://www.nysenate.gov/press-release/senate-passes-bill-making-harassme...
"annoy?" They've got to be kidding.
The "state"...
New York, like California, should be abandoned by all sane persons and left to fail by their own devices. IMO they cannot be fixed and should be left to implode after they are walled off to prevent the infection from spreading. After the die-off they can be repopulated with those who originally inhabited them and rebuilt from scratch...
I am making this up: CNBS reported that an amendment to issue kneepads for the public to worship said "officials" was defeated by the senate as cost prohibitive but worship is an approved response. Kneeling on the grass would remain illegal as slaves are not worthy of damaging valuable public vegitation.
OMFG. That is absolutely crazy. This amounts to saying that "Since the public has lost respect for our arm of power, we will beat you until you sufficiently bend to our will." "That asshole quoted in the article is a grade "A" douche - would've been right at home in the SS. Replace every use of the word"respect" with "fear" and it would be more honest.
That is why the geniuses of this century have released BitCoin and other crypto-currencies. They will help prevent the corruption of the system (whatever system) by distributing the wealth of it. You want a society that will make it into the next level of consciousness you distribute the wealth throughout and out of the hands of the oligarchs. I suggest you eliminate the largest of systems such as national and global corporations completely with open source software that is based on the functions of the Constitution. Then as required over time phase out the State bureaucracies. At this point in human development no reason exists to have the concentrations of power and wealth as is.
It is an interesting post. Tito in Yugoslvaia was good for the country as well.
I wouldn't trust those currently in power in DC to be a "good" dictator, but would give Ron Paul a run for it.
The way they do things now is no longer to the benefit of the country in my view. It is too bloated, too many elected and un-elected dictators in the USA affecting too many lives. Maybe that is the way it is supposed to be. "Bad" Dictators have been associated with torture, police state tactics and killings. Is the US, a so called "democratic" republic any different?
There's really only two kinds of people in this republic: Corporatists and Constitutionalists. There are more of the former than you'd think. Most "educated" scholars don't even know which of the two they are. What kind of future would you prefer; the status quo, or this:
28th Amendment (The Constitutional Emergency Amendment)
Corporations are not persons and shall be granted only those rights and privileges that Congress deems necessary for the well-being of the People. Congress shall provide legislation defining the terms and conditions of corporate charters according to their purpose; which shall include, but are not limited to:
1, prohibitions against any corporation;
a, owning another corporation,
b, becoming economically indispensable or monopolistic, or
c, otherwise distorting the general economy;
2, prohibitions against any form of intervention in the affairs of government by means of;
a, congressional lobbying
b, electoral sponsorship or advocacy
c, educational sponsorship or publication
d, media news reporting
3, provisions for;
a, the auditing of standardized, current, and transparent account books
b, closing the FRB and the establishment of state-owned banks
c, civil and criminal penalties to be suffered by corporate executives et al for violation of the terms of a corporate charter.
Optional: (or possible 29th amendment)
The 16th Amendment to the United States Constitution is hereby repealed and Congress shall re-write the U.S. Code to reflect the changes embodied herein.
(And repeal the 17th amendment while we're at it.)
Lenin was defeated imn Russia's only proper election in 1918. Why did you ignore Hitler in your discussion ? It was a choice in 1933 between Hitler and a military junta. Stalin was not popular simply over-exposed in the media as was Hitler.
But but we won the Cold War so this is our spoils ...right?
There is something cosmically magic about having a military installation at every node of every ley line on the planet, like the US does.
so cosmically magic that it costs a real arm and a leg of every US citizen.
Before we chose oligarchy and military dictatorship over democracy lets just contemplate recent western history of the 20th century and remember this famous quote :
Democracy : the wost form of governance barring all others. Its the transition to non transparent governance that kills the cat every time. As we can't see the wood from the trees under dictatorship. Everything is totally manipulated.
Current Pax Americana has taken the world there, under the gun of "terrorism" and "clash of civilisation" and making security and patriot act the cornerstone of modern living; not transparency and analysing cause and effect.
The three cardinal sins of Pax Americana morph : Unilateralism, Diabolising the enemy and making unholy machiavellian alliances with other oligarchies whose values we don't share (Wahhabism, Zionism, State communism turned monopoly slave labour driven capitalism). All to protect a commodity/monetary system that is our lifeblood : arab oil and petrodollar fiat.
Il n'y a de gouvernement raisonnable et assuré que l'aristocratique. Monarchie ou république basées sur la démocratie sont également absurdes et faibles.
Democracy: The God That Failed
Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, the Jesuit intellectual who criticizes those historical figures who desired freedom of religion?
Oh, come on Zerohedge!
The only things keeping us safe and one step away from serfdom are the ten Bill of Rights.
Freedom of religion, to believe, or not to believe as one's conscience dictates being, IMO, the greatest one.
.
Well, then, as the Mogambo Guru would say, we're freakin' doomed.
Yes, this article was mostly pseudo intellectual garbage written by and for a particular groupthink. I actually only read about half before I could not stomach the propaganda. The discussion it generated has been good, however.
Top drawer stuff, Tyler. Thank you.
You guys don't read Plato very often. I posted this yesterday on this issue :
Oligarchy, wrote Plato in the Republic, is government by "greedy men" who love money so much that "they are reluctant to pay taxes" for the common good (Republic VIII, 551e). Although the Greek word "oligarchy" literally means government by the few, Plato spins the word to mean the wealthy few. He thus distinguishes oligarchy from timocracy (from the Greek "timos" or honor), which was also a form of government by the few. For Plato,timocracy is government by a few virtuous men who love honor, whereas oligarchy is government by a few rich men who love money.
Oligarchs believe that the wealth of a society should be redistributed to themselves and their rich cronies, while the rest of the society is reduced to poverty. In fact, observes Plato, nearly all the citizens of an oligarchy are impoverished, except for those in the ruling class who subvert the laws to protect their own interests, leaving the majority of the populace burdened by debt and disenfranchised.
On democracy : Democratic self-government does not work, according to Plato, because ordinary people have not learned how to run the ship of state. They are not familiar enough with such things as economics, military strategy, conditions in other countries, or the confusing intricacies of law and ethics. They are also not inclined to acquire such knowledge.
On Plato in general : http://facultyfiles.frostburg.edu/phil/forum/PlatoRep.htmSo North Korea is Timocracy .... and South Korea is Oligarchy ? I'll take my chances in South Korea .... thank you very much .... I have this obsession .... with eating !
"timocracy is government by a few virtuous men who love honor"
good on you to bring Plato into this falak. it seems that humans have not evolved one iota since his time.
agree with his views on the fallacies of democracy. here's the question though: if his assumptions on "ordinary humans" are correct, then how can one be assured that a timocracy can be created in practice? that is to say, in a world where morality is a slippery slope and ideals like honor are a smoke & mirrors game, how can those "few virtuous men" be found to run a government?
i'm just wondering aloud whether Plato was trading one false ideal for another.
Plato was one of the priviledged class, but was not allowed to participate in the oligarchy. This idea stems from his frustration. He equates himself with the people that would rule from honor. As if there has ever been a collective group that rules from honor?
When you transfer sovereignty from the individual to another in a manner that is not COMPLETELY voluntary, you seed the garden of tyranny.
Don't buy the hype. McDonalds has branches all over the world as well. The Von Mises Institute is dead wrong on this one, this is hating the state the for the sake of hating the state.
Having a couple thousand free-spending GIs permantly staioned nearby is considered a blessing by the majority of these countries. And it has gone a long way to promoting peace and still can. I won't argue it's perfect or without hazards and risk of abuse, but there are still much worse characters loose than the US.
Having a US base is a luxury good. It means you're nation is now worth something and you've made it. : )
luxury for the country perhaps, but a huge burden for that small percent of us that pay taxes. this author seems to be promoting dictatorship and bashing democracy. we don't have true democracy any more. how about we keep just a handful of strategic bases in cooperation with partner countries and bring everyone else home. then secure our own borders. return the government to constitutional principles. awe shit, ain't gonna happen...
Ya know this guy is for Single Payer Obamacare .... it's simple, direct and efficient .... LOL !
The buren is paid for in two ways: Taxes, which you imply that you pay and the "little people" don't, and the deficit financed and driven devaluation of the dollar, which everyone who uses the dollar pays for.
Some countries are so crushingly cruel .... a good cleansing invasion .... is like a hot coffee enema !