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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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?
×
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.
I imagine you haven't thought through the impact of your plan on the economy any deeper than a rainpuddle.
I'm assuming the same contractors that do now, just with less red tape. ;)
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.
Oh Doug will be fine with the authority of Zaggat's and Angie's List to enforce his contracts for him, or he'll take over a sanctuary and get mailed a bunch of dildos, stay tuned and watch these important messages from our lobbyists.
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?
Ugh, I see you didn't even bother to actually answer my question.
Noting your 'notes' though, brings me to another question:
Of that '18% of the US Fed gov workforce' that you claim is black (a MASSIVE 3% more than the percentage of the general populace- also according to you), what percentage of that is military personnel?
" Does anyone want to step up and tell me these individuals are improveing .gov service and functionality?"
(Steps up): Sure, I will.
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?
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"
Except 'the state' isn't always represented by one unelected guy sitting on a throne stuffing himself with your money. Sure in a monarchy, or an authoritarian dictatorship, that may well be the case, but those are merely a couple of examples amongst a wide variety of ideologies.
Eg. in a constitutionally mitigated social democracy there is ostensibly no 'Mr.Might Makes Right', or 'Mr.Money Talks' serving up justice, justice is determined by mandates from the masses (constitutionally mitigated, natch).
All caught up now?
And I too have a list of reprobates still running free that I would like to see behind bars, but that doesn't mean I'm going to shoot myself in the foot because that hasn't happened yet.
IE Surely you can understand that just because something worthwhile is not wholly immune to corruption doesn't mean it was never worthwhile in the first place.
Maybe you are the one that doesn't understand was a "State" really is. Take off the blinders. The "market" is just another word for people being left alone by the assholes who claim to own everything.
"Muslims, Christians, and Jews lived together peaceably in Palestine, Lebanon, and North Africa for centuries until the situation became politicized after World War I""
No, I think they have always been fighting its just that war has become more violent through technology. We now can learn about many things through modern communication systems that didn't exist back then. Many people bit the dust without the world knowing or caring about it.
Corporations can do it better? LOL. Bunch of anarchist toddlers want to do whatever you want whenever you want. There's plenty of stuff like traffic signals for example that have no reasonable way to generate profit but are very much in the public interest, so we raise taxes and the government does it instead. It might be less efficient but at least it gets done. Now of course there are also tons of things that corporations can do much better, like manufacturing and selling consumer goods and services, that government should never touch.
If you enjoy licking that boot so much, you should spend more time at it and less time barking at people your master doesn't like. Now go fetch that red herring he just threw.
High, I'm Doug Casey. I'd like you all to read my highly well organized mental masturbation sessions. Here's a free sample.
Just know that if you want more where that came from, you'll have to pay.
Shleps.
Hola - I'm Doug Casey, my gains are your loss. And don't forget to blow up the rail road tracks. Then, shut down the Ports! Good Luck!
Your being sarchastic Bunny. What traffic? Shipping is inverted <>WTI vs Brent sitting like Chinese Islands waiting to be offloaded.
The Buffett railroad is another joke. I want my old bag of Doritoes back. The one with less air in it---- input costs have crashed
I want my daddy. He was a brave and logical man. Miss him dearly :(
I think there is a pattern here
Map of FEMA camps https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=zDkwn57IPhvk.kdVDp-u9GaSE
Map of Closed WalMarts https://public.tableau.com/profile/rachel.bennett#!/vizhome/MapWalmartstoreclosings/Dashboard1
Map of High Speed Super Railway https://annlrd.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/1527140_10151925616842909_104...
ZOOM in on FEMA map link and see descriptions such as this:
"Wyoming-East Yellowstone -description Manned internment facility - Investigating patriots were apprehended by European soldiers speaking in an unknown language. Federal government assumed custody of the persons and arranged their release."
Arkansas-Pine Bluff Arsenaldescription Pine Bluff Arsenal - This location also is the repository for B-Z nerve agent, which causes sleepiness, dizziness, stupor; admitted use is for civilian control.Internment Camps aren't just for the Japanese anymore! (or Germans, Jewish, or the chosen victims of the century who will die to allow the richest people on earth to remain the richest people on earth.
https://annlrd.wordpress.com/2015/03/01/the-dreaded-prison-fema-camps-co...
YT video (short) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTawX6IAlQo Covers FEMA camp in a WTF manner.
lots and lots and lots of TP.
Warehouses full.
WTSHTF and TEOTWAWKI rules the day, TP will be the new gold.
You can build a post apocolyptic empire with it as long as you can protect it.
I plan to have a full harem just because and of course the good soft stuff forever.
Water+soap>>TP.
Next time you fall into a septic tank, just wipe yourself with TP. Its soft!
Most interesting thing I saw in looking at articles on the Democrat debate was a series of pre-debate pictures. There were groups of enthusiastic Bernie supporters holding signs - and a couple of lone Hillary supporters putting up signs with no enthusiasm, almost as if they were being paid to do it.
A society where no one is capable of and/or willing to the initiation of violence, for any reason whatsoever, is the only society where no government is needed. Every other society will have a government whether anyone thinks it is needed or not. The guys with the greatest ability and willingness to inflict violence will automatically become the government as Doug has shown. If a society doesn't need a government anymore, the existing government would be inflicting little violence. Crying that existing government is becoming tyrannical and also claiming that no government is needed is the height of stupidity. If there were no "government", those controlling it today through devious means would be doing the exact same things directly. The miltary, courts and police will continue to be used exactly for the same purposes as they are, except no one will receive their protection that doesn't pay their share by paying the fees (earlier called taxes). Wonder how many will want to avoid paying the fees and risk being looted by those very "market" forces?
There is no such thing as "society", that is a construct of those who want to impose themselves on other individuals. No government is "needed" by the people it enslaves; government is just a fantasy woven to convince the victims that they are somehow being served by their subjugation.
To argue that government is necessary is to believe in government in the first place. It's a religion that blinds people to the truth. There is no government, just a gang of theives and murderers who have put themselves beyond reach due to appropriation of moral authority.
Call it what you will, every place has people who don't mind using violence to get what they want. If the rest don't want to use violence, the thugs become the government and dictate what other should do, not to be at the receiving end of violence. If the others do not want to be at the mercy of such people, they organise to charge some of them (the government) to defend the rest from anyone leaning to violence, set down rules for when the government can initiate violence (laws) and also pay for the upkeep of these poeple (taxes).
Government is not something whose "need" anyone can debate on, any more than anyone can debate on the "need" for doctors/medicines. They come about simply because people choose to avoid the alternative where they don't exist. Doctors and medicines will disappear in places where everyone is healthy all the time and governments will disappear in places where no one resorts to violence ever.
Debating the "need" for a government is mental masturbation by retards and is especially hilarious when engaged in by the worst scoundrels the earth has seen, North Americans of European descent, who built their wealth by centuries of organised murder and plunder.
Gee why do we need Cancer, jobs we hate or bills to pay? Quick, override reality!
Why do we need a stock market? I see absolutely no point in it now that it has been manipulated by those with the advantage of $$$. If this system is so powerful it can destroy the lives of billions, it should be dismantled. Nonsensical apparatus which has the ability to rob innocent people of their lives savings. Yeah. That's Right. It's a Slot Machine.
Why?
Simple. To protect the criminaly corrupt, like this evil Hag.:
http://www.allenbwest.com/2016/01/what-hillary-just-said-about-13-hours-...
Living in anarchy, or for the philosophical the "Hobbsian state of nature" isn't an example of freedom. Just ask anyone who lives in Somalia - a country without a government.
Been there, got the tee shirt.
One: Somalia is NOT a country, nor an anarchic state. It's a collection of tribes. It's correctly called the Somalilands and includes part of Northern Kenya. It never really WAS a country, not in the Western sense.
It's a rough place, but not without rules.It's a tribal system. You can kill a man if you pay two camels penalty. But only if he's a cheesedick nobody...the more important and wealthy your victim, the more it's gonna cost ya.
There's a certain amount of merit to that...
Who gets the camels?
You might try running that whole anarchy experiment somewhere that isn't in dire poverty from the "helpful influence" of the outside world (and their many governments).
Didn't the Belgians go without a government for a while?
And back at ya would be "just ask the people in the ME what they think of the orderly, highly centralized [and powerful] US govt is able to do"
Human history is more comprised of tribalism than formal governments. This wasn't because people "back then" were necessarily stupid: WAY too many people think that folks were "uncivilized," which was a buzz word for giving the moral authority to the "civilized" to ransack them. It's an issue of sustainability. The extra overhead of civilization (which is really city-states, places that rely on the importation of goods and resources in order to function) is/was not possible due to [growth in] energy requirements. One has to understand how nature works to really understand this.
Somalia's mess is because of a power struggle. People there aren't far enough removed from the notion of governments (in charge) to deal with their affairs more deftly. Don't confuse a transition period to that which would come after.
Taking only a slice of time and pointing it out as being either a good or bad example is silly. That's why I comment that throughout all of human history the overwhelming amount of time has seen humans banded together via tribalism. Whether anyone likes tribalism or not is NOT the point- I'm only about the facts- we can wish or fantasize about anything we want; I gear myself toward what the probabilities indicate will BE.
"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."
Just a note: The US has citizens, not subjects. At least it used to.