Planning against despotism

 

Legitimate planning

All law is planned, but not all planning is law-full. Furthermore, it is well known that the rule of law facilitates planning that is more organic [ie. less partial and specific] and thus more consistent with liberty and justice for all:

"Formal rules intended for such long periods that it is impossible to know whether they will assist particular people [or tend] toward the satisfaction of particular needs ... could almost be described as a kind of instrument of production, helping people to predict." - Hayek, The Road to Serfdom, Chap 6 Planning and the Rule of Law

Mises was even more specific about the objective for legitimate planning in the form of law:

"The ultimate end that men aim at by establishing government is to make possible the operation of a definite system of social cooperation under the principle of the division of labor." - Mises, Liberty and Property

Externalities

The problem with all finite planning [ie. by creatures as opposed to the Creator] is that it is non-comprehensive: there are always externalities for which it did not account:

But Mousie, thou art no thy-lane, [not alone]
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men
          Gang aft agley, [go oft awry]
An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
          For promis’d joy! ― Robert Burns, To a Mouse

Subversion & perversion

However, the biggest problem with legitimate planning is perversion which ALWAYS takes the form of attempts to fine-tune results thru non-organic [ie. increasingly partial and specific] short-term interventions via the intentional and partisan/divisive subversion of the collective power to plan. The perversion inevitably begins gradually and temporarily but gains both speed and standing as it proceeds until the planners replace the plan. As Bastiat observed, this subversion can result from either evil or ignorance but the result is always the same: despotism.

"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

Planning against despotism

So the challenge for legitimate planning is how to restrain the forces of despotism. And the twofold answer is ALWAYS the same:

1. use COMMON SENSE to publicly expose growing despotism and
2. use COMMON RESISTANCE to subject the subverted power to its proper limits under law.

Any other course of action will only substitute one despot for another without regaining the benefits of legitimate planning.

Hussman's common sense !!

In Fabricated Fairy Tales and Section 2A, John Hussman has used common sense to expose the Federal Reserve's growing despotism by

• invalidating its perverted use of the Phillips Curve [employment v inflation] as a policy justification for its increasingly dangerous interventions and
• clearly restating then thoughtfully explaining the import of the Fed's 2A charter from which it has patently, illegally and disastrously departed.

Our common resistance ??

All that remains is for reasonable liberals to

• put aside their pride,
• gather behind Hussman's irrefutable arguments and
• join together to RESIST THE GROWING DESPOTISM by calling for a public trial of the Fed and its patently illogical and unlawful actions.

What say ye?

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Planning against despotism