"How do you go bankrupt? Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.”
― Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises
"[FA Hayek argued that the] knowledge and intelligence necessary for society to thrive is decentralized throughout society, and comes to be embedded or instantiated within institutions and processes that gradually evolve from the free actions and choices of individuals ... The [COVID] lockdowns took a sledgehammer to these practices, processes and institutions. It replaced them nearly overnight with new bureaucratic and police-state-mandates ... And just like that [they] were crushed under the boot of the political class." ― Jeff Tucker, July 2020
Who'da thought?
Many folks who consider themselves to be diligent defenders and ardent advocates for the sociological benefits of individual freedom and personal responsibility are entirely enraged and spectacularly sputtering about what they believe is the sudden subversion of their precious liberties by "sledgehammer bureaucrats" in an "overnight" assault. But is the truth more along the lines of what Hemingway observed about bankruptcy ...???
the suddenness which surprises us has been preceded by the gradualness that laid the groundwork for logical [if unintended] and inevitable [if willfully unanticipated] deleterious consequences.
The real totalitarians ... the estatists
"This [movement to totalitarianism] is, of course, deliberately planned mainly by the capitalist organizers of monopolies, and they are thus one of the main sources of this danger. Their responsibility is not altered by the fact that their aim is not a totalitarian system but rather a sort of corporative society in which the organized industries would appear as semi-independent and self-governing "estates". But they are as shortsighted as were their [Nazi] German colleagues in believing that they will be allowed not only to create but also for any length of time to run such a system." ― FA Hayek, The Road to Serfdom, Chapter 13: "The Totalitarians in Our Midst" 1945
Damnation results from the pernicious fact that those who are responsible for their own plight are willfully ignorant of and blinded to their guilt ... preventing confession and repentance. The same economic journals that oppose the current loss of free markets to COVID totalitarianism, advocate for the "semi-independence" of central banking ... and do not even see [much less admit] their hypocrisy.
They claim they are not "statists"... which is true only because they [and their paid economic apologists] are so thoughtless ... without understanding or admitting that they are "estatists" ... which, as Hayek explains, is merely the starting point and a short stretch along the initially gradual then suddenly steep road to serfdom.
Hayek explains how the estatists organize themselves to use government to plunder society. The estatists [Bankers and Capitalists] profit immensely from this systematized impoverishment of others [Labor] ... until the others begin to fragment and organize into power groups [Organized Labor] that in turn learn to use government to plunder society ... even including those who were once their beloved comrades [Unorganized Labor, ie. immigrants and the poor].
And so, as Bastiat predicted, serial plundering, begun by the capitalist estatists, continues ...
"Men naturally rebel against the injustice of which they are victims. Thus, when plunder is organized by law for the profit of those who make the law, all the plundered classes try somehow to enter—by peaceful or revolutionary means—into the making of laws. According to their degree of enlightenment, these plundered classes may propose one of two entirely different purposes when they attempt to attain political power: Either they may wish to stop lawful plunder, or they may wish to share in it.
"Woe to the nation when this latter purpose prevails among the mass victims of lawful plunder when they, in turn, seize the power to make laws!
"Until that happens, the few practice lawful plunder upon the many, a common practice where the right to participate in the making of law is limited to a few persons. But then, participation in the making of law becomes universal. And then, men seek to balance their conflicting interests by universal plunder. Instead of rooting out the injustices found in society, they make these injustices general. As soon as the plundered classes gain political power, they establish a system of reprisals against other classes. They do not abolish legal plunder. (This objective would demand more enlightenment than they possess.) Instead, they emulate their evil predecessors by participating in this legal plunder, even though it is against their own interests.
"It is as if it were necessary, before a reign of justice appears, for everyone to suffer a cruel retribution—some for their evilness, and some for their lack of understanding."
― Bastiat, The Law
Surprise ... or karma ... or both ?
surprise - the feeling caused by something unexpected
karma - the spiritual principle of cause and effect where intent and actions of an individual influence the future of that individual
Is it, then, such a wonder that a majority of Americans actually favor another lockdown ... and the seemingly free and generous federal benefits that they assume will go with it ... without understanding what they are doing in the sociological long run?
Perhaps, all the plunderers ... from the capitalist estatists to organized labor to the eventually emboldened bureaucrats ... are simply ignorant ... I will let God judge their motives. But regardless, as Hayek points out, the result of their serial actions is the same ... increasing totalitarianism. And that this totalitarianism comes as such a surprise to some is only a measure of either their persistent ignorance or their pernicious hypocrisy.
"Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows." ― Gal 6:7
