1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,840 Greetings and salutations, my fellow plebs. My name is Walker and this is the Bitcoin 2 00:00:06,840 --> 00:00:15,720 podcast. It's Monday, July 31, 2023. The Bitcoin block height is 801077 and the 3 00:00:15,720 --> 00:00:22,800 value of one Bitcoin is still one Bitcoin. Today's episode is Bitcoin Out Loud and 4 00:00:22,800 --> 00:00:29,360 I'm gonna read you the book Anatomy of the State by Murray N. Rothbard. I believe 5 00:00:29,360 --> 00:00:35,000 everyone should read this book because so often people have difficulty understanding 6 00:00:35,000 --> 00:00:40,220 why Bitcoin is needed because they don't understand the extent of the problem, the 7 00:00:40,220 --> 00:00:46,820 extent of the state's overreach and predation. Anatomy of the State was published in 1974, 8 00:00:46,820 --> 00:00:54,160 but like any good book, the lessons are timeless and highly relevant today. Rothbard 9 00:00:54,160 --> 00:01:00,000 begins with the idea that the state is not a natural or voluntary organization, but rather 10 00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:06,560 a system that maintains its existence through coercive tax theft and a monopoly on violence. 11 00:01:06,560 --> 00:01:13,600 He argues that the state can never be considered neutral or benign as its very existence relies 12 00:01:13,600 --> 00:01:21,040 on expropriating resources from the citizenry. As you listen, think about the fact that the 13 00:01:21,040 --> 00:01:27,920 state's monopoly on violence allows it to maintain its monopoly on money and how Bitcoin 14 00:01:27,920 --> 00:01:36,920 is a direct challenge to that status quo. Without further ado, let's get into it. 15 00:01:36,920 --> 00:01:46,440 Anatomy of the State by Murray N. Rothbard. The greatest danger to the state is independent 16 00:01:46,440 --> 00:01:53,040 intellectual criticism. What the State is Not 17 00:01:53,040 --> 00:01:58,320 The state is almost universally considered an institution of social service. Some theorists 18 00:01:58,320 --> 00:02:04,280 venerate the state as the apotheosis of society, others regarded as an amiable, though often 19 00:02:04,280 --> 00:02:10,000 inefficient, organization for achieving social ends, but almost all regarded as a necessary 20 00:02:10,000 --> 00:02:16,400 means for achieving the goals of mankind, a means to be ranged against the private sector, 21 00:02:16,400 --> 00:02:22,360 and often winning in this competition of resources. With the rise of democracy, the identification 22 00:02:22,360 --> 00:02:27,480 of the state with society has been redoubled, until it is common to hear sentiments expressed 23 00:02:27,480 --> 00:02:34,880 which violate virtually every tenet of reason and common sense, such as, we are the government. 24 00:02:34,880 --> 00:02:39,680 The useful collective term we has enabled an ideological camouflage to be thrown over 25 00:02:39,680 --> 00:02:45,680 the reality of political life. If we are the government, then anything a government does 26 00:02:45,680 --> 00:02:51,800 to an individual is not only just and unturanical, but also voluntary on the part of the individual 27 00:02:51,800 --> 00:02:55,360 concerned. If the government has incurred a huge public 28 00:02:55,360 --> 00:03:00,080 debt which must be paid by taxing one group for the benefit of another, the reality of 29 00:03:00,080 --> 00:03:06,600 this burden is obscured by saying that, we owe it to ourselves. If the government conscripts 30 00:03:06,600 --> 00:03:12,800 a man or throws him into jail for dissident opinion, then he is doing it to himself, and 31 00:03:12,800 --> 00:03:18,480 therefore nothing untoward has occurred. Under this reasoning, any Jews murdered by 32 00:03:18,480 --> 00:03:24,560 the Nazi government were not murdered. Instead, they must have committed suicide, since they 33 00:03:24,560 --> 00:03:30,200 were the government, which was democratically chosen, and therefore anything the government 34 00:03:30,200 --> 00:03:35,120 did to them was voluntary on their part. One would not think it necessary to belabor 35 00:03:35,120 --> 00:03:40,520 this point, and yet the overwhelming bulk of people hold this fallacy to a greater or 36 00:03:40,520 --> 00:03:45,440 lesser degree. We must, therefore, emphasize that we are 37 00:03:45,440 --> 00:03:51,400 not the government. The government is not us. The government does not in any accurate 38 00:03:51,400 --> 00:03:58,360 sense represent the majority of the people. But even if it did, even if 70% of the people 39 00:03:58,360 --> 00:04:03,800 decided to murder the remaining 30%, this would still be murder and would not be voluntary 40 00:04:03,800 --> 00:04:10,520 suicide on the part of the slaughtered minority. No organist metaphor, no irrelevant bromide 41 00:04:10,520 --> 00:04:16,680 that we are all part of one another must be permitted to obscure this basic fact. 42 00:04:16,680 --> 00:04:23,240 If then, the state is not us. If it is not the human family getting together to decide 43 00:04:23,240 --> 00:04:29,720 mutual problems. If it is not a lodge meeting or country club, what is it? 44 00:04:29,720 --> 00:04:35,640 Briefly, this state is that organization in society which attempts to maintain a monopoly 45 00:04:35,640 --> 00:04:42,040 on the use of force and violence in a given territorial area. In particular, it is the 46 00:04:42,040 --> 00:04:47,560 only organization in society that obtains its revenue not by voluntary contribution or 47 00:04:47,560 --> 00:04:53,400 payment for services rendered, but by coercion, while other individuals or institutions obtain 48 00:04:53,400 --> 00:04:59,040 their income by production of goods and services, and by the peaceful and voluntary sale of 49 00:04:59,040 --> 00:05:06,080 these goods and services to others. This state obtains its revenue by the use of compulsion, 50 00:05:06,080 --> 00:05:12,200 that is, by the use and the threat of the jailhouse and the bayonet. 51 00:05:12,200 --> 00:05:17,240 Having used force and violence to obtain its revenue, the state generally goes on to regulate 52 00:05:17,240 --> 00:05:24,200 and dictate the other actions of its individual subjects. One would think that simple observation 53 00:05:24,200 --> 00:05:29,960 of all states throughout history and over the globe would be proof enough of this assertion. 54 00:05:29,960 --> 00:05:40,600 But the miasma of myth has lain so long over state activity that elaboration is necessary. 55 00:05:40,600 --> 00:05:44,400 What the state is. 56 00:05:44,400 --> 00:05:49,760 Man is born naked into the world and needing to use his mind to learn how to take the resources 57 00:05:49,760 --> 00:05:56,360 given him by nature and to transform them, for example by investment in capital, into 58 00:05:56,360 --> 00:06:02,160 shapes and forms and places where the resources can be used for the satisfaction of his wants 59 00:06:02,160 --> 00:06:08,200 and the advancement of his standard of living. The only way by which man can do this is by 60 00:06:08,200 --> 00:06:14,480 the use of his mind and energy to transform resources, production, and to exchange these 61 00:06:14,480 --> 00:06:20,920 products for products created by others. Man has found that through the process of voluntary 62 00:06:20,920 --> 00:06:26,400 mutual exchange, the productivity and hence the living standards of all participants in 63 00:06:26,400 --> 00:06:33,600 exchange may increase enormously. The only natural course for man to survive and to attain 64 00:06:33,600 --> 00:06:40,000 wealth therefore is by using his mind and energy to engage in the production and exchange 65 00:06:40,000 --> 00:06:42,200 process. 66 00:06:42,200 --> 00:06:48,560 He does this first by finding natural resources and then by transforming them by mixing his 67 00:06:48,560 --> 00:06:55,200 labor with them as Locke puts it, to make them his individual property and then by exchanging 68 00:06:55,200 --> 00:07:00,920 this property for the similarly obtained property of others. The social path dictated by the 69 00:07:00,920 --> 00:07:07,200 requirements of man's nature therefore is the path of property rights and the free market 70 00:07:07,200 --> 00:07:13,840 of gift or exchange of such rights. Through this path, men have learned how to avoid the 71 00:07:13,840 --> 00:07:19,440 jungle methods of fighting over scarce resources so that A can only acquire them at the expense 72 00:07:19,440 --> 00:07:26,280 of B and instead to multiply those resources enormously in peaceful and harmonious production 73 00:07:26,280 --> 00:07:28,280 and exchange. 74 00:07:28,280 --> 00:07:33,560 The great German sociologist Franz Oppenheimer pointed out that there are two mutually exclusive 75 00:07:33,560 --> 00:07:39,800 ways of acquiring wealth. One, the above way of production and exchange he called the economic 76 00:07:39,800 --> 00:07:45,880 means. The other way is simpler in that it does not require productivity. It is the way 77 00:07:45,880 --> 00:07:52,240 of seizure of another's goods or services by the use of force and violence. This is 78 00:07:52,240 --> 00:07:58,360 the method of one-sided confiscation, of theft of the property of others. This is the method 79 00:07:58,360 --> 00:08:04,640 which Oppenheimer termed the political means to wealth. It should be clear that the peaceful 80 00:08:04,640 --> 00:08:10,440 use of reason and energy in production is the natural path for man, the means for his 81 00:08:10,440 --> 00:08:16,840 survival and prosperity on this earth. It should be equally clear that the coercive, 82 00:08:16,840 --> 00:08:23,200 exploitative means is contrary to natural law. It is parasitic for instead of adding 83 00:08:23,200 --> 00:08:29,720 to production, it subtracts from it. The political means siphons production off to a parasitic 84 00:08:29,720 --> 00:08:34,720 and destructive individual or group, and this siphoning not only subtracts from the number 85 00:08:34,720 --> 00:08:41,120 of producing, but also lowers the producer's incentive to produce beyond his own substance. 86 00:08:41,120 --> 00:08:46,320 In the long run, the robber destroys his own substance by dwindling or eliminating the 87 00:08:46,320 --> 00:08:53,160 source of his own supply. But not only that, even in the short run, the predator is acting 88 00:08:53,160 --> 00:08:59,080 contrary to his own true nature as a man. We are now in a position to answer more fully 89 00:08:59,080 --> 00:09:06,400 the question, what is the state? The state, in the words of Oppenheimer, is the organization 90 00:09:06,400 --> 00:09:14,520 of the political means. It is the systemization of the predatory process over a given territory. 91 00:09:14,520 --> 00:09:22,800 For crime, at best, is sporadic and uncertain. The parasitism is ephemeral and the coercive, 92 00:09:22,800 --> 00:09:28,640 parasitic lifeline may be cut off at any time by the resistance of the victims. The state 93 00:09:28,640 --> 00:09:34,200 provides a legal, orderly, systematic channel for the predation of private property. It 94 00:09:34,200 --> 00:09:41,800 renders certain, secure, and relatively peaceful the lifetime of the parasitic caste in society. 95 00:09:41,800 --> 00:09:48,160 Since the production must always precede predation, the free market is anterior to the state. 96 00:09:48,160 --> 00:09:53,440 The state has never been created by a social contract. It has always been born in conquest 97 00:09:53,440 --> 00:09:59,200 and exploitation. The classic paradigm was a conquering tribe pausing in its time-honored 98 00:09:59,200 --> 00:10:04,000 method of looting and murdering a conquered tribe to realize that the time span of plunder 99 00:10:04,000 --> 00:10:09,000 would be longer and more secure and the situation more pleasant, if the conquered tribe were 100 00:10:09,000 --> 00:10:15,600 allowed to live and produce, with the conquerors settling among them as rulers exacting a steady 101 00:10:15,600 --> 00:10:22,520 annual tribute. One method of the birth of a state may be illustrated as follows. In 102 00:10:22,520 --> 00:10:28,000 the hills of southern Ruritania, a bandit group manages to obtain physical control over 103 00:10:28,000 --> 00:10:33,640 the territory, and finally the bandit chiefed and proclaimed himself King of the sovereign 104 00:10:33,640 --> 00:10:40,160 and independent government of South Ruritania. And, if he and his men have the force to maintain 105 00:10:40,160 --> 00:10:47,160 this rule for a while, lo and behold, a new state has joined the family of nations, and 106 00:10:47,160 --> 00:11:00,000 the former bandit leaders have been transformed into the lawful nobility of the realm. 107 00:11:00,000 --> 00:11:04,120 How the State Preserves Itself 108 00:11:04,120 --> 00:11:09,520 Once a state has been established, the problem of the ruling group, or caste, is how to maintain 109 00:11:09,520 --> 00:11:17,560 their rule. While force is their modus operandi, their basic and long-run problem is ideological. 110 00:11:17,560 --> 00:11:24,400 For in order to continue in office, any government, not simply a democratic government, must have 111 00:11:24,400 --> 00:11:30,160 the support of the majority of its subjects. This support, it must be noted, need not be 112 00:11:30,160 --> 00:11:35,920 active enthusiasm. It may well be passive resignation as if to an inevitable law of 113 00:11:35,920 --> 00:11:42,600 nature, but support in the sense of acceptance of some sort it must be. Else the minority 114 00:11:42,600 --> 00:11:47,520 of state rulers would eventually be outweighed by the active resistance of the majority of 115 00:11:47,520 --> 00:11:53,800 the public. Since predation must be supported out of the surplus of production, it is necessarily 116 00:11:53,800 --> 00:12:00,680 true that the class constituting the state, the full-time bureaucracy, and nobility, must 117 00:12:00,680 --> 00:12:06,840 be a rather small minority in the land, although it may, of course, purchase allies among important 118 00:12:06,840 --> 00:12:13,240 groups in the population. Therefore, the chief task of the rulers is always to secure the 119 00:12:13,240 --> 00:12:20,320 active or resigned acceptance of the majority of the citizens. Of course, one method of 120 00:12:20,320 --> 00:12:26,480 securing support is through the creation of vested economic interests. Therefore, the 121 00:12:26,480 --> 00:12:32,160 king alone cannot rule. He must have a sizable group of followers who enjoy the prerequisites 122 00:12:32,160 --> 00:12:38,080 of rule, for example, the members of the state apparatus, such as the full-time bureaucracy 123 00:12:38,080 --> 00:12:44,560 or the established nobility. But this still secures only a minority of eager supporters, 124 00:12:44,560 --> 00:12:49,440 and even the essential purchasing of support by subsidies and other grants of privilege 125 00:12:49,440 --> 00:12:55,480 still does not obtain the consent of the majority. For this essential acceptance, the majority 126 00:12:55,480 --> 00:13:03,760 must be persuaded by ideology that their government is good, wise, and at least inevitable, and 127 00:13:03,760 --> 00:13:09,840 certainly better than other conceivable alternatives. Promoting this ideology among the people is 128 00:13:09,840 --> 00:13:16,600 the vital social task of the intellectuals. For the masses of men do not create their 129 00:13:16,600 --> 00:13:23,360 own ideas, or indeed, think through these ideas independently. They follow passively 130 00:13:23,360 --> 00:13:29,400 the ideas adopted and disseminated by the body of intellectuals. The intellectuals are, 131 00:13:29,400 --> 00:13:36,160 therefore, the opinion-molders in society. And since it is precisely a molding of opinion 132 00:13:36,160 --> 00:13:41,880 that the state most desperately needs, the basis for age-old alliance between the state 133 00:13:41,880 --> 00:13:48,640 and the intellectuals becomes clear. It is evident that the state needs the intellectuals. 134 00:13:48,640 --> 00:13:55,280 It is not so evident why the intellectuals need the state. Put simply, we may state 135 00:13:55,280 --> 00:14:00,080 that the intellectuals' livelihood in the free market is never too secure, for the 136 00:14:00,080 --> 00:14:05,640 intellectual must depend on the values and choices of the masses of his fellow men. And 137 00:14:05,640 --> 00:14:11,040 it is precisely characteristic of the masses that they are generally uninterested in intellectual 138 00:14:11,040 --> 00:14:16,760 matters. The state, on the other hand, is willing to offer the intellectuals a secure 139 00:14:16,760 --> 00:14:22,880 and permanent birth in the state apparatus, and thus a secure income and the panoply of 140 00:14:22,880 --> 00:14:28,960 prestige. For the intellectuals will be handsomely rewarded for the important function they perform 141 00:14:28,960 --> 00:14:35,200 for the state rulers, of which group they now become a part. 142 00:14:35,200 --> 00:14:40,520 The alliance between the state and the intellectuals was symbolized in the eager desire of professors 143 00:14:40,520 --> 00:14:46,640 at the University of Berlin in the 19th century to form the intellectual bodyguard of the 144 00:14:46,640 --> 00:14:52,880 House of Hohenzahn. In the present day, let us note the revealing comment of an eminent 145 00:14:52,880 --> 00:15:00,680 Marxist scholar concerning Professor Wittvogel's critical study of ancient Oriental despotism. 146 00:15:00,680 --> 00:15:05,680 The civilization which Professor Wittvogel is so bitterly attacking was one which could 147 00:15:05,680 --> 00:15:12,920 make poets and scholars into officials. Of innumerable examples, we may cite the recent 148 00:15:12,920 --> 00:15:18,840 development of the science of strategy in the service of the government's main violence-wielding 149 00:15:18,840 --> 00:15:27,040 arm, the military. A venerable institution, furthermore, is the official or court historian, 150 00:15:27,040 --> 00:15:33,360 dedicated to purveying the ruler's views of their own and their predecessors' actions. 151 00:15:33,360 --> 00:15:37,560 Many and varied have been the arguments by which the state and its intellectuals have 152 00:15:37,560 --> 00:15:43,160 induced their subjects to support their rule. Basically, the strands of argument may be 153 00:15:43,160 --> 00:15:50,720 summed up as follows. A. The state rulers are great and wise men. They rule by divine 154 00:15:50,720 --> 00:15:57,680 right. They are the aristocracy of men. They are the scientific experts. Much greater and 155 00:15:57,680 --> 00:16:02,280 wiser than the good but rather simple subjects. 156 00:16:02,280 --> 00:16:09,840 And B. Rule by the extent government is inevitable, absolutely necessary, and far better than 157 00:16:09,840 --> 00:16:15,200 the indescribable evils that would ensue upon its downfall. 158 00:16:15,200 --> 00:16:21,040 The union of church and state was one of the oldest and most successful of these ideological 159 00:16:21,040 --> 00:16:27,520 devices. The ruler was either anointed by God or, in the case of the absolute rule of 160 00:16:27,520 --> 00:16:33,440 the many of the Oriental despotisms, was himself God. Hence, any resistance to his 161 00:16:33,440 --> 00:16:39,960 rule would be blasphemy. The state's priestcraft performed the basic intellectual function 162 00:16:39,960 --> 00:16:46,200 of obtaining popular support and even worship for the rulers. Another successful device 163 00:16:46,200 --> 00:16:52,760 was to instill fear of any alternative systems of rule or non-rule. The present rulers, it 164 00:16:52,760 --> 00:16:57,760 was maintained, supply to the citizens an essential service for which they should be 165 00:16:57,760 --> 00:17:03,840 most grateful, protection against sporadic criminals and marauders. 166 00:17:03,840 --> 00:17:09,040 For the state, to preserve its own monopoly of predation did indeed see to it that private 167 00:17:09,040 --> 00:17:15,440 and unsystematic crime was kept to a minimum. The state has always been jealous of its own 168 00:17:15,440 --> 00:17:21,960 preserve. Especially has the state been successful in recent centuries in instilling fear of 169 00:17:21,960 --> 00:17:28,280 the other state rulers. Since the land area of the globe has been parceled out among particular 170 00:17:28,280 --> 00:17:33,840 states, one of the basic doctrines of the state was to identify itself with the territory 171 00:17:33,840 --> 00:17:39,720 it governed. Since most men tend to love their homeland, the identification of that land 172 00:17:39,720 --> 00:17:45,440 and its people with the state was a means of making natural patriotism work to the state's 173 00:17:45,440 --> 00:17:52,120 usage. If Rurotania was being attacked by Waldavia, the first task of the state and its 174 00:17:52,120 --> 00:17:56,760 intellectuals was to convince the people of Rurotania that the attack was really upon 175 00:17:56,760 --> 00:18:04,680 them and not simply upon the ruling caste. In this way, a war between rulers was converted 176 00:18:04,680 --> 00:18:10,240 into a war between peoples, with each people coming to the defense of its rulers in the 177 00:18:10,240 --> 00:18:17,000 erroneous belief that the rulers were defending them. This device of nationalism has only 178 00:18:17,000 --> 00:18:23,360 been successful in western civilization in recent centuries. It was not too long ago 179 00:18:23,360 --> 00:18:28,520 that the mass of subjects regarded wars as irrelevant battles between various sets of 180 00:18:28,520 --> 00:18:34,080 nobles. Many and subtle are the ideological weapons that the state has wielded through 181 00:18:34,080 --> 00:18:41,160 the centuries. One excellent weapon has been tradition, the longer that the rule of a state 182 00:18:41,160 --> 00:18:47,480 has been able to preserve itself, the more powerful this weapon. For then, the X dynasty 183 00:18:47,480 --> 00:18:54,520 or the Y state has the seeming weight of centuries of tradition behind it. Worship of one's 184 00:18:54,520 --> 00:19:00,960 ancestors then becomes a none too subtle means of worship of one's ancient rulers. 185 00:19:00,960 --> 00:19:06,680 The greatest danger to the state is independent intellectual criticism. There is no better 186 00:19:06,680 --> 00:19:13,360 way to stifle that criticism than to attack any isolated voice, any razor of new doubts, 187 00:19:13,360 --> 00:19:19,840 as a profane violator of the wisdom of his ancestors. Another potent ideological force 188 00:19:19,840 --> 00:19:26,200 is to deprecate the individual and exalt the collectivity of society. For since any given 189 00:19:26,200 --> 00:19:33,360 rule implies majority acceptance, any ideological danger to that rule can only start from one 190 00:19:33,360 --> 00:19:41,240 or a few independently thinking individuals. The new idea, much less the new critical idea, 191 00:19:41,240 --> 00:19:47,440 must needs begin as a small minority opinion. Therefore, the state must nip the view in 192 00:19:47,440 --> 00:19:54,800 the bud by ridiculing any view that defies the opinions of the mass. Listen only to your 193 00:19:54,800 --> 00:20:02,240 brothers or adjust to society, thus became ideological weapons for crushing individual 194 00:20:02,240 --> 00:20:09,760 descent. By such measures, the masses will never learn of the nonexistence of their emperor's 195 00:20:09,760 --> 00:20:16,200 clothes. It is also important for the state to make its rule seem inevitable. Even if 196 00:20:16,200 --> 00:20:22,040 its reign is disliked, it will then be met with passive resignation as witness the familiar 197 00:20:22,040 --> 00:20:30,560 coupling of death and taxes. One method is to induce historiographical determinism as 198 00:20:30,560 --> 00:20:36,680 opposed to individual freedom of will. If the ex-dynasty rules us, this is because the 199 00:20:36,680 --> 00:20:43,400 inexorable laws of history, or the divine will, or the absolute, or the material productive 200 00:20:43,400 --> 00:20:50,760 forces, have so decreed, and nothing any puny individual may do can change this inevitable 201 00:20:50,760 --> 00:20:57,120 decree. It is also important for the state to inculcate in its subjects an aversion to 202 00:20:57,120 --> 00:21:05,160 any conspiracy theory of history. For a search for conspiracies means a search for motives 203 00:21:05,160 --> 00:21:12,560 and an attribution of responsibility for historical misdeeds. If, however, any tyranny imposed 204 00:21:12,560 --> 00:21:18,840 by the state, or venality or aggressive war, was caused not by the state rulers, but by 205 00:21:18,840 --> 00:21:26,480 mysterious and arcane social forces, or by the imperfect state of the world, or if in 206 00:21:26,480 --> 00:21:33,920 some way everyone was responsible, we are all murderers, proclaims one slogan. Then there 207 00:21:33,920 --> 00:21:39,560 is no point to the people becoming indignant or rising up against such misdeeds. 208 00:21:39,560 --> 00:21:46,800 Furthermore, an attack on conspiracy theories means that the subjects will become more gullible 209 00:21:46,800 --> 00:21:53,320 in believing the general welfare reasons that are always put forth by the state for engaging 210 00:21:53,320 --> 00:22:00,480 in any of its despotic actions. A conspiracy theory can unsettle the system by causing 211 00:22:00,480 --> 00:22:06,440 the public to doubt the state's ideological propaganda. Another tried and true method 212 00:22:06,440 --> 00:22:12,200 for bending subjects to the state's will is inducing guilt. Any increase in private 213 00:22:12,200 --> 00:22:20,480 well-being can be attacked as unconscionable greed, materialism, or excessive affluence. 214 00:22:20,480 --> 00:22:26,960 Profit-making can be attacked as exploitative and usury, mutually beneficial exchanges denounced 215 00:22:26,960 --> 00:22:34,120 as selfishness, and somehow, with the conclusion always being drawn, that more resources should 216 00:22:34,120 --> 00:22:40,680 be siphoned from the private to the public sector. The induced guilt makes the public 217 00:22:40,680 --> 00:22:48,320 more ready to do just that. For while individual persons tend to indulge in selfish greed, the 218 00:22:48,320 --> 00:22:55,280 failure of the state's rulers to engage in exchanges is supposed to signify their devotion 219 00:22:55,280 --> 00:23:02,480 to higher and nobler causes, parasitic predation being apparently moral and aesthetically lofty 220 00:23:02,480 --> 00:23:08,640 as compared to peaceful and productive work. In the present more secular age, the divine 221 00:23:08,640 --> 00:23:15,400 right of the state has been supplemented by the invocation of a new god, science. State 222 00:23:15,400 --> 00:23:23,040 rule is now proclaimed as being ultra-scientific, as constituting planning by experts. But while 223 00:23:23,040 --> 00:23:29,240 reason is invoked more than in previous centuries, this is not the true reason of the individual 224 00:23:29,240 --> 00:23:35,560 and his exercise of free will. It is still collectivist and determinist, still implying 225 00:23:35,560 --> 00:23:41,920 holistic aggregates and coercive manipulation of passive subjects by their rulers. 226 00:23:41,920 --> 00:23:46,800 The increasing use of scientific jargon has permitted the state's intellectuals to weave 227 00:23:46,800 --> 00:23:52,040 obscurantist apologia for the state rule that would have only been met with derision by 228 00:23:52,040 --> 00:23:58,240 the populace of a simpler age. A robber who justifies his theft by saying that he really 229 00:23:58,240 --> 00:24:05,480 helped his victims, by his spending giving a boost to retail trade, would find few converts. 230 00:24:05,480 --> 00:24:11,200 But when this theory is clothed in Keynesian equations and impressive references to the 231 00:24:11,200 --> 00:24:17,960 multiplier effect, it unfortunately carries more conviction, and so the assault on common 232 00:24:17,960 --> 00:24:23,680 sense proceeds, each age performing the task in its own ways. 233 00:24:23,680 --> 00:24:30,480 Thus, ideological support being vital to the state, it must unceasingly try to impress 234 00:24:30,480 --> 00:24:38,200 the public with its legitimacy to distinguish its activities from those of mere brigands. 235 00:24:38,200 --> 00:24:44,480 The unremitting determination of its assaults on common sense is no accident, for as Menkel 236 00:24:44,480 --> 00:24:50,920 vividly maintained, the average man, whatever his errors otherwise, at least sees clearly 237 00:24:50,920 --> 00:24:56,040 that the government is something lying outside him and outside the generality of his fellow 238 00:24:56,040 --> 00:25:02,680 men, that it is a separate, independent and hostile power, only partly under his control 239 00:25:02,680 --> 00:25:08,800 and capable of doing him great harm. Is it a fact of no significance that robbing the 240 00:25:08,800 --> 00:25:14,120 government is everywhere regarded as a crime of less magnitude than robbing an individual 241 00:25:14,120 --> 00:25:21,120 or even a corporation? What lies behind all this, I believe, is a deep sense of the fundamental 242 00:25:21,120 --> 00:25:27,640 antagonism between the government and the people it governs. It is apprehended not as 243 00:25:27,640 --> 00:25:33,160 a committee of citizens chosen to carry on a communal business of the whole population, 244 00:25:33,160 --> 00:25:38,200 but as a separate and autonomous corporation, mainly devoted to exploiting the population 245 00:25:38,200 --> 00:25:43,200 for the benefit of its own members. When a private citizen is robbed, a worthy 246 00:25:43,200 --> 00:25:48,600 man is deprived of the fruits of his industry and thrift. When the government is robbed, 247 00:25:48,600 --> 00:25:53,560 the worst that happens is that certain rogues and loafers may have less money to play with 248 00:25:53,560 --> 00:25:59,360 than they had before. The notion that they have earned that money is never entertained. 249 00:25:59,360 --> 00:26:11,880 To most sensible men, it would seem ludicrous. 250 00:26:11,880 --> 00:26:18,600 How the State Transcends Its Limits As Bertrand de Juvenel has sagesly pointed 251 00:26:18,600 --> 00:26:24,400 out, through the centuries men have formed concepts desired to check and limit the exercise 252 00:26:24,400 --> 00:26:31,480 of state rule, and, one after another, the state, using its intellectual allies, has 253 00:26:31,480 --> 00:26:36,680 been able to transform these concepts into intellectual rubber stamps of legitimacy and 254 00:26:36,680 --> 00:26:43,920 virtue to attach to its decrees and actions. Originally, in Western Europe, the concept 255 00:26:43,920 --> 00:26:49,800 of divine sovereignty held that the kings may rule only according to divine laws. The 256 00:26:49,800 --> 00:26:55,400 kings turned the concept into a rubber stamp of divine approval for any of the kings' 257 00:26:55,400 --> 00:26:59,440 actions. The concept of parliamentary democracy began 258 00:26:59,440 --> 00:27:05,560 as a popular check upon the absolute monarchical rule. It ended with parliament being the essential 259 00:27:05,560 --> 00:27:14,480 part of the state, and its every act totally sovereign. As de Juvenel concludes, 260 00:27:14,480 --> 00:27:20,720 Many writers on theories of sovereignty have worked out one of these restrictive devices, 261 00:27:20,720 --> 00:27:27,280 but in the end, every single such theory has, sooner or later, lost its original purpose, 262 00:27:27,280 --> 00:27:33,080 and come to act merely as a springboard to power, by providing it with the powerful aid 263 00:27:33,080 --> 00:27:39,000 of an invisible sovereign with whom it could in time successfully identify itself. 264 00:27:39,000 --> 00:27:44,960 Similarly, with more specific doctrines, the natural rights of the individual enshrined 265 00:27:44,960 --> 00:27:51,760 in John Locke and the Bill of Rights became a statist right to a job. Utilitarianism turned 266 00:27:51,760 --> 00:27:57,320 from arguments for liberty to arguments against resisting the state's invasions of liberty, 267 00:27:57,320 --> 00:28:00,720 etc. Certainly the most ambitious attempt to impose 268 00:28:00,720 --> 00:28:05,640 limits on the state has been the Bill of Rights and other restrictive parts of the American 269 00:28:05,640 --> 00:28:11,720 Constitution, in which written limits on government became the fundamental law to be interpreted 270 00:28:11,720 --> 00:28:18,120 by a judiciary supposedly independent of the other branches of government. All Americans 271 00:28:18,120 --> 00:28:22,800 are familiar with the process by which the construction of limits in the Constitution 272 00:28:22,800 --> 00:28:27,000 has been inexorably broadened over the last century. 273 00:28:27,000 --> 00:28:33,880 But few have been as keen as Professor Charles Black to see that the state has, in the process, 274 00:28:33,880 --> 00:28:40,280 largely transformed judicial review itself from a limiting device to yet another instrument 275 00:28:40,280 --> 00:28:45,280 for furnishing ideological legitimacy to the government's actions. 276 00:28:45,280 --> 00:28:51,040 For if a judicial decree of unconstitutional is a mighty check to government power, an 277 00:28:51,040 --> 00:28:57,840 implicit or explicit verdict of constitutional is a mighty weapon for fostering public acceptance 278 00:28:57,840 --> 00:29:03,920 of even greater government power. Professor Black begins his analysis by pointing out 279 00:29:03,920 --> 00:29:09,920 that the crucial necessity of legitimacy for any government to endure, this legitimation 280 00:29:09,920 --> 00:29:15,880 signifying basic majority acceptance of the government and its actions. Acceptance of 281 00:29:15,880 --> 00:29:21,560 legitimacy becomes a particular problem in a country such as the United States, where 282 00:29:21,560 --> 00:29:26,840 substantive limitations are built into the theory on which the government rests. 283 00:29:26,840 --> 00:29:31,560 What is needed, adds Black, is a means by which the government can assure the public 284 00:29:31,560 --> 00:29:37,520 that its increasing powers are indeed constitutional, and this, he concludes, has been the major 285 00:29:37,520 --> 00:29:44,640 historical function of judicial review. Let Black illustrate the problem. 286 00:29:44,640 --> 00:29:50,080 The supreme risk to the government is that of disaffection and a feeling of outrage widely 287 00:29:50,080 --> 00:29:54,800 disseminated throughout the population, and loss of moral authority by the government 288 00:29:54,800 --> 00:30:00,400 as such, however long it may be propped up by force or inertia or the lack of an appealing 289 00:30:00,400 --> 00:30:05,600 and immediately available alternative. Almost everybody living under a government of limited 290 00:30:05,600 --> 00:30:10,820 powers must sooner or later be subjected to some governmental action which, as a matter 291 00:30:10,820 --> 00:30:16,320 of private opinion, he regards as outside the power of government or positively forbidden 292 00:30:16,320 --> 00:30:21,120 to government. A man is drafted, though he finds nothing in the constitution about being 293 00:30:21,120 --> 00:30:26,600 drafted. A farmer is told how much wheat he can raise, he believes, and he discovers 294 00:30:26,600 --> 00:30:30,600 that some respectable lawyers believe with him that the government has no more right 295 00:30:30,600 --> 00:30:35,640 to tell him how much wheat he can grow than it has to tell his daughter whom she can marry. 296 00:30:35,640 --> 00:30:40,680 A man goes to the federal penitentiary for saying what he wants to, and he paces his 297 00:30:40,680 --> 00:30:47,200 cell reciting, Congress shall make no laws abridging the freedom of speech. A businessman 298 00:30:47,200 --> 00:30:52,440 is told what he can ask and must ask for buttermilk. 299 00:30:52,440 --> 00:30:57,820 The danger is real enough that each of these people, and who is not of their number, will 300 00:30:57,820 --> 00:31:03,920 confront the concept of government limitation with the reality, as he sees it, of the flagrant 301 00:31:03,920 --> 00:31:09,520 overstepping of actual limits, and draw the obvious conclusion as to the status of his 302 00:31:09,520 --> 00:31:15,640 government with respect to its legitimacy. This danger is averted by the states propounding 303 00:31:15,640 --> 00:31:21,560 the doctrine that one agency must have the ultimate decision on constitutionality, and 304 00:31:21,560 --> 00:31:28,480 that this agency, in the last analysis, must be part of the federal government. For while 305 00:31:28,480 --> 00:31:33,880 the seeming independence of the federal judiciary has played a vital part in making its actions 306 00:31:33,880 --> 00:31:41,280 a virtual, holy writ for the bulk of the people, it is also and ever true that the judiciary 307 00:31:41,280 --> 00:31:46,800 is part and parcel of the government apparatus and appointed by the executive and legislative 308 00:31:46,800 --> 00:31:52,760 branches. Black admits that this means the state has set itself up as a judge in its 309 00:31:52,760 --> 00:31:59,680 own cause, thus violating a basic judicial principle for aiming at just decisions. He 310 00:31:59,680 --> 00:32:07,360 brusically denies the possibility of any alternative. Black adds, the problem then is to devise 311 00:32:07,360 --> 00:32:13,080 such a governmental means of deciding as will, hopefully, reduce to a tolerable minimum the 312 00:32:13,080 --> 00:32:18,760 intensity of the objection that government is judge in its own cause. Having done this, 313 00:32:18,760 --> 00:32:24,020 you can only hope that this objection, though theoretically still tenable, will practically 314 00:32:24,020 --> 00:32:31,480 lose enough of its force that legitimating work of the deciding institution can win acceptance. 315 00:32:31,480 --> 00:32:36,480 In the last analysis, Black finds the achievement of justice and legitimacy from the state's 316 00:32:36,480 --> 00:32:43,200 perpetual judging of its own cause as something of a miracle. Applying his thesis to the 317 00:32:43,200 --> 00:32:48,560 famous conflict between the Supreme Court and the New Deal, Professor Black keenly chides 318 00:32:48,560 --> 00:32:56,480 his fellow pro-New Deal colleagues for their short-sightedness in denouncing judicial obstruction. 319 00:32:56,480 --> 00:33:00,640 The standard version of the story of the New Deal in the court, though accurate in its 320 00:33:00,640 --> 00:33:07,200 way, displaces the emphasis. It concentrates on the difficulties. It almost forgets how 321 00:33:07,200 --> 00:33:12,040 the whole thing turned out. The upshot of the matter was, and this is what I like to 322 00:33:12,040 --> 00:33:17,960 emphasize, that after some twenty-four months of balking, the Supreme Court, without a single 323 00:33:17,960 --> 00:33:23,120 change in the law of its composition or indeed in its actual manning, placed the affirmative 324 00:33:23,120 --> 00:33:30,760 stamp of legitimacy on the New Deal and on the whole new conception of government in America. 325 00:33:30,760 --> 00:33:36,840 In this way, the Supreme Court was able to put the quietest on the large body of Americans, 326 00:33:36,840 --> 00:33:42,840 who had had strong constitutional objections to the New Deal. Of course, not everyone was 327 00:33:42,840 --> 00:33:48,920 satisfied. The Bonnie Prince Charlie of constitutionally commanded Lausée Faire still stirs the hearts 328 00:33:48,920 --> 00:33:55,120 of a few zealots in the highlands of Kholric on reality. But there is no longer any significant 329 00:33:55,120 --> 00:34:01,240 or dangerous public doubt as to the constitutional power of Congress to deal as it does with 330 00:34:01,240 --> 00:34:07,680 the national economy. We had no means other than the Supreme Court for imparting legitimacy 331 00:34:07,680 --> 00:34:14,680 to the New Deal. As Black recognizes, one major political theorist who recognized, and 332 00:34:14,680 --> 00:34:19,560 largely in advance, the glaring loophole in a constitutional limit on government of placing 333 00:34:19,560 --> 00:34:25,840 the ultimate interpreting power in the Supreme Court, was John C. Calhoun. Calhoun was not 334 00:34:25,840 --> 00:34:31,720 content with the miracle, but instead proceeded to a profound analysis of the constitutional 335 00:34:31,720 --> 00:34:39,320 problem. In his Disquisition, Calhoun demonstrated that the inherent tendency of the state to 336 00:34:39,320 --> 00:34:45,520 break through the limits of such a constitution. A written constitution certainly has many 337 00:34:45,520 --> 00:34:51,360 considerable advantages, but it is a great mistake to suppose that the mere insertion 338 00:34:51,360 --> 00:34:55,960 of provisions to restrict and limit the power of the government, without investing those 339 00:34:55,960 --> 00:35:01,200 for whose protection they are inserted with the means of enforcing their observance, will 340 00:35:01,200 --> 00:35:07,080 be sufficient to prevent the major and dominant party from abusing its powers. Being the party 341 00:35:07,080 --> 00:35:11,800 in possession of the government, they will, from the same constitution of man which makes 342 00:35:11,800 --> 00:35:17,760 government necessary to protect society, be in favor of the powers granted by the constitution 343 00:35:17,760 --> 00:35:23,240 and opposed to the restrictions intended to limit them. The minor or weaker party, on 344 00:35:23,240 --> 00:35:29,240 the contrary, would take the opposite direction and regard them, the restrictions, as essential 345 00:35:29,240 --> 00:35:33,760 to the protection against the dominant party. But where there are no means by which they 346 00:35:33,760 --> 00:35:38,720 could compel the major party to observe the restrictions, the only resort left to them 347 00:35:38,720 --> 00:35:45,080 would be a strict construction of the constitution. To this, the major party would oppose a liberal 348 00:35:45,080 --> 00:35:50,520 construction. It would be construction against construction, the one to contract and the other 349 00:35:50,520 --> 00:35:55,760 to enlarge the powers of the government to the utmost. But of what possible avail could 350 00:35:55,760 --> 00:36:00,040 the strict construction of the minor party be against the liberal construction of the 351 00:36:00,040 --> 00:36:04,920 major, when the one who would have all the power of the government to carry its construction 352 00:36:04,920 --> 00:36:10,800 into effect, and the other be deprived of all means of enforcing its construction? 353 00:36:10,800 --> 00:36:16,080 In a contest so unequal, the result would not be doubtful. The party in favor of the 354 00:36:16,080 --> 00:36:21,040 restrictions would be overpowered, the end of the contest would be the subversion of 355 00:36:21,040 --> 00:36:26,400 the constitution, the restrictions would ultimately be annulled, and the government be converted 356 00:36:26,400 --> 00:36:30,200 into one of unlimited powers. 357 00:36:30,200 --> 00:36:35,560 One of the few political scientists who appreciated Calhoun's analysis of the constitution was 358 00:36:35,560 --> 00:36:41,280 Professor J. Allen Smith. Smith noted that the constitution was designed with checks 359 00:36:41,280 --> 00:36:47,240 and balances to limit any one governmental power, and yet had then developed a supreme 360 00:36:47,240 --> 00:36:54,000 court with the monopoly of ultimate interpreting power. If the federal government was created 361 00:36:54,000 --> 00:36:59,280 to check invasions of individual liberty by the separate states, who was to check the 362 00:36:59,280 --> 00:37:01,680 federal power? 363 00:37:01,680 --> 00:37:07,360 Smith maintained that implicit in the check and balance idea of the constitution was a 364 00:37:07,360 --> 00:37:14,880 concomitant view that no one branch of government may be conceited the ultimate power of interpretation. 365 00:37:14,880 --> 00:37:19,360 It was assumed by the people that the new government could not be permitted to determine 366 00:37:19,360 --> 00:37:26,360 the limits of its own authority, since this would make it, and not the constitution, supreme. 367 00:37:26,360 --> 00:37:31,280 The solution advanced by Calhoun and seconded in this century by such writers as Smith, 368 00:37:31,280 --> 00:37:37,120 was of course the famous doctrine of the concurrent majority. If any substantial minority interest 369 00:37:37,120 --> 00:37:42,000 in the country, specifically a state government, believed that the federal government was exceeding 370 00:37:42,000 --> 00:37:46,280 its powers and encroaching on that minority, the minority would have the right to veto 371 00:37:46,280 --> 00:37:51,840 this exercise of power as unconstitutional. Applied to state governments, this theory 372 00:37:51,840 --> 00:37:58,840 implied the right of nullification of a federal law or ruling within a state's jurisdiction. 373 00:37:58,840 --> 00:38:03,840 In theory, the ensuing constitutional system would assure that the federal government check 374 00:38:03,840 --> 00:38:09,160 any state invasion of individual rights, while the states would check excessive federal power 375 00:38:09,160 --> 00:38:15,560 over the individual. And yet, while limitations would undoubtedly be more effective than at present, 376 00:38:15,560 --> 00:38:20,880 there are many difficulties and problems in the Calhoun solution. If indeed a subordinate 377 00:38:20,880 --> 00:38:25,440 interest should rightfully have a veto over matters concerning it, then why stop with 378 00:38:25,440 --> 00:38:30,880 the states? Why not place veto power in counties, cities, wards? 379 00:38:30,880 --> 00:38:38,440 Furthermore, interests are not only sectional, they are also occupational, social, etc. 380 00:38:38,440 --> 00:38:44,040 What of bakers or taxi drivers or any other occupation? Should they not be permitted 381 00:38:44,040 --> 00:38:50,600 a veto power over their own lives? This brings us to the important point that the nullification 382 00:38:50,600 --> 00:38:56,880 theory confines its checks to agencies of government itself. 383 00:38:56,880 --> 00:39:02,240 Let us not forget that the federal and state governments, and their respective branches, 384 00:39:02,240 --> 00:39:07,400 are still states, are still guided by their own state interests rather than the interests 385 00:39:07,400 --> 00:39:13,720 of the private citizens. What is to prevent the Calhoun system from working in reverse, 386 00:39:13,720 --> 00:39:19,040 with states tyrannizing over their citizens, and only vetoing the federal government when 387 00:39:19,040 --> 00:39:26,520 it tries to intervene to stop that state tyranny, or for states to acquiesce in federal tyranny? 388 00:39:26,520 --> 00:39:31,720 What is to prevent federal and state governments from forming mutually profitable alliances 389 00:39:31,720 --> 00:39:38,480 for the joint exploitation of the citizenry? And even if the private occupational groupings 390 00:39:38,480 --> 00:39:44,280 were to be given some form of functional representation in government, what is to prevent them from 391 00:39:44,280 --> 00:39:49,880 using the state to gain subsidies and other special privileges for themselves, or for 392 00:39:49,880 --> 00:39:55,560 imposing compulsory cartels on their own members? 393 00:39:55,560 --> 00:40:01,960 In short, Calhoun does not push his pathbreaking theory on concurrence far enough. He does 394 00:40:01,960 --> 00:40:08,560 not push it down to the individual himself. If the individual, after all, is the one whose 395 00:40:08,560 --> 00:40:14,280 rights are to be protected, then a consistent theory of concurrence would imply veto power 396 00:40:14,280 --> 00:40:21,240 by every individual. That is, some form of unanimity principle. 397 00:40:21,240 --> 00:40:27,440 When Calhoun wrote that it should be, impossible to put or keep it, the government, in action 398 00:40:27,440 --> 00:40:32,960 without the concurrent consent of all, he was perhaps unwittingly implying just such 399 00:40:32,960 --> 00:40:35,480 a conclusion. 400 00:40:35,480 --> 00:40:41,560 But such speculation begins to take us away from our subject. For down this path lie political 401 00:40:41,560 --> 00:40:46,000 systems which could hardly be called states at all. 402 00:40:46,000 --> 00:40:51,680 For one thing, just as the right of nullification for a state logically implies its right of 403 00:40:51,680 --> 00:40:58,440 secession, so a right of individual nullification would imply the right of any individual to 404 00:40:58,440 --> 00:41:05,880 secede from the state under which he lives. Thus, the state has invariably shown a striking 405 00:41:05,880 --> 00:41:12,880 talent for the expansion of its powers beyond any limits that might be opposed upon it. 406 00:41:12,880 --> 00:41:18,520 Since the state necessarily lives by the compulsory confiscation of private capital, and since 407 00:41:18,520 --> 00:41:24,080 its expansion necessarily involves ever greater incursions on private individuals and private 408 00:41:24,080 --> 00:41:32,000 enterprise, we must assert that the state is profoundly and inherently anti-capitalist. 409 00:41:32,000 --> 00:41:37,000 In a sense, our position is the reverse of the Marxist dictum that the state is the executive 410 00:41:37,000 --> 00:41:43,160 committee of the ruling class in the present day, supposedly the capitalists. Instead, the 411 00:41:43,160 --> 00:41:49,360 state, the organization of the political means, constitutes and is the source of the ruling 412 00:41:49,360 --> 00:41:57,440 class, rather ruling caste, and is in permanent opposition to genuinely private capital. We 413 00:41:57,440 --> 00:42:04,680 may therefore say with de Juvenel, only those who know nothing of any time but their own, 414 00:42:04,680 --> 00:42:10,120 who are completely in the dark as to the manner of powers behaving throughout thousands of 415 00:42:10,120 --> 00:42:17,840 years with regard to these proceedings, nationalization, the income tax, etc., as the fruit of a particular 416 00:42:17,840 --> 00:42:24,840 set of doctrines. They are, in fact, the normal manifestations of power, and differ not at 417 00:42:24,840 --> 00:42:31,480 all in their nature from Henry VIII's confiscation of the monasteries. The same principle is at 418 00:42:31,480 --> 00:42:38,000 work. The hunger for authority, the thirst for resources, and in all of these operations, 419 00:42:38,000 --> 00:42:43,160 the same characteristics are present, including the rapid elevation of the dividers of the 420 00:42:43,160 --> 00:42:48,760 spoils. Whether it is socialist or whether it is not, power must always be at war with 421 00:42:48,760 --> 00:42:54,760 the capitalist authorities and to spoil the capitalists of their accumulated wealth. In 422 00:42:54,760 --> 00:43:10,480 doing so, it obeys the law of its nature. What the State Fears 423 00:43:10,480 --> 00:43:15,320 What the state fears above all, of course, is any fundamental threat to its own power 424 00:43:15,320 --> 00:43:22,240 and its own existence. The death of a state can come about in two major ways. A. Through 425 00:43:22,240 --> 00:43:29,320 conquest by another state, or B. Through revolutionary overthrow by its own subjects, in short by 426 00:43:29,320 --> 00:43:36,320 war or revolution. War and revolution, as the two basic threats, invariably arouse in 427 00:43:36,320 --> 00:43:42,640 the state rulers their maximum efforts and maximum propaganda among the people. As stated 428 00:43:42,640 --> 00:43:48,480 above, any way must always be used to mobilize the people to come to the state's defense 429 00:43:48,480 --> 00:43:54,040 in the belief that they are defending themselves. The fallacy of the idea becomes evident when 430 00:43:54,040 --> 00:44:00,320 conscription is wielded against those who refuse to defend themselves and are, therefore, forced 431 00:44:00,320 --> 00:44:06,800 into joining the state's military band. Needless to add, no defense is permitted them against 432 00:44:06,800 --> 00:44:14,960 this act of their own state. In war, state power is pushed to its ultimate, 433 00:44:14,960 --> 00:44:21,400 and under the slogans of defense and emergency, it can impose a tyranny upon the public, such 434 00:44:21,400 --> 00:44:28,160 as might be openly resisted in time of peace. War thus provides many benefits to a state, 435 00:44:28,160 --> 00:44:33,560 and indeed every modern war has brought to the warring peoples a permanent legacy of 436 00:44:33,560 --> 00:44:41,240 increased state burdens upon a society. War, moreover, provides to a state tempting opportunities 437 00:44:41,240 --> 00:44:47,840 for conquest of land areas over which it may exercise its monopoly of force. Randolph 438 00:44:47,840 --> 00:44:54,280 Born was certainly correct when he wrote that, war is the health of the state, but to any 439 00:44:54,280 --> 00:45:01,320 particular state a war may spell either health or grave injury. We may test the hypothesis 440 00:45:01,320 --> 00:45:07,280 that the state is largely interested in protecting itself rather than its subjects by asking, 441 00:45:07,280 --> 00:45:13,400 which category of crimes does the state pursue and punish most intensely, those against 442 00:45:13,400 --> 00:45:20,200 private citizens or those against itself? The gravest crimes in the state's lexicon 443 00:45:20,200 --> 00:45:27,160 are almost invariably not invasions of private person or property, but dangers to its own 444 00:45:27,160 --> 00:45:33,400 contentment, for example treason, desertion of a soldier to the enemy, failure to register 445 00:45:33,400 --> 00:45:40,560 for the draft, subversion and subversive conspiracy, assassination of rulers and such economic crimes 446 00:45:40,560 --> 00:45:47,960 against the state as counterfeiting its money or evasion of income tax. Or compare the degree 447 00:45:47,960 --> 00:45:53,360 of zeal devoted to pursuing the man who assaults a policeman with the attention that the state 448 00:45:53,360 --> 00:45:59,800 pays to the assault of an ordinary citizen. Yet, curiously, the state's openly assigned 449 00:45:59,800 --> 00:46:06,400 priority to its own defense against the public strikes few people as inconsistent with its 450 00:46:06,400 --> 00:46:15,320 presumed raison d'etre. 451 00:46:15,320 --> 00:46:19,560 How States Relate to One Another 452 00:46:19,560 --> 00:46:24,560 Since the territorial area of the earth is divided among different states, interstate 453 00:46:24,560 --> 00:46:30,720 relations must occupy much of a state's time and energy. The natural tendency of a state 454 00:46:30,720 --> 00:46:37,440 is to expand its power, and externally such expansion takes place by conquest of a territorial 455 00:46:37,440 --> 00:46:45,200 area. Unless a territory is stateless or uninhabited, any such expansion involves an inherent conflict 456 00:46:45,200 --> 00:46:51,400 of interest between one set of states' rulers and another. Only one set of rulers can obtain 457 00:46:51,400 --> 00:46:58,440 a monopoly of coercion over any given territorial area at any one time. Complete power over 458 00:46:58,440 --> 00:47:07,160 a territory by state X can only be obtained by the expulsion of state Y. War, while risky, 459 00:47:07,160 --> 00:47:12,680 will be an ever-present tendency of states punctuated by periods of peace and by shifting 460 00:47:12,680 --> 00:47:18,560 alliances and coalitions between states. We have seen that the internal or domestic 461 00:47:18,560 --> 00:47:24,560 attempt to limit the state in the 17th through 19th centuries reached its most notable form 462 00:47:24,560 --> 00:47:31,400 in constitutionalism. Its external, or foreign affairs, counterpart was the development of 463 00:47:31,400 --> 00:47:38,920 international law, especially such forms as the law of war and the neutral rights. 464 00:47:38,920 --> 00:47:43,040 Parts of international law were originally purely private, growing out of the need of 465 00:47:43,040 --> 00:47:48,800 merchants and traders everywhere to protect their property and adjudicate disputes. Examples 466 00:47:48,800 --> 00:47:55,560 are Admiralty Law and the Law Merchant. But even the governmental rules emerged voluntarily 467 00:47:55,560 --> 00:48:01,880 and were not imposed by any international super-state. The object of the laws of war 468 00:48:01,880 --> 00:48:07,760 was to limit interstate destruction to the state apparatus itself, thereby preserving 469 00:48:07,760 --> 00:48:15,440 the innocent civilian public from the slaughter and devastation of war. 470 00:48:15,440 --> 00:48:20,600 The object of the development of neutral's rights was to preserve private civilian international 471 00:48:20,600 --> 00:48:26,960 commerce, even with enemy countries, from seizure by one of the warring parties. The 472 00:48:26,960 --> 00:48:32,560 overriding aim, then, was to limit the extent of any war, and particularly to limit its 473 00:48:32,560 --> 00:48:38,840 destructive impact on the private citizens of the neutral and even warring countries. 474 00:48:38,840 --> 00:48:45,400 The jurist F. J. P. Ville charmingly describes such civilized warfare as it briefly flourished 475 00:48:45,400 --> 00:48:48,320 in 15th century Italy. 476 00:48:48,320 --> 00:48:52,920 The rich burgers and merchants of medieval Italy were too busy making money and enjoying 477 00:48:52,920 --> 00:48:57,960 life to undertake the hardships and dangers of soldiering themselves, so they adopted 478 00:48:57,960 --> 00:49:03,520 the practice of hiring mercenaries to do their fighting for them, and, being thrifty, business-like 479 00:49:03,520 --> 00:49:08,880 folk, they dismissed their mercenaries immediately after their services could be dispensed with. 480 00:49:08,880 --> 00:49:14,720 Wars were, therefore, fought by armies hired for each campaign. For the first time, soldiering 481 00:49:14,720 --> 00:49:19,660 became a reasonable and comparatively harmless profession. The generals of that period maneuvered 482 00:49:19,660 --> 00:49:24,480 against each other, often with consummate skill, but when one had won the advantage, 483 00:49:24,480 --> 00:49:29,240 his opponent generally either retreated or surrendered. It was a recognized rule that 484 00:49:29,240 --> 00:49:34,000 a town could only be sacked if it offered resistance. Immunity could always be purchased 485 00:49:34,000 --> 00:49:36,280 by paying a ransom. 486 00:49:36,280 --> 00:49:42,240 As one natural consequence, no town ever resisted, it being obvious that a government too weak 487 00:49:42,240 --> 00:49:47,160 to defend its citizens had forfeited their allegiance. Civilians had little to fear from 488 00:49:47,160 --> 00:49:53,040 the dangers of war which were the concern only of professional soldiers. 489 00:49:53,040 --> 00:49:59,240 The well-nigh absolute separation of the private civilian from the state's wars in 18th century 490 00:49:59,240 --> 00:50:03,120 Europe is highlighted by Neff. 491 00:50:03,120 --> 00:50:08,800 Even postal communications were not successfully restricted for long in wartime. Letters circulated 492 00:50:08,800 --> 00:50:14,480 without censorship, with a freedom that astonishes the 20th century mind. The subjects of two 493 00:50:14,480 --> 00:50:20,360 warring nations talked to each other if they met, and when they could not meet, corresponded, 494 00:50:20,360 --> 00:50:26,520 not as enemies, but as friends. The modern notion hardly existed that subjects of any 495 00:50:26,520 --> 00:50:32,080 enemy country are partly accountable for the belligerent act of their rulers, nor had the 496 00:50:32,080 --> 00:50:37,880 warring rulers any firm disposition to stop communications with subjects of the enemy. 497 00:50:37,880 --> 00:50:43,000 The old inquisitorial practices of espionage in connection with religious worship and belief 498 00:50:43,000 --> 00:50:49,280 were disappearing, and no comparable inquisition in connection with political or economic communications 499 00:50:49,280 --> 00:50:55,400 was even contemplated. Passports were originally created to provide safe conduct in time of 500 00:50:55,400 --> 00:51:00,720 war. During most of the 18th century, its seldom occurred to Europeans to abandon their 501 00:51:00,720 --> 00:51:06,400 travels in a foreign country, which their own was fighting. 502 00:51:06,400 --> 00:51:12,160 And trade being increasingly recognized as beneficial to both parties, 18th century warfare 503 00:51:12,160 --> 00:51:18,160 also counterbalances a considerable amount of trading with the enemy. How far states 504 00:51:18,160 --> 00:51:24,360 have transcended rules of civilized warfare in this century needs no elaboration here. 505 00:51:24,360 --> 00:51:29,880 In the modern era of total war, combined with the technology of total destruction, the very 506 00:51:29,880 --> 00:51:36,760 idea of keeping war limited to the state apparatus seems even more quaint and obsolete than the 507 00:51:36,760 --> 00:51:42,160 original constitution of the United States. When states are not at war, agreements are 508 00:51:42,160 --> 00:51:48,000 often necessary to keep frictions at a minimum. One doctrine that has gained curiously wide 509 00:51:48,000 --> 00:51:53,520 influence is the alleged sanctity of treaties. This concept is treated as the counterpart 510 00:51:53,520 --> 00:51:58,960 of the sanctity of contract, but a treaty and a genuine contract have nothing in common. 511 00:51:58,960 --> 00:52:04,680 A contract transfers, in a precise manner, titles to private property. Since a government 512 00:52:04,680 --> 00:52:11,480 does not, in any proper sense, own its territorial area, any agreements that it concludes do 513 00:52:11,480 --> 00:52:17,960 not confer titles to property. If, for example, Mr. Jones sells or gives his land to Mr. Jones, 514 00:52:17,960 --> 00:52:23,840 Mr. Smith, Jones' heir cannot legitimately descend upon Smith's heir and claim the land 515 00:52:23,840 --> 00:52:30,480 as rightfully his. The property title has already been transferred. Old Jones' contract 516 00:52:30,480 --> 00:52:35,920 is automatically binding upon Young Jones. Because the former had already transferred 517 00:52:35,920 --> 00:52:42,200 the property, Young Jones, therefore, has no property claim. Young Jones can only claim 518 00:52:42,200 --> 00:52:47,520 that which he has inherited from Old Jones, and Old Jones can only bequeath property which 519 00:52:47,520 --> 00:52:55,160 he still owns. But if, at a certain date, the government of, say, Ruritania is coerced 520 00:52:55,160 --> 00:53:00,360 or even bribed by the government of Waldavia into giving up some of its territory, it is 521 00:53:00,360 --> 00:53:06,040 absurd to claim that the governments or inhabitants of the two countries are forever barred from 522 00:53:06,040 --> 00:53:11,760 a claim to reunification of Ruritania on the grounds of the sanctity of a treaty. Neither 523 00:53:11,760 --> 00:53:17,880 the people nor the land of Northwest Ruritania are owned by either of the two governments. 524 00:53:17,880 --> 00:53:23,280 As a corollary, one government can certainly not bind by the dead hand of the past a later 525 00:53:23,280 --> 00:53:28,520 government through treaty. A revolutionary government which overthrew the king of Ruritania 526 00:53:28,520 --> 00:53:34,120 could, similarly, hardly be called to account for the king's actions or debts, for a government 527 00:53:34,120 --> 00:53:47,080 is not, as is a child, a true heir to its predecessor's property. 528 00:53:47,080 --> 00:53:52,560 History as a race between state power and social power 529 00:53:52,560 --> 00:53:58,080 Just as the two basic and mutually exclusive interrelations between men are peaceful cooperation 530 00:53:58,080 --> 00:54:05,200 or coercive exploitation, production or predation, so the history of mankind, particularly its 531 00:54:05,200 --> 00:54:12,240 economic history, may be considered as a contest between these two principles. On the one hand, 532 00:54:12,240 --> 00:54:19,120 there is creative productivity, peaceful exchange and cooperation, on the other, coercive dictation 533 00:54:19,120 --> 00:54:26,800 and predation over those social relations. Albert J. Nock happily termed these contesting 534 00:54:26,800 --> 00:54:36,000 forces social power and state power. Social power is man's power over nature, 535 00:54:36,000 --> 00:54:41,280 his cooperative transformation of nature's resources and insight into nature's laws 536 00:54:41,280 --> 00:54:47,920 for the benefit of all participating individuals. Social power is the power over nature, the 537 00:54:47,920 --> 00:54:54,520 living standards achieved by men in mutual exchange. State power, as we have seen, is 538 00:54:54,520 --> 00:55:00,760 the coercive and parasitic seizure of this production, a draining of the fruits of society 539 00:55:00,760 --> 00:55:07,680 for the benefit of nonproductive, actually anti-productive, rulers. While social power 540 00:55:07,680 --> 00:55:15,440 is power over nature, state power is power over man. Through history, man's productive 541 00:55:15,440 --> 00:55:21,960 and creative forces have, time and time again, carved out new ways of transforming nature 542 00:55:21,960 --> 00:55:28,280 for man's benefit. These have been the times when social power has spurted ahead of state 543 00:55:28,280 --> 00:55:35,120 power and when the degree of state encroachment over society has considerably lessened. But 544 00:55:35,120 --> 00:55:41,840 always, after a greater or smaller time lag, the state has moved into these new areas to 545 00:55:41,840 --> 00:55:48,840 cripple and confiscate social power once more. If the 17th through 19th centuries were, in 546 00:55:48,840 --> 00:55:55,120 many countries of the West, times of accelerating social power and a corollary increase in freedom, 547 00:55:55,120 --> 00:56:02,000 peace and material welfare, the 20th century has been primarily an age in which state power 548 00:56:02,000 --> 00:56:12,440 has been catching up, with a consequent reversion to slavery, war and destruction. In this century, 549 00:56:12,440 --> 00:56:18,800 the human race faces, once again, the virulent reign of the state, of the state now armed 550 00:56:18,800 --> 00:56:24,960 with the fruits of man's creative powers confiscated and perverted to its own aims. 551 00:56:24,960 --> 00:56:29,840 The last few centuries were times when men tried to place constitutional and other limits 552 00:56:29,840 --> 00:56:37,040 on the state, only to find that such limits, as with all other attempts, have failed. Of 553 00:56:37,040 --> 00:56:41,640 all the numerous forms that governments have taken over the centuries, of all the concepts 554 00:56:41,640 --> 00:56:47,880 and institutions that have been tried, none has succeeded in keeping the state in check. 555 00:56:47,880 --> 00:56:54,640 The problem of the state is evidently as far from solution as ever. Perhaps new paths of 556 00:56:54,640 --> 00:57:01,040 inquiry must be explored if the successful, final solution of the state question is ever 557 00:57:01,040 --> 00:57:09,080 to be attained. 558 00:57:09,080 --> 00:57:15,400 And that's a wrap on this Bitcoin Out Loud episode of The Bitcoin Podcast. You can listen 559 00:57:15,400 --> 00:57:22,400 to all the episodes at bitcoinpodcast.net. They are available wherever you get your podcasts. 560 00:57:22,400 --> 00:57:28,960 You can find me on Noster by going to primal.net slash walker. If you want to follow The Bitcoin 561 00:57:28,960 --> 00:57:35,200 Podcast on Twitter, go to at titcoinpodcast and at walkeramerica. You can also find the 562 00:57:35,200 --> 00:57:42,480 video version of this and all the other shows at youtube.com slash at walkeramerica. 563 00:57:42,480 --> 00:57:49,560 Bitcoin is scarce. There will only ever be 21 million. But Bitcoin podcasts are abundant. 564 00:57:49,560 --> 00:57:56,680 So thank you for spending your scarce time to listen to another fucking Bitcoin podcast. 565 00:57:56,680 --> 00:58:07,240 Until next time, stay free.