A Dark Vision is New Again
A Dark Vision is New Again
I thought about my last post, in which I discussed certain principles regarding the foundations of successful or “rational” capitalism. Those, in brief, are: hard work, honesty, industry, innovation and agreement. Those are self-obvious, except perhaps “agreement”. Agreement, in my opinion, is essential to capitalism because agreements are the basis by which free people CHOOSE to associate with, or do business with others. It is the standard by which businesses either compete successfully or fail. Agreement is a practice employed by free people who have the liberty to choose who they will associate with, how much it will cost, and exactly what services or goods they will purchase.
Because the government will control vast sectors of the nation’s economy, we as individuals will have less and less ability to choose goods or services to our own benefit. Increasingly, “assignments” will be made for us by appointed, un-elected, faceless, government bureaucrats. These people will decide what medical procedures we can get, what loans or other services we can receive; all based on an arbitrary set of hidden objectives.
We must, as free people, be free to decide what is in our own best interests. Not the dictates of government hacks deciding based on some incomprehensible principals of the “good of the people”, whatever that means. As we move toward a socialist/tyranny-state our ability to reach agreements with others, to make basic choices, will be destroyed. Oh yes, we will still, like children, be “allowed” to decide the small things in our lives, but ultimately the big decisions regarding life and death, home ownership, schooling, education, employment and compensation will be decided by government functionaries running your lives from an actuarial table.
As I was considering these principles I was reminded of Friedrich Hayek’s (1899-1992) powerful principals in his famous book, The Road to Serfdom. In it, Hayek expounds on a highly logical maxim, focused mainly on the numerous progressive/socialist and Marxist parties that dominated the political scene in the 1940s; and which, coincidentally, do again today. He persuasively contends that progressive/socialist economic systems, in whatever form, would ultimately lead to a compromise of liberty and set society on ‘the road to serfdom’. In that sense, Nazism and Communism mean the same thing - both forms of totalitarianism being a derivative and logical end work of socialism. I make this remark, by the simple expedient of noting that, as many others have said, power tends to grow and concentrate in fewer and fewer people. Recognizing this reality, was the primary motivator behind the founding fathers’ desire to frame a constitution that ensured that power was held primarily at the local level, with lesser powers held the farther away from the people it was. Unfortunately, two hundred years lawyers holding political power, means that they find ways around that golden rule.
But now, back to my original point; Hayek maintained; and It should be obvious to anyone with only a cursory examination, that properly functioning Republics, especially free-market democracies, cannot lead to tyranny, but would instead give way to a “lighter” form of socialism.
In this neo-socialist state, the illusion of freedom and market driven capitalism is fostered and maintained. But when faced with an “emergency” or “crisis”, the neo-marxist/socialist government would cry and wail for the need for “more control”. This is, of course, to correct problems, which, when effected, lead down the slippery, but inevitable slope, to fascism.
These highly enlightened and subtle ideas are further, but convincingly, reinforced in Ayn Rands famous “Atlas Shrugged” where Rand explains that free market capitalism is the only true foundation from which to ensure individual freedom. She contends that in capitalism, money is the gauge of value, and any person can become wealthy and powerful, their ability is the measure of value inherent in inter-personal dealings.
By sharp contrast; in a socialist scheme, money is replaced by relationships as the “coin of the realm”. This is an inherently flawed and destructive system. The average person can no longer gain power through diligent study and hard work, but can only gain power through leveraging relationships, who you know, and what you know about them, becomes more valuable than your ability to make something or build something, because you no longer have the ability to own the product of your own labor.
If the “collective” or government actually owns or controls the rights to your industry or labor, then there is no incentive to build or improve. The incentive is to control others. If you study trends in the West today, this is the inexorable path we find ourselves on now. We can see unreasoned and radical environmentalism, urban planning, and other tools being the vanguard of modern collectivism and socialism. Modern Urban Planning constantly espouses socialist theory in their overt love of "Live-Work" communities, urban growth boundaries and other mechanisms devoted to concentrating populations and controlling behaviors. These are eerily similar to Stalin’s factory towns, or Mao's worker villages.
Wild and largely unprove-able claims about global threats like terrorism, or global warming are effective tools used to panic ignorant populations to willingly give more power to their governments. Once gained these powers are never given back. Interestingly, the progressive/socialists recognized the underlying threat to freedom that the Patriot Act poses, but completely failed to see, or had been brainwashed to the extent that they cannot recognize the exact same threat from many radical global climate conventions such as the Tokyo Protocols.
The Patriot Act is no different than the Tokyo Protocols; we see in both instances democratic societies actually voting to give up the powers won with the blood of their ancestors. Claims of impending financial doom, recession, depression, global cooling, global warming, housing crises, terrorist attack and other vague conspiracies are useful and effective means to centralize power. Socialist governments are uniquely and slavishly devoted to a kind of “cult of experts” where they contend that the only way to “save” the world, the country, the banking industry, or the medical system, or pick your sector - is to just let this or that expert or panel, or committee control some increasingly larger segment of society. Our country is rapidly undergoing a shift toward economic and real totalitarianism.
The wholesale takeover of the banking and credit industry by the government is a clarion call signaling the beginning of the death of free market capitalism, and by extension, the end of your financial freedom and therefore, true freedom. The current wholesale takeover of the healthcare system in America is yet another blow to an already staggering Republic.
Finally a government functionary, not your local banker, or Doctor, will decide if you can get a medical procedure or a home loan, and whether your reasons for it are officially approved.
Your ability to freely decide the important elements of your life will become a function of your favorability to the political party in power. This becomes a de-facto tyranny, where personalities decide your fate, where you live, what you do, where, or if your kids go to college, whether your mother gets a hip replacement, and not your ability to provide the means or money to do them. In effect, we become a society where the critical factors are relationships, not your own ability to pay for something and decide for yourself.
I thought about my last post, in which I discussed certain principles regarding the foundations of successful or “rational” capitalism. Those, in brief, are: hard work, honesty, industry, innovation and agreement. Those are self-obvious, except perhaps “agreement”. Agreement, in my opinion, is essential to capitalism because agreements are the basis by which free people CHOOSE to associate with, or do business with others. It is the standard by which businesses either compete successfully or fail. Agreement is a practice employed by free people who have the liberty to choose who they will associate with, how much it will cost, and exactly what services or goods they will purchase.
Because the government will control vast sectors of the nation’s economy, we as individuals will have less and less ability to choose goods or services to our own benefit. Increasingly, “assignments” will be made for us by appointed, un-elected, faceless, government bureaucrats. These people will decide what medical procedures we can get, what loans or other services we can receive; all based on an arbitrary set of hidden objectives.
We must, as free people, be free to decide what is in our own best interests. Not the dictates of government hacks deciding based on some incomprehensible principals of the “good of the people”, whatever that means. As we move toward a socialist/tyranny-state our ability to reach agreements with others, to make basic choices, will be destroyed. Oh yes, we will still, like children, be “allowed” to decide the small things in our lives, but ultimately the big decisions regarding life and death, home ownership, schooling, education, employment and compensation will be decided by government functionaries running your lives from an actuarial table.
As I was considering these principles I was reminded of Friedrich Hayek’s (1899-1992) powerful principals in his famous book, The Road to Serfdom. In it, Hayek expounds on a highly logical maxim, focused mainly on the numerous progressive/socialist and Marxist parties that dominated the political scene in the 1940s; and which, coincidentally, do again today. He persuasively contends that progressive/socialist economic systems, in whatever form, would ultimately lead to a compromise of liberty and set society on ‘the road to serfdom’. In that sense, Nazism and Communism mean the same thing - both forms of totalitarianism being a derivative and logical end work of socialism. I make this remark, by the simple expedient of noting that, as many others have said, power tends to grow and concentrate in fewer and fewer people. Recognizing this reality, was the primary motivator behind the founding fathers’ desire to frame a constitution that ensured that power was held primarily at the local level, with lesser powers held the farther away from the people it was. Unfortunately, two hundred years lawyers holding political power, means that they find ways around that golden rule.
But now, back to my original point; Hayek maintained; and It should be obvious to anyone with only a cursory examination, that properly functioning Republics, especially free-market democracies, cannot lead to tyranny, but would instead give way to a “lighter” form of socialism.
In this neo-socialist state, the illusion of freedom and market driven capitalism is fostered and maintained. But when faced with an “emergency” or “crisis”, the neo-marxist/socialist government would cry and wail for the need for “more control”. This is, of course, to correct problems, which, when effected, lead down the slippery, but inevitable slope, to fascism.
These highly enlightened and subtle ideas are further, but convincingly, reinforced in Ayn Rands famous “Atlas Shrugged” where Rand explains that free market capitalism is the only true foundation from which to ensure individual freedom. She contends that in capitalism, money is the gauge of value, and any person can become wealthy and powerful, their ability is the measure of value inherent in inter-personal dealings.
By sharp contrast; in a socialist scheme, money is replaced by relationships as the “coin of the realm”. This is an inherently flawed and destructive system. The average person can no longer gain power through diligent study and hard work, but can only gain power through leveraging relationships, who you know, and what you know about them, becomes more valuable than your ability to make something or build something, because you no longer have the ability to own the product of your own labor.
If the “collective” or government actually owns or controls the rights to your industry or labor, then there is no incentive to build or improve. The incentive is to control others. If you study trends in the West today, this is the inexorable path we find ourselves on now. We can see unreasoned and radical environmentalism, urban planning, and other tools being the vanguard of modern collectivism and socialism. Modern Urban Planning constantly espouses socialist theory in their overt love of "Live-Work" communities, urban growth boundaries and other mechanisms devoted to concentrating populations and controlling behaviors. These are eerily similar to Stalin’s factory towns, or Mao's worker villages.
Wild and largely unprove-able claims about global threats like terrorism, or global warming are effective tools used to panic ignorant populations to willingly give more power to their governments. Once gained these powers are never given back. Interestingly, the progressive/socialists recognized the underlying threat to freedom that the Patriot Act poses, but completely failed to see, or had been brainwashed to the extent that they cannot recognize the exact same threat from many radical global climate conventions such as the Tokyo Protocols.
The Patriot Act is no different than the Tokyo Protocols; we see in both instances democratic societies actually voting to give up the powers won with the blood of their ancestors. Claims of impending financial doom, recession, depression, global cooling, global warming, housing crises, terrorist attack and other vague conspiracies are useful and effective means to centralize power. Socialist governments are uniquely and slavishly devoted to a kind of “cult of experts” where they contend that the only way to “save” the world, the country, the banking industry, or the medical system, or pick your sector - is to just let this or that expert or panel, or committee control some increasingly larger segment of society. Our country is rapidly undergoing a shift toward economic and real totalitarianism.
The wholesale takeover of the banking and credit industry by the government is a clarion call signaling the beginning of the death of free market capitalism, and by extension, the end of your financial freedom and therefore, true freedom. The current wholesale takeover of the healthcare system in America is yet another blow to an already staggering Republic.
Finally a government functionary, not your local banker, or Doctor, will decide if you can get a medical procedure or a home loan, and whether your reasons for it are officially approved.
Your ability to freely decide the important elements of your life will become a function of your favorability to the political party in power. This becomes a de-facto tyranny, where personalities decide your fate, where you live, what you do, where, or if your kids go to college, whether your mother gets a hip replacement, and not your ability to provide the means or money to do them. In effect, we become a society where the critical factors are relationships, not your own ability to pay for something and decide for yourself.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Jeffery J Cole on -
Sounds like Satan's plan to rob Man of his free-agency, not only to control his body and mobility, but to actually control what he thinks and feels. I wonder when we will all get around to calling this for what it is? I know, Americans are not ready to hear truths so exorbitantly meaty.
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Permalink Reply by Sharon Sutton on -
Right.... ..so does that mean we have 'NO CHANCE.'?. I dont pretend to Know alot about Politics and who' REALLY' is running the World. I am ' JUST' a Mom and a GrandMom now (soon to be 4) AND ALOT of us have ' JUST WOKEN UP' in this last Election. Over the years we were all 'LULLED' into Passivity and Trust in our Gov.t , and the belief this could 'NEVER HAPPEN HERE'! Because of all my years experience as "a MOM and GrandMOM ' my 'Protective Instincts' kicked in the minute I heard the firstwords out of BARACK OBAMA's mouth. I have learned alot in the past 'YEAR" -seems longer.(and it seems even looonnngggeeer to 2010 and more so to 2012! I am Trying to 'SIFT' through all the Information out there to find the 'TRUTH', and I see ALOT of MOMS/DADS and GRANDPA"s out there READY TO FIGHT for our COUNTRY! But the fight does seem INSURMOUNTABLE! I have read about the Bildebergs and the Trilateral Commission and their Quest for the NEW ECONOMIC INTERNATIONAL ORDER! Their MEMBERS INCLUDE BOTH PARTIES AND ARE MOSTLY BILLIONAIRES AND 'ELITISTS.' I have read an article about Gore Vidal and have heard 'comments' about the USA and a 'military dictatorship'. ARE OUR DEFENSIVE EFFORTS FUTILE? SHOULD WE ALL JUST ACCEPT OUR FATE, SIT BACK, ......"PRAY' .... AND JUST SPEND 'QUALITY TIME WITH OUR FAMILIES???
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Permalink Reply by Sharon Sutton on
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I know you are Right. I was having a 'pessimistic' day. And I DO CALL and EMAIL and FAX. Does it matter? Are they listening? I really don't think they are. I AM THE KIND OF MOM and GRANDMOM that would jump out in front of a car to SAVE my kids! I would SCRATCH AND CLAW any 'PREDATOR' that would harm my kids. I REALLY do think they WONT listen and that we are going to have to be 'PREPARED'. They PLAN to shove this down our THROATS. WE HAVE TO GET RID OF THEM ALL ...SOMEHOW. I read an email the other day ...there are what?-535 of them and 300,000,000 of us and 'WE' are at THEIR mercy!!??? WE NEED TO VOTE THEM ALL OUT!!
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Permalink Reply by Shellback on -
We are all isolated by the government-media complex. It is their intent that we feel alone and out of touch in our convictions. But I know their are many more millions of us (producers) than there are of them (looters/moochers). We are led to believe that they outnumber us- DON'T BELIEVE IT. They have the reins of power, for now, because conscientious people voted with their hearts instead of their heads. I hope that people now understand that we cannot turn off our brains and hand our responsibility over to anyone. Whether he has a nice deep voice and he manages to assuage our desire to be admired. We, as a nation, voted for Obama. Now most people have finally woken to the inexorable fact that the guy is a neo-communist. What we can do now, is stay on top of our senators, congressmen and other "representatives". We should all put their office numbers on speed dial and call them at least once a month. Consistently remind them that we are opposed in all ways possible to socialism in any form, government social spending, any new proposals to grow the government, and any new taxes whatsover (without taxes the snake starves). And once a quarter (if you can) pay a personal visit to your congressman/woman to express your concerns.
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Permalink Reply by Mindy on -
"It is their intent that we feel alone and out of touch in our convictions. "
Shellback, excellent observation. I'm glad you mentioned our individual physical isolation. As we have swiftly moved ever closer to Marxist/socialist goals, most of us felt helpless and alone. Some of us felt we were out of sync with the world around us.
The giant has at last woken up and discovered it's fingers, toes, extremities....and alas, realized it was indeed ALIVE. A mass movement of a singe unit called, "We The People" came into being. We now KNOW we are not alone.
We have shaken the radical left to its core. Democrats were shocked at finding themselves on the defensive. They resent it, after all, they won! They have resorted to sneak attacks and outrageous maneuvers to push their agenda. They are on the offensive now.
Don't give in to despair! The radicals count on it! They want to wear us down and demoralize us. They have tried to publicly marginalize us, ridicule this movement, call us names... Does that sound like rational, professional behavior of elected public officials?
We must continue to come to this site for inner strength and renewal so that we can continue the fight with the knowledge that WE ARE NOT ALONE.
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Permalink Reply by Shellback on
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Thanks Mindy. I agree - we have to try to help others to stay alert and not go "back to sleep" before the next election. I believe that the Democrats will work very hard to try to "put the middle back to sleep" before the next election. They will do this - with the enthusiastic and active assistance of the media. They will do this by ginning up stories about how the Democrats are supporting "lower taxes" , or "supporting the troops", or "supporting gun rights". I believe we will see a well organized and targeted media campaign deftly crafted and designed to soothe middle America's fears that Pelosi and Reid and the other nutjob lefties are not so scary. They'll probably do everything they can to stay out of the news and off the frontpages. But I hope the majority of Americans recently awakened, will not be lulled back into their long stupor. We'll see...
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Permalink Reply by Al Deramo on -
Good article, and the only point I would add is that it is more accurate to describe what is being taken away from us as the "Free Enterprise System" rather than "Capitalism". Ronald Reagan was one of the few conservative leaders who appreciated the difference in terminology, and preferred to use the term "Free Enterprise". For some the difference is subtle, but I think it is significant. The difference is focus. Capitalism focuses on the control of money, Free Enterprise focuses on the ability of common people to privately own their own businesses and the means of production. As commonly used, the term Capitalism refers to private control of capital. In that sense, Capitalism is a subset -- one particular type of private enterprise under the broad Free Enterprise System. However, the term is actually very fuzzy. Karl Marx loved to describe our system as Capitalism because the term has some negative connotations connected with greed and the quest for power by the few. For me and many others, the term Capitalism connotes financial dynasties that control most of the private capital, and are pushing the world into a global economic/financial system that they can control. It gets even fuzzier when you consider that every economic system, whether free enterprise or socialist, runs on capital. Therefore, all economic systems are capitalist in one form or another. Under communism the state controls the capital. Therefore, communism can be described as "state capitalism". But it gets even fuzzier when you consider that under communism a handful of oligarchs control the state, therefore they control the capital. So the main difference between the control of capital in the two types of systems is which group of individuals controls the capital.
The unique difference between the economic system give to us by our founders, and the plethora of socialist systems, is that under our system we get ownership and control of our enterprises. Socialist governments often make lofty claims of granting freedom to their populations. The difference is that those freedoms are granted by the grace of the state and are subject to the whims of the state. There can be no guarantee of freedoms if the population does not have economic control. The Free Enterprise System is the only system in which the people have the economic power. Thus it is the only system in which those freedoms are secure. If that economic power is taken away, our freedoms can also be taken away. And this is exactly what the Obamacrats are doing to us. Thus, the Free Enterprise System is our precious gem, and that is what the Obamacrats and the rest of the world's socialists are trying to deprive us of.
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Permalink Reply by Shellback on
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Exactly right - in my article at the top of this page I noted many of the same issues - but your points are well made and well taken. Great point on the primary distinctions between "Capitalism" and "Free Markets/Enterprise". I completely agree with you, and with Milton Friedman, that the power to choose how your labor is remunerated, and where and how you choose to make agreements and spend money is at the heart of this. thanks
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Permalink Reply by Larry Puckette on -
Shellback
A core topic no doubt. I came across something new-to-me recently and plan to learn more about it soon. In 5000 YEAR LEAP, I think. Our economic system was not a secondary issue in our founders' works. They had knowledge of and debated many different economic philosophies. If I retained it correctly, they had an economic version of John Locke- I think it is Adam Smith??. -- anyway, the philosophy has many parts - and the contract/agreement is in the top tier of priorities but not alone and they are all necessary for the recipe to work. What really peaks my interest in learning more about ?Adam Smith's? work is the necessary monetary system in the recipe.
Setting aside any thoughts about the federal reserve's conspiracy theories- I think it's absurd to have allowed the country to choose a debt-based pyramid system as our economic system. It inevitably puts the federal government in contrast to the financial principles that benefit an individual family's financial health and wealth building. And I'm pretty sure that I heard that this issue is addressed in ?Adam Smith's? philosophies and our founders' work as well. I'm certain I remember that he addresses the importance of the contract, and the importance of locality.
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