Doug Casey: Why Do We Need Government?
Submitted by Doug Casey via CaseyResearch.com,
Rousseau was perhaps the first to popularize the fiction now taught in civics classes about how government was created. It holds that men sat down together and rationally thought out the concept of government as a solution to problems that confronted them. The government of the United States was, however, the first to be formed in any way remotely like Rousseau's ideal. Even then, it had far from universal support from the three million colonials whom it claimed to represent. The U.S. government, after all, grew out of an illegal conspiracy to overthrow and replace the existing government.
There's no question that the result was, by an order of magnitude, the best blueprint for a government that had yet been conceived. Most of America's Founding Fathers believed the main purpose of government was to protect its subjects from the initiation of violence from any source; government itself prominently included. That made the U.S. government almost unique in history. And it was that concept – not natural resources, the ethnic composition of American immigrants, or luck – that turned America into the paragon it became.
The origin of government itself, however, was nothing like Rousseau's fable or the origin of the United States Constitution. The most realistic scenario for the origin of government is a roving group of bandits deciding that life would be easier if they settled down in a particular locale, and simply taxing the residents for a fixed percentage (rather like "protection money") instead of periodically sweeping through and carrying off all they could get away with. It's no accident that the ruling classes everywhere have martial backgrounds. Royalty are really nothing more than successful marauders who have buried the origins of their wealth in romance.
Romanticizing government, making it seem like Camelot, populated by brave knights and benevolent kings, painting it as noble and ennobling, helps people to accept its jurisdiction. But, like most things, government is shaped by its origins. Author Rick Maybury may have said it best in Whatever Happened to Justice?,
"A castle was not so much a plush palace as the headquarters for a concentration camp. These camps, called feudal kingdoms, were established by conquering barbarians who'd enslaved the local people. When you see one, ask to see not just the stately halls and bedrooms, but the dungeons and torture chambers.
"A castle was a hangout for silk-clad gangsters who were stealing from helpless workers. The king was the 'lord' who had control of the blackjack; he claimed a special 'divine right' to use force on the innocent.
"Fantasies about handsome princes and beautiful princesses are dangerous; they whitewash the truth. They give children the impression political power is wonderful stuff."
IS THE STATE NECESSARY?
The violent and corrupt nature of government is widely acknowledged by almost everyone. That's been true since time immemorial, as have political satire and grousing about politicians. Yet almost everyone turns a blind eye; most not only put up with it, but actively support the charade. That's because, although many may believe government to be an evil, they believe it is a necessary evil (the larger question of whether anything that is evil is necessary, or whether anything that is necessary can be evil, is worth discussing, but this isn’t the forum).
What (arguably) makes government necessary is the need for protection from other, even more dangerous, governments. I believe a case can be made that modern technology obviates this function.
One of the most perversely misleading myths about government is that it promotes order within its own bailiwick, keeps groups from constantly warring with each other, and somehow creates togetherness and harmony. In fact, that's the exact opposite of the truth. There's no cosmic imperative for different people to rise up against one another... unless they're organized into political groups. The Middle East, now the world's most fertile breeding ground for hatred, provides an excellent example.
Muslims, Christians, and Jews lived together peaceably in Palestine, Lebanon, and North Africa for centuries until the situation became politicized after World War I. Until then, an individual's background and beliefs were just personal attributes, not a casus belli. Government was at its most benign, an ineffectual nuisance that concerned itself mostly with extorting taxes. People were busy with that most harmless of activities: making money.
But politics do not deal with people as individuals. It scoops them up into parties and nations. And some group inevitably winds up using the power of the state (however "innocently" or "justly" at first) to impose its values and wishes on others with predictably destructive results. What would otherwise be an interesting kaleidoscope of humanity then sorts itself out according to the lowest common denominator peculiar to the time and place.
Sometimes that means along religious lines, as with the Muslims and Hindus in India or the Catholics and Protestants in Ireland; or ethnic lines, like the Kurds and Iraqis in the Middle East or Tamils and Sinhalese in Sri Lanka; sometimes it's mostly racial, as whites and East Indians found throughout Africa in the 1970s or Asians in California in the 1870s. Sometimes it's purely a matter of politics, as Argentines, Guatemalans, Salvadorans, and other Latins discovered more recently. Sometimes it amounts to no more than personal beliefs, as the McCarthy era in the 1950s and the Salem trials in the 1690s proved.
Throughout history government has served as a vehicle for the organization of hatred and oppression, benefitting no one except those who are ambitious and ruthless enough to gain control of it. That's not to say government hasn't, then and now, performed useful functions. But the useful things it does could and would be done far better by the market.
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You'd think ISIS would send someone to Davos, you know, to rub shoulders.
A seat at the U.N., at least. They could compare best practices with various other up and coming regimes.
Geez, who do you think is financing them. They do the dirty work and get paid by those who profit from their dirty work.
In a way they run the human rights council at the UN, considering Saudi Arabia is no different.
Maybe unload some oil...
What government has transformed into, we can do without.
What you are seeing is what government IS.
Here's the thing.....and if I had Tom, John, James, Ben,, George and Alex sittiing here, they'd all agree....after Tom slapped them around a bit...
LIMITED, EFFECTIVE NON BIASED GOVERNMENT...YES.
REGULATIONS..THAT MAKE SENSE....AND ARE ENFORCED....
TRUE DEFENSE...NOT THIS OFFENSE SHIT WE'VE BEEN PLAYING THE LAST 60 GODDAMN YEARS....
TRUE PUBLIC SERVANTS...PAID LITTLE AND SERVING LIMITED TERMS....BY CHOICE
NOT THIS SHIT WE HAVE NOW.....BLOATED, INEFFECTIVE, BIASED, BOUGHT OFF, CORRUPT IMPERIALISTIC HORSESHIT, WITH CONGRESS IN FOR YEARS AND YEARS AND YEARS AND YEARS...
I cannot hold my forefathers accountable for their lack of foresight with respect to the well-lobbied, gerrymander-ed, monstrosity before us today; I can barely handle thinking about it myself for too long.
Secession is pragmatic. It is the way to abolish the state. Go independence
Where's our Live Feed of the Democratic Debate?
/sarc on/
It [the State] has taken on a vast mass of new duties and responsibilities; it has spread out its powers until they penetrate to every act of the citizen, however secret; it has begun to throw around its operations the high dignity and impeccability of a State religion; its agents become a separate and superior caste, with authority to bind and loose, and their thumbs in every pot. But it still remains, as it was in the beginning, the common enemy of all well-disposed, industrious and decent men. -- Henry L. Mencken, 1926
Power will always fill vacuums, it is the nature of man.
A people always should instill in every new generation the knowledge that power corrupts and the US has been failing in this regard.
Power should have nearly draconian limits on it and EXTREME penalties for abusing that power.
Unfortunately, there are no longer any limits on the power structures in the US and abuses of power are rewarded and not penalized.
The only way for the citizens to reclaim the power of the government is to punish those that have abused that power and to undo the dismantling of the government that has taken place in the past 30 years.
You would be surprised at how much of the 'government' is no longer within the government and thus unaccountable to the people. The tentacles of corruption are much harder to identify when they are outside the purview of Inspector Generals.
You've accepted the myths that make good people think government ruling over them is necessary.
The myth government despite wielding absolute authority can somehow be "limited." The myth that with freedom, people would tear each other apart like crazed animals, or flail around unable to figure out how to handle their own affairs. The myth that individual men are incapable and incompetent to protect themselves against aggressor gangs, so must rush to submit themselvs to rule by a aggressor gang that will defend them.
All of these myths are lies.
No, I don't believe R. A. Dope accepted any myth about why government does or should exist.
It's just an unfortunate truth that wherever there is a lack of government, some group of people (typically the ones with the most enforcers and the biggest guns) will take/create the power to tax and regulate (or to kill and maim). That's just basic human nature. G. Washington's line about government is fire describes it perfectly. If you can find a few hundred square miles of productive land on this earth where that human law is not true, please advise us where - I will move there immediately, and I'm sure thousands of others will too.
What you say has indeed been the outcome given a particular price/performance of weaponry and therefore effective relative power of rulers and ruled.
This changes that :
https://thinkpatriot.wordpress.com/2015/07/05/bunny-bangers/
And generally, there is no shortage of tools in a wealthy society that can be converted to hurting people. These are random thoughts of an engineer, not even particularly malevolent of mind.
https://thinkpatriot.wordpress.com/patriot-games/
With image recognition, an automated rifle can wait for the target to enter the sight picture. Being a bad guy is about to get harder and be much less profitable for much shorter periods.
You've accepted the myths too. They're insidious that way. By design. They have been pounded into cultural norms by generations of rulers over the centuries.
Just like everyone used to solemnly cite "divine right of kings" as if that's actually a thing, your use of the phrase "power to tax and regulate" as if that's actually a thing shows you too ascribe some mythical higher moral authority to a group of thieves and enslavers IF they label themselves "government." You even consider their subjugation of you inevitable..."basic human nature," you call it.
The truth is you hold all the power to not consent to your enslavement by any men, no matter what they call themselves. As a free man, you can effectively resist their aggression, precisely because you are not an aggressor. Unlike them, you create value. You produce resources. Men claiming to be government produce nothing. So you control the spigot of the means essential for violence. It is in the power of free men to deny those people access to those resources and instead direct the fruits of your labor solely to self-defense, leaving aggressors without the means to conduct their aggressions.
However that can only work if enough free men don't mentally capitulate in advance, such as you do above. You are convinced you can't live free, so sure enough, you don't. If enough victims abandoned this mentality, and instead resisted aggressors, we could all easily prevail over any who might attempt to "fill the power vacuum," aka be men who dominate us.
Speaking of myths, since wealth=power inheritance is effectively a "Divine Reight Of Khings" is it not?
Q: wealth=power inheritance is effectively a "Divine Reight Of Khings" is it not?
A: any rights have to be enforced. Without power no rights can exist. It is power that exercizes rights. Wealth= power only in civilized society where power respects wealth. Power is primary, wealth is secondary because one has to protect wealth with power.
So devine right is nothing more but a power enforcing its rules and calling it its divine rights
An example : Russia is only 2% of world GDP (US is about 20%) but Russia has mighty military and exercizes it in Syria right now. That is why Saudi, Katar and even US are talking to Russia in the matters of middle east right now.
"But the useful things it does could and would be done far better by the market."
Shallow, ignorant, and yet again offering nonsense deflecting attention away from a very concise and well constructed -- and now thoroughly corrupt -- collection of persons charged with nothing else but protecting the principles and representing the people.
Take your "anarchy" and hide under the bed, whimper there... and rue the day you forgot to understand that humans need organization, and how you apparently never understood what this place was supposed to be about, let alone why it came to be in the first place.
"Free markets" was the natural extension of an arrangement that you neglect;
it is no coincidence that neglect has destroyed "free markets."
Too dumb to understand what anarchy means?
It is simply a lack of rulers.
It doesn't mean no organization.
People are free to organize all they like.
The key is that human interaction should be voluntary, not predicated on violence or threats of violence (government).
Nice pipe dream; too bad that reality illustrates quite clearly that there are a great many things about existence, human nature, and human interactions that are inherently involuntary.
“It's tough to be a pure libertarian, because reality has a way of messing with that beautiful theory.” Ezra Levant
So many domeless commie dreamers on ZH that don't even know what they are:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Kropotkin
so many...
it's not a pipe dream and reality is what you make of it.
my interaction with others every day is built on purely voluntary interaction.
those who use violence to get what they want should be recognized to be aggressors, and dealt with appropriately.
if you prefer to lick the government boot that stomps on your face, forever, that is your right and i won't prevent you.
You rock, stacking.
What a load of malarkey.
Sure your reality is what you make of it, but I'm sorry to have to be the one to tell you that in spite of that it still exists.
Anyway, in anarcho-capitalism land who determines justice if there is a dispute between two parties (Ie somehow, someway, two parties interacting get the feeling that their interaction isn't wholly voluntary, after all) when one perceives a breach of contract by the other?
Ans. Mr. Might Makes Right, or Mr. Money Talks
Yeah, that sounds like it'll be "dealt with appropriately" every single time, without exception.
/sarc
Good luck with that
"in anarcho-capitalism"...
That is NOT anarchism. See my link above as to why.
"dispute between two parties"
And this requires an entire government to work out? Really? Seems that arbitrators could be sufficient for most things.
When you're established in a community people there will KNOW who you are.
Good luck with the likes of Hilary/Sanders/Trump PLUS a bunch of nukes! Like That is going to work out "every single time, without exception!"
You're still alive and kicking aintcha?
And "nukes" are a technological fact, cat's out of the bag; Mr.Vonnegut's Ice 9... you're still here.
Re: Anarchism. Sure, what you said, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Kropotkin
Not that that has to be the only defintion, but the guy did make it into an encyclopædia around about precisely the time the word was coined, so folk might want to at least be aware of it.
I suppose it is too bad USEANs didn't elect Ralph Nader when they had the chance, what, 4 times was it?
h/t to Stewie the Pi Rat
I've read all your comments on this thread. I come away with the same conclusion, every time.
What a brilliant minded, stubborn individual.
Someone inflicted pain on you, [ directly or indirectly] but you need to move forward.
For the uninitiated:
Creeds versus Deeds
http://www.spunk.org/texts/intro/practice/sp001689.html
"People are free to organize all they like."
No, but they used to be, for another short stint.
That's why you need to stop spouting off and rather protect the principles and the organization (not the persons) designed to do such a thing.
don't misconstrue. the context of the statement was anarchy. in anarchy, people are free to organize as they like.
if you want me to "stop spouting off", then you should stop spouting off first, set a good example.
protect the principles and the organization (not the persons)
i am not interested in any organization or persons.
regarding principles, if i may paraphrase lao tzu, the principles that need to be protected, are not the eternal principles.
deflecting attention away from a very concise and well constructed -- and now thoroughly corrupt -- collection of persons charged with nothing else but protecting the principles and representing the people.
Which is to say the whole edific of what govenment promises is a fraud.
I'll settle for the smallest governments possible with no power over commerce and finance.
Otherwise I hope you enjoy this collapse brought to you by the same organization you defend. With good intentions, of course.
Free John Corzine.
If you enjoy psychopathic, insane neighbors who rob you at any opportunity, you'll LOVE government....
"It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt." -- John Philpot Curran: Speech upon the Right of Election, 1790. (Speeches. Dublin, 1808.) as quoted in the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, NY, 1953, p167 and also in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, Boston, 1968, p479
"But you must remember, my fellow-citizens, that eternal vigilance by the people is the price of liberty, and that you must pay the price if you wish to secure the blessing. It behooves you, therefore, to be watchful in your States as well as in the Federal Government." -- Andrew Jackson, Farewell Address, March 4, 1837
Ok, you got me, im just coping and pasting from here. I do however love the truth these quotes reflect:
http://freedomkeys.com/vigil.htm
Did the Koch brothers pay for this one?
I hold no brief for the Koch brothers, but my strong impression is that you would love working for their companies, as they are filled with hoenst and hard working, compete people, but especially honest.
The left controls the news, so Kochs are cast in the least favorable light. But look at the crimes they are charged with, no much at all, and not corruption of gov.
From the public evidence, better than the Sage of Omaha by a long way.
Good God! Are you fucking serious???? This just HAS to be sarcasm!
When considering how people should be better governed, Plato said (words to the effect) that "Kings should become Philosophers, or Philosophers Kings"
Today, as then, politicians are largely irredeemably corrup.
Most are in it for their own purposes (money, advantage, power) are untrustworthy and do not deserve our support or respect. Politics has degenerated into a sham, a game, played by those with vested interests.
The system is broke folks and beyond repair in its present form.
In many countries, when a person is tried for a serious crime, they are judged by a jury of their peers, their fellow citizens. You & me. We trust that jury to deliver a just verdict. In some jurisdictions that verdict can result in death . That is a measure of trust we have in ordinary folk. In ourselves.
Let The People really rule! Let government be decided the same way as juries – by random selection from the electoral roll.
Disbar lawyers, politicians past or present, those with serious criminal records and sex offenders. They are mostly on the same level.
Pay those selected well ($750,00pa?) with a fixed expense account ($150,000?) Four or five year terms.
Give them 6 months prior training in Austrian economics. Guarantee job/career continuance after service. Automatic SEVERE jail time for any type of corruption whilst in office - no time limit on prosecution of offences. The 'Public Servants' supporting them should also be rotated on a regular basis
The present system stinks. Could this proposal be any worse?
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But Who would pave the roads ???
"But Who would pave the roads ???"
I think you mean, "who would build roads?"
That's an argument for eminent domain and taxes where government takes whatever property it decides where a road should go. With some token compensation of course. Without eminent domain and taxes, where there is a need, these things have a way of sorting themselves out. I imagine there would be a mix of privately owned toll roads on major highways, and local roads maintained by fees from local residents.
Doug Casey deserves to live some place with no government - far, far away from me. Who creates a market? Who makes rules for a market? Who enforces rules for a market? We see how the narcotics and prostitution markets work. Is that Casey's idea of utopia? Why does ZH publish crap like this?
You realize a market is merely a matrix of exchanges between individuals? The market created society as we know it, not a parasite that serves no purpose but to monopolize violence to steal and coerce.
Because some people need to be lead by their nose to a large pile of "chocolate", at least thats what they tell them along the way, till they step in the $H!t."
Been asking myself questions like, "Why do people buy into this garbage?" for most of my life.
Like many here at ZH, I'm likely an undiagnosed "oppositional defiant disorder" candidate.
Why are so many people lead by the pied piper to the slaughter. Many "successful" people from that generation licked boot to get the world into the state it is in now.
We have .gov so that we can grow a fine crop of free-shitters who can generationally expect an even larger supply of free shit. This generation gets free healthcare, easy-to-use EBT cards, and a free smartfone. Their parents only got food stamps and a block of .gov cheese. They are all living the American Dream!
MIC is doing its job in your opinion then? Worth every penny? I had to ask, since they didn't even warrant an honourable mention in your screed against the relatively powerless and unfortunate.
My screed involves getting ahead by working hard, not by stopping by the fancy grocery store to buy sushi with an EBT card. If you are powerless and unfortunate in Murrica, do something about it. 50 years since LBJizzle's Great Society was launched to eliminate poverty and racial injustice. WTF has all that money thrown at the problem done? 50 years is 2 generations. Are the black'n'brown untermensch better off now than they were in 1964? Are their nuclear families holding together better? Is their standard of living better? Are they scoring better relative to other ethnicities on achievement exams? Has the IQ gap closed? These are important questions the US taxpayers derserve answers to. To my eyes, the welfare state has failed . . . miserably . . .in its stated objectives.
I will note blacks now comprise 18% of the US Federal .gov workforce, well above their 13% US general population contribution. Does anyone want to step up and tell me these individuals are improveing .gov service and functionality?
"Powerless and unfortunate" - You like your keep the niggers on your plantation feeling helpless and sorry for theyselves. Does that achieve your desired objectives?
Spot on, Doug! It is the market or the State, there is no middle ground. I'd much prefer voluntary transactions between parties than one useless parasite sticking a gun in everyones' face to steal and then squander the money. Government is an unnecessary evil.
You don't appear to understand what the word 'state' represents.
Anyway, in anarcho capitalism who gets to determine justice in the event of a dispute regarding two parties and a perceived breach of contract?
Ans. Mr.Might Makes Right, or Mr.Money Talks
Yeah, that sounds meritocratic
/sarc
Don't we have enough of those Misters already, and don't they make up the lion's share of the problem?
Under an authoritaran state, who gets to determine justice in the event of a dispute regarding two parties and a perceived breach of contract??
Ans. The state is already "Mr.Might Makes Right" so the correct answer is "Mr.Money Talks"
Free Jon Corzine! Hasn't he suffered enough?