Hence,
LIBERTY is gone as well: “Born to be Jailed” is the American of today.
We
in India can see the parallel – for we too have an Independence Day, and a
Republic Day as well.
Meet
the new boss,
Same
as the old boss.
The
Who
Methinks
the new boss is far worse.
Republicanism
is not about “the world’s largest democracies.” On the contrary, it is about
little, free cities and towns. Honest civic corporations, mayors, property,
liberty, and justice.
Bob
Dylan is America’s greatest living singer-songwriter – and he has gone through
various “phases,” one of which was “spiritual,” if that is the right word. One
great song of that period goes:
Well,
it may be the Devil,
Or
it may be the Lord,
But
you still gotta serve somebody.
The
Lord and the Devil – these are not “bodies”; these are “forces.”
And
in the free market economy, all is well if you simply “serve your customer.”
Nothing much more is required to be on the side of the good.
As
for those who choose to “serve the Lord” – there is now a fresh scandal
erupting about the Vatican Bank. Thus, joining vast bureaucracies claiming some
divine mission or the other may not be the right idea.
Bureaucracies
brings us to the modern, secular, socialist religion – “Statolatry” – which
means “the worship of the State,” and I have grave doubts about the “spiritual
salvation” of those who “serve” this god. Like cops, or soldiers. Or whatever.
So,
the old Simon & Garfunkel song got it quite right, and this verse must be
referring to a “decent” ganja dealer:
Deputy
Sheriff said to me,
“You
better come here, boy,
You
better get your bags and flee.
You’re
in trouble, boy,
And
now you’re heading into more.”
It’s
the same old story, yeah.
Everywhere
I go,
I
get slandered,
Libeled,
I
hear words I never heard in The Bible.
But
I’m one step ahead of the shoeshine,
Two
steps ahead of the county-line,
Just
tryin’ to keep my customer satisfied.
Satisfied.
Now,
the “social problem” is not one that requires us to forge a “homogenous
nation/society” using any political glue that any demagogue may find handy –
like community, religion, language, or race – rather, the real problem is to
enable numberless strangers to interact in peace and order, while pursuing
their own, individual ends.
The
WORD to bring back into common parlance is “catallaxy” – which means an open
trading arena, and my column on this word and its implications begins by saying
this is the “key to an Open Society,” and ends with the assertion that this is
humanity’s only way to achieve a “rational, natural order.”
If
we just THINK in this direction today – and achieve it whenever – we can all
celebrate each and every day as well as night of having lived free, of having
pursued happiness as one deemed fit.
Utopia
is but a Society of Utopianism. Each INDIVIDUAL in such a Utopia has his own,
subjective idea of what his own happiness is about – and the only LEGAL way in
which this can be achieved for all is the Inviolability of Private Property.
The
Planet becomes a “patchwork quilt” of individually owned properties.
No
immigration controls – which violate Private Property and are based on the
false assumption that a State owns the entire “nation.”
No
trade or capital controls either – which do the same.
And,
as Ludwig von Mises pointed out in his analysis of legislative
“interventionism,” all these are harmful for humanity, destroy democracy, and
only benefit the bureaucracies they spawn for their “enforcement” – and
lawyers, of course.
FREE
THE WORLD!
Private
Property
Private
Economies (instead of fictitious “National Economies”)
Private
Everything
Honest
Civic Corporations
Mayors
Republicanism.
A
“Natural Order” is really what makes “thy Kingdom come, on Earth, as it is in
Heaven.”
Domini
Dirige Nos.
Allah
ho Akbar.
Or
good ol’ Mahadev sitting happily stoned atop Mount Kailash.
Amen!
