Bretigne, Thanks for the beautiful essay and the powerful testimony about rural China and sweatshops, This is one of my favorite essays because it points to sameness rather than differences: https://fee.org/articles/protectionists-should-tread-lightly-on-the-dreams-of-the-chinese-poor/ Yet, whenever I point in this direction the China bashers come out and include those who should know better. I find it hard to be as optimistic about the next 20-40 years. Will humanity wake up in time?
I love your piece on the Chinese workers. It is so hard to listen to people rail about "sweat shops" when they don't understand why someone would choose to work in one.
Will humanity wake up in time? Probably not. But hopefully we'll develop the technologies we need to protect us from the insanity of coercive institutions run amok!
Excellent work on this and your LewRockwell piece! My eyes have been opened even wider than they already were. Like Toby and many others, I've long believed the regulatory system was created to protect the people/planet from industry misdeeds, and was since captured by industry. So, learning that it was initially designed to benefit industry was quite an epiphany.
In the LewRockwell piece, you state, "The institution of the state is the biggest monopolist around." This reminded me of a paper published in the Wisconsin Law Review titled "The Myth of the Rule of Law" by John Hasnas, about how the state has a monopoly on the rule of law. If you aren't already familiar with it, I think it would be of interest to you. https://medusa.teodesian.net/docs/liberty/MythFinalDraft.pdf
TBH I think this is asking the wrong question. The problem with liberalism isn't so much the market or the state per sae it's that abandoning a society grounded in the absolute morality and metaphysics of Christianity or at least some other religion opens the door to decadence and nihilism. Once decadence and nihilism permeates a society it's everyone for themselves in the worst possible way that people simply stop caring. An example would be someone being part of an evil corporate/state bureaucracy that causes tremendous suffering having no voice of conscience check on their actions. Seeing as you are in the Mises camp I would say Hoppe covers this pretty well in "Democracy that God that Failed."
I haven't read Hoppe's book, but am a fan, and am familiar with his arguments. And I agree to an extent... but I don't think this gets to the core of the problem. Somewhat ironically, I see the core of the problem as being much more mundane and technical. I believe (and I could be wrong here) that the spiritual ills of our society are more the *result* of these technical issues, than the cause. Although, of course, once that snowball gets rolling, it just keeps building on itself.
What I mean is that, the more power and resources we (society) take out of private hands and put into the hands of the state, the more EVERYTHING ELSE gets screwed up. Including morality and religion.
Just one concrete example: In 19th century America, mutual aid societies were prevalent, and did a very good job of taking care of a lot of people who "fell through the net." These were not connected to the government, but were all created by groups of people with common interests: Ethnic and religious groups, trade associations, etc.
Eventually, the state, and its cronies in the insurance industry (using state power to crush its opponents) put an end to most mutual aid, replacing it with a) government welfare systems, and b) corporate (largely monopolized) insurance. Neither of which does a very good job of serving the people who are dependent upon them.
But beyond the dysfunction of these two newer coercive/quasi-coercive institutions, is the social impact of this change. Not only did the crony state eliminate a functioning system and replace it with dysfunctional ones - it also removed one thing from people's social lives that gave them purpose and that connected them in a powerful way with their communities.
I strongly suspect that "being Christian" (insert your own religion or moral philosophy here) is not very real or meaningful without real-life actions that take your beliefs out into the world. That is what mutual-aid societies did – they were a venue for people to "act out" their Christian values, and make them real. I believe that the more these venues are taken from us and handed to the state, the less agency we have not only in our own personal lives but in our communities, and the less meaningful our religion/moral beliefs are to us.
The more we become wards of the state, the less truly "human" we become, and that includes having a powerful moral/religious foundation. That's what I think.
“We ended up with Stakeholder Fascism because "we" (someone, not me) were foolish enough to believe that an entity that is founded in coercive power can ever be an an effective instrument for the protection of ordinary people against the more powerful.” Beautifully stated, Bretigne.
Bretigne, Thanks for the beautiful essay and the powerful testimony about rural China and sweatshops, This is one of my favorite essays because it points to sameness rather than differences: https://fee.org/articles/protectionists-should-tread-lightly-on-the-dreams-of-the-chinese-poor/ Yet, whenever I point in this direction the China bashers come out and include those who should know better. I find it hard to be as optimistic about the next 20-40 years. Will humanity wake up in time?
Thank you!
I love your piece on the Chinese workers. It is so hard to listen to people rail about "sweat shops" when they don't understand why someone would choose to work in one.
Will humanity wake up in time? Probably not. But hopefully we'll develop the technologies we need to protect us from the insanity of coercive institutions run amok!
Excellent work on this and your LewRockwell piece! My eyes have been opened even wider than they already were. Like Toby and many others, I've long believed the regulatory system was created to protect the people/planet from industry misdeeds, and was since captured by industry. So, learning that it was initially designed to benefit industry was quite an epiphany.
In the LewRockwell piece, you state, "The institution of the state is the biggest monopolist around." This reminded me of a paper published in the Wisconsin Law Review titled "The Myth of the Rule of Law" by John Hasnas, about how the state has a monopoly on the rule of law. If you aren't already familiar with it, I think it would be of interest to you. https://medusa.teodesian.net/docs/liberty/MythFinalDraft.pdf
Oh, thank you! I was not aware of that paper - it does look interesting!
TBH I think this is asking the wrong question. The problem with liberalism isn't so much the market or the state per sae it's that abandoning a society grounded in the absolute morality and metaphysics of Christianity or at least some other religion opens the door to decadence and nihilism. Once decadence and nihilism permeates a society it's everyone for themselves in the worst possible way that people simply stop caring. An example would be someone being part of an evil corporate/state bureaucracy that causes tremendous suffering having no voice of conscience check on their actions. Seeing as you are in the Mises camp I would say Hoppe covers this pretty well in "Democracy that God that Failed."
I haven't read Hoppe's book, but am a fan, and am familiar with his arguments. And I agree to an extent... but I don't think this gets to the core of the problem. Somewhat ironically, I see the core of the problem as being much more mundane and technical. I believe (and I could be wrong here) that the spiritual ills of our society are more the *result* of these technical issues, than the cause. Although, of course, once that snowball gets rolling, it just keeps building on itself.
What I mean is that, the more power and resources we (society) take out of private hands and put into the hands of the state, the more EVERYTHING ELSE gets screwed up. Including morality and religion.
Just one concrete example: In 19th century America, mutual aid societies were prevalent, and did a very good job of taking care of a lot of people who "fell through the net." These were not connected to the government, but were all created by groups of people with common interests: Ethnic and religious groups, trade associations, etc.
Eventually, the state, and its cronies in the insurance industry (using state power to crush its opponents) put an end to most mutual aid, replacing it with a) government welfare systems, and b) corporate (largely monopolized) insurance. Neither of which does a very good job of serving the people who are dependent upon them.
But beyond the dysfunction of these two newer coercive/quasi-coercive institutions, is the social impact of this change. Not only did the crony state eliminate a functioning system and replace it with dysfunctional ones - it also removed one thing from people's social lives that gave them purpose and that connected them in a powerful way with their communities.
I strongly suspect that "being Christian" (insert your own religion or moral philosophy here) is not very real or meaningful without real-life actions that take your beliefs out into the world. That is what mutual-aid societies did – they were a venue for people to "act out" their Christian values, and make them real. I believe that the more these venues are taken from us and handed to the state, the less agency we have not only in our own personal lives but in our communities, and the less meaningful our religion/moral beliefs are to us.
The more we become wards of the state, the less truly "human" we become, and that includes having a powerful moral/religious foundation. That's what I think.
“We ended up with Stakeholder Fascism because "we" (someone, not me) were foolish enough to believe that an entity that is founded in coercive power can ever be an an effective instrument for the protection of ordinary people against the more powerful.” Beautifully stated, Bretigne.
Your thoughts encapsulate the thoughts that were running through my mind as I read that piece.