Be of Good Cheer – For the End of Tyranny is Nigh (including a DEMOLITION of the “corporatist,” Gurcharan Das, who desperately wants it back): Take #2

There are only “intellectual levels” in the world of warring ideas that is the Fourth Estate, now Global, thanks to the Internet.

In this world, I feel like a lone eagle riding a thermal, soaring higher and higher effortlessly, without flapping even a feather, because the ground is heating up.

Like hell.

When I do cast my eagle eye upon the ground below, I see fat field rats scurrying for cover – as the Euro crashes, as the US$ bondmarket unwinds, and as the Keynesian Welfarism that modern western “liberal democracy” is all about heads into the famous “long run” that had been predicted – in fact, by the very same “general theorist” who thought up the evil scheme in order to “cheat the working classes.”

It is the end of “unlimited budgets” – which is what finances Tyranny, which pays all the sarkaar ke kutte.

As for the cheating that is paraded around as welfarism, it will perforce have to give way to Liberty.

Liberty is nothing but the absence of Tyranny.

Of course, Swaminathan Aiyar looks at things differently - and says that the impending demise of the paper Euro "bodes ill for India." What he really means is that it "bodes ill for the Reserve Bank of India." It therefore bodes ill for the Government of India, which the RBI finances. He does not say, of course, that if the RBI and the GoI go bust, it "bodes very well for the people of India."

I found Nilesh Shah's column in Mint arguing for India to adopt the Gold Standard most exciting - for these are the kind of "honest money" views our people need to read.

I too argued for the gold standard in this very paper a few years ago. As also for private money.

In Europe today, many are protesting "austerity" in order to stay on permanent welfare. In Spain, which is going bust, many are marching for their “benefits,” just as in the USSA they are marching for “student debt relief.” Max Keiser on Russia Today reported that the number of PhDs on the dole have trebled! The student loan industry is going to crash as well.

Miseducation will also end.

Because their funny money business will end.

In India, I have never met a single poor person asking for anything from The State – except to be left undisturbed. During my adventures in Mangalore, I had occasion to address representatives of local street-vendors and hawkers – and this was their precise plea, for Liberty and nothing else. They added they did not even want credit from banks, for they managed pretty well within the informal sector, with unregulated and unlicensed moneylenders of their own.

The same is true of Nude Elly – where the “predatory municipality” provides evidence of where “Fabian Socialism” has brought us to, for they were all champions of “municipal socialism,” beginning with Sidney Webb himself.

In this fascinating milieu, my eagle eye just spotted one of those great Indian “corporatists,” who once headed the Indian operations of an MNC, and has enjoyed much material as well as popular success as an author and journalist, Gurcharan Das, attempting to poison the public discourse with blatantly statist opinions, using Francis Fukuyama as his shield and armour.

Imagine that! The very same Fukuyama who argued, “liberal democracy is the end of history” – and who ought to be eating his words today – is being resurrected in order to point mankind towards the “source of political order.”

In fact, it is politics that is the “source of disorder” we see all around the world today. The marches in Spain, the financial whirlwinds that are beginning to blow, the wars, including that “against drugs” – these are all “political” in origin.

And this disorder continues – from the same nasty field of politics – as, for example, when Obama says he champions “legalizing same sex marriage” he is saying he will bring about the necessary legislation, through politics.

The Vote Motive.

Why not just IGNORE all this politics and simply live with voluntarism?

If two people are in agreement - who the hell is anyone to disagree?

Anna Hazare’s disorder is also political in origin as well as motive – aiming to get some great legislation passed, an objective that requires majoritarian politics. Anna says that our Parliament is a "temple."

Baba Ramdev is now up to the same tricks – asking for “reservations for Dalit Muslims,” which will also require legislation, and all the politics necessary for its passage in the House of Horrors.

Disorder!

Period.

Protests, marches, riots, elections – at least we in India ought to know that all these “political” events are the SOURCE OF ALL DISORDER.

Like Advani’s great “Rath Yatra” of 1992.

[Read my recent post titled “Politics is ‘The Problem’ – and The Market is ‘The Solution" for more on this theme.]

Let us now ponder Bastiat's words on what happens to any parliament when it adopts socialist principles - that is, refusal to recognise the inviolability of property, which means "legal plunder":

Your principle has placed these words above the entrance of the legislative chamber: "Whosoever acquires any influence here can obtain his share of legal plunder."

And what has been the result? All classes have flung themselves upon the doors of the chamber, crying: "A share of the plunder for me, for me!"...

And are you not appalled by the immense, radical, and deplorable innovation which will be introduced into the world on the day when the law itself is authorized to commit the very crime that its function is to punish - on the day when it is turned, in theory and in practice, against Liberty and Property?

You deplore the symptoms that modern society exhibits; you shudder at the disorder that prevails in institutions and ideas. But is it not your principle that has perverted everything, both ideas and institutions?

Legal Plunder and False Philanthropy - that is socialism, and its politics.

It is the Source of All Disorder.

And do note that Bastiat sat in the French Parliament in his time - and took a very dim view of goings-on within the chamber. Do read his only biography - Frederic Bastiat: A Man Alone, by George Charles Roche III - which is available on Google Books, here.

Before getting into Fukuyama’s “sparkling new book,” Das himself writes the following in support of our The State:

But not having a State is worse than having one. Even markets depend on the government to enforce property rights, contracts, [and] provide security of life and liberty.

I know for a fact that Gurcharan Das resides in swank Jor Bagh – but I do not think he lives in India proper, where the Constitution does NOT protect private property.

Singur. Nandigram. Land Acquisition. Forgotten all these, dude?

In either case, private property rights are not “enforced.” On the contrary, if a Constitution recognizes them as inviolable, all “force” must stay OUT of private places. That is why this “limitation on force” is the Bedrock of Liberty. And it is this Liberty that results in Prosperity – for Property is the fundamental law of Capitalism.

As for contracts: labour legislation and rent control, for example, violate our rights to enter into free contracts. Let us also never forget the “promise to pay” printed on the rupee note and signed by the Governor of the RBI – a very “social contract” that is honoured only in the breach.

Regarding Das’ “security of life and liberty” – we are ranked as one of the “least free” countries in the world.

And we are literally “dying on the streets.”

There isn’t a single functioning zebra crossing anywhere in the entire sub-continent – including Nude Elly – while “politics” diverts our attention towards a proposed National Counter Terrorism something-or-the-other.

Terrorism scares us – we fear disorder – and that is why politicians love it. 

Meanwhile, over 1000 Indians die on our unsafe roads and city streets, even, every single day!

Security of life? 

Read my post pertaining specifically to road traffic safety, saying "Fuck the Indian Police - for gross negligence of duty."

Sudeep Chakravarti, who writes a regular column in Mint on "conflicts," has recently penned one on the Central State's Police Ministry - the Ministry of Home Affairs - and has listed out all its branches, divisions, and wings that are devoted to dealing with all the various "conflict zones" all over this vast sub-continent. How many conflict zones there are! And so many jobs created to deal with them! This ministry controls many "para-military forces" as well - and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has over 200 battalions! Yet, policing is a "state subject" - and, even better, under the Code of Criminal Procedure, it is actually a "local subject," with all powers vested with the man in charge of the local police station. Of course, the more the disorder, the bigger the budget! And no one talks of Capitalism, Private Property, and Liberty for the poor people who inhabit the jungles, and are now up in armed revolt. How can their "Maoism" be tackled with GUNS - when "politics" demands that this be tackled with "ideas." Of course, even on this issue, Gurcharan Das writes "No ifs or buts, defeat Maoist violence." He calls these poor people "terrorists." He deliberately hides the fact that we are heading towards becoming a Politicized Police State - the UGLIEST kind of TYRANNY ever imaginable. We have a The State high up there in Laputa composed of nothing but Parasites and Predators. What is the REPUTATION of the Indian Police? In my own experience, in Mangalore and its surrounds years ago, and in Pondicherry recently, they are "playing cheap politics." They are trying to "micro-manage dissent." And they are also up to "dirty tricks." The minister-in-charge in Nude Elly is a ZERO from Madras - Palaniappan Chidambaram - and neck-deep in scandal related to the allotment of 2G telecom licenses. It is this minister, blind to traffic deaths, who announced that "Maoists are India's biggest security threat." 

It is socialism that is the source of all disorder. There was very little disorder anywhere in India during the British Raj. Because of their "classical liberalism." Why is everyone revolting? Why are peaceful tribals in the jungles taking to arms? Why do all our VIPs need so much "security"? How did they accumulate so many "enemies"? These are the tough questions we all need to ask - before labeling rebels as "terrorists," as the corporatist Gurcharan Das has done, in the service of his masters.

Anyway, ours is a Socialist State – high up there in Laputa – and we do not possess anything that might be called “civil government.” But the corporatist Das, like all corporatists, asserts, “A State is a precondition for a flourishing society and economy.”

This our The State has been with us for over 60 years now. Have we ever had a “flourishing society and economy”? Ever?

And isn’t all the talk emanating for this The State today entirely about “welfare for the poor”? Would there be mass poverty if 60 years of statism had worked for the poor?

A Global Free Market For The Poor! – that is Capitalism.

Self-Help.

Self-Respect.

Take your fuckin’ welfare and SHOVE IT!

Gurcharan Das then proceeds to distil the wisdom of Francis Fukuyama, whose “sparkling new book” on The Origins of Political Order lists the following “three elements of a successful liberal democracy.” This is precisely “The God That Failed” – but let us examine these three elements anyway:

• A strong authority to allow quick and decisive action; 

• A transparent rule of law to ensure the action is legitimate;

• Accountable to the people.

We do have many, many “strong authorities” today, all of them perfectly “legitimate” in the precise sense that they are all empowered by legislation – DDA, NHAI, TRAI, IRDA, et. al.

We also have many, many “strong authorities” struggling extremely hard to “enforce order” – in Manipur, in Kashmir, and, I think, such strong authorities will soon be spreading out all over our jungles, and these are also legitimate, armed with legislation as well as guns and ammunition.

All these multiple strong authorities are “accountable” – to their ministers, who themselves are accountable to Parliament and, thereby, to “wee the people.” These authorities are also accountable to the courts.

In Manipur, order has eluded the continuous use of MILITARY FORCE since 1954 – and a WOMAN has been on a hunger strike for 10 long years or more protesting Army Rule. Accountable to the people? Political order?

Methinks neither Das, nor his guru Fukuyama, know anything about “the source of political order.” So, let us step back in time – to British India before Curzon.

And let us once again look at the following extremely important extract from Nirad C Chaudhuri’s Autobiography:

Overhead there appeared to be, coinciding with the sky, an immutable sphere of justice and order, brooding sleeplessly over what was happening below. But that feeling vanished at one stroke with the coming of the nationalist agitation in 1905.

Let us at the outset note that this “immutable sphere of justice and order” VANISHED with the onset of POLITICS.

Thereafter, let us note that the Empress Victoria was some 10,000 miles away, mourning within a remote castle in the mountains of Scotland, in an age before the telephone.

They called it “an empire of laws and not of men.”

Good laws bring about order.

And it is an old English maxim that says, “Possession is nine-tenths of the Law.”

Possession is nine-tenths of the Law only because Property is a “mental category” we all possess. Those gifted with a “sense of justice” were able to “articulate the law” much later, by which time both property and trade were flourishing, and Law was necessary to settle disputes.

The Market preceded the Law.

The Market is The Source of Natural Social Order.

Posses of armed policemen are NOT required to “maintain order” in any High Street Shopping District anywhere in the world.

It is only because of the presence of this mental category in the trading minds of all our unlettered, poor people that a perfect “natural order” prevails in every single one of our bustling bazaars.

In Nude Elly, I have often seen honest traders flee the market – shouting, “Committee Aaa Gayee!”

Predatory Municipal Socialism.

The VAMPIRES Sidney and Beatrice Webb “miseducated” and sent our way – like our former President, KR Narayanan, a “favourite pupil of Harold Laski,” who also served as Chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) – and on whom I have a previous post, in which I RIDICULE the JNU PhD in Economics.

And what does the corporatist Gurcharan Das say?

“A State is a precondition for a flourishing society and economy.”

Bollocks!

FASCIST – that is another word for “corporatist.”

This is neither socialism – nor is it capitalism.

Rather, it is an unholy mix of the two – in which many corporates attach themselves to the “strong authority” of a State.

In perfect accordance with his fascist leanings, Das then proceeds to list some of our Chief Ministers (precisely five out of the thirty odd states that make up our quasi-federation) as examples of politicians who are “delivering good governance, [and] attracting investments and jobs.”

These are:

·       Nitish Kumar, the new “poster boy” of Bihar, a province that will take decades or more to straighten out, if ever;

·       Raman Singh of Chhatisgarh, where “civil war” is underway, and who is FORCIBLY STERILISING his citizenry, which is the “use of illegal force”;

·       Gogoi of Assam, a complete mess, in the news every day for all the wrong reasons;

·       Narendra Modi – “strong  authority,” what?;

·       and some guy called Shivraj Chauhan I have never heard of.

He writes that this “federalism” – though ours is really a “unitary” State – will come to our rescue.

He writes that many leaders of panchayats and zila parishads are doing great. Like where? As in Anna Hazare’s “model village”?

What about each and every one of our cities and towns?

Corporatists use the indirect force of the strong State to make hay – and they perform ideological services for that State as well. They are all “hand-in-glove,” after all.

But this is a record low – even for a corporatist – to write in support of weirdos like Narendra Modi and Raman Singh. Seems like he wants to keep the evil BJP happy as well. 

The title of Gurcharan Das’ column in the ToI of today is “The crisis of authority does not have an easy fix.”

Fortunately, there are all kinds of “authorities” other than the political: for example, someone may be an authority on Ayurveda. Another may be an authority on Shakespeare. And so on and so forth.

In the long History of the human race, in almost each and every instance, those who accomplished the greatest feats in turning humanity away from sin, lies, and deceit – these have been “moral leaders.”

Like the Buddha.

The Buddha was most certainly not any “strong authority.”

Which is why it used to be said, “It is the task of a Prophet to restore Justice in the world.”

I most certainly am not any such prophet – and, as stated above, all I claim to be is an “Austro-Libertarian Natural Order Philosopher.”

Natural Order is the title of my magnum opus – which you can read here – though this book is dated 2007, and a new edition is very much required.

I am The Anti-Hobbes.

 

The Austro-Libertarian refers to the fact that I am an economist first an foremost; further, that I belong to the Austrian School of Economic Thought, which began with Carl Menger’s Principles in 1871, and then his second book, on methodology, in 1883; ideas that were perfected and made into a “true science” by Ludwig von Mises during the next century.

The "libertarian" means I champion LIBERTY, PROPERTY, and CAPITALISM. We could add to these INDIVIDUALISM. And also SELF-HELP. VOLUNTARISM. And also the "pursuit of happiness," each in his or her own way, for this is a "subjective" matter. This is my "politics."

Economics and Law were both known as “moral sciences” once upon a time. And these classical roots remain firmly embedded still.

In his Nation, State, And Economy, Ludwig von Mises wrote the following important words on the “political objective” of classical liberals such as he – which was “unification of law”:

Liberalism, which demands full freedom of the economy, seeks to dissolve the difficulties that the diversity of political arrangements pits against the development of trade by separating the economy from the state. It strives for the greatest possible unification of law, in the last analysis for world unity of law. But it does not believe that to reach this goal, great empires or even a world empire must be created.

 This quote underlines the importance of Law for not only national but also international order – and why “politics” must be underplayed.

So I commend to all of you my latest work, For Civilisation, Against Politics: Arguments for an Intellectual-Moral Revolution.

It is very brief, and very simple as well, understandable quite easily by any schoolkid, even.

It combines ancient moral wisdom, entirely gleaned from the Book of Proverbs in the Old Testament, with this very new Science of Economics that the Austrians first conceived and then perfected.

It will show you the Highway of all the Prophets – and this, without any “metaphysical speculations.” None at all.

Read it online here.

If this little book ignites your mind with the Fire of Truth, Morality, and Justice:

PUSH THE TEMPO!

For, as Bastiat said:

The only remedy is the progressive enlightenment of public opinion.

Recommended reading: The first essay in my collection of Bastiat’s “essential” writings, titled “Natural Order versus Artificial Order.”