"Letgo of that Republic!' Gimme that...!"

"Letgo of that Republic!' Gimme that...!"

Part 14 of 22, from Exiting the Wizard's Circle of Economics

It wasn't long after Ben Franklin said that the Constitutional Convention had delivered:

"A Republic, madam, if you can keep it!"

, that some people began working to ensure that we would not be able to keep our republic, or the state of mind which makes one possible. That absence of mind is what the pro-regressive haters of wisdom (Misosophers) have been seeking after, and the fields of Education and Economics are what they saw as being the most effective avenues for loosening our grasp upon it, so as to separate us from what is real and true.

That alternative understanding is what John Dewey was describing and arguing for throughout his "Liberalism and Social Action" (and most everything else he wrote and 'taught'):

" Because the liberalism of the economists and the Benthamites was adapted to contemporary conditions in Great Britain, the influence of the liberalism of the school of Locke waned. By 1820 it was practically extinct. Its influence lasted much longer in the United States. "

, and he goes on to describe how through the efforts of Jeremy Bentham (Utilitarianism), J.S. Mill (Classical Liberalism), Comte (Positivism/Social Science), that slowly, progressively, changed:

"...Gradually a change came over the spirit and meaning of liberalism. It came surely, if gradually, to be disassociated from the laissez faire creed and to be associated with the use of governmental action for aid to those at economic disadvantage and for alleviation of their conditions. ..."

, and,

" Organized unity of action attended by consensus of beliefs will come about in the degree in which social control of economic forces is made the goal of liberal action. The greatest educational power, the greatest force in shaping the dispositions and attitudes of individuals, is the social medium in which they live. The medium that now lies closest to us is that of unified action for the inclusive end of a socialized economy."[emphasis mine]

, so that:

"The notion that organized social control of economic forces lies outside the historic path of liberalism shows that liberalism is still impeded by remnants of its earlier laissez faire phase, with its opposition of society and the individual. The thing which now dampens liberal ardor and paralyzes its efforts is the conception that liberty and development of individuality as ends exclude the use of organized social effort as means. Earlier liberalism regarded the separate and competing economic action of individuals as the means to social well-being as the end. We must reverse the perspective and see that socialized economy is the means of free individual development as the end."

What we who hope to keep our Republic need to understand, is that what lurks behind phrases such as: "... that socialized economy is the means...", are the ideas of Hume & Kant, which deliberately distance us from reality, through our own thoughts, thoughts which requires that any meaningful understanding of Individual Rights, must be evaded and denied at all costs, in order for it to be possible to urge that 'some' must be deprived of what is rightfully theirs. The results and purposes of such thoughts is nothing less than the means of weakening the good of all.

We need to understand that Liberalism (Liberty in practice) became the 'LINO' (Liberal in name only) of the modern Left, by dialectically paralyzing itself through its equivocating use of the 'greater good' in place of what is Good, that turned The Law into a means of depriving some of what is rightfully theirs as a sacrifice to the benefit of a partial 'all', which is in direct contradiction to the American understanding of individual rights, and as contradictions cannot exist, such unprincipled actions ensure only that the more consistently brutal will win out.

'Education', as led by the likes of John Dewey, was the person to person means, and 'Economics' as led by the likes of J.S. Mill, was the 'practical' means, of giving TURDS (The Umpires of Reasonable Discourse) the influence and authority to use governmental power to impose that 'change' which would progressively drain and undermine the moats and battlements of liberty that had been formed from our understanding of and respect for reality, individual rights, and the Rule of Law, so as to manage our lives 'for the greater good' (of the TURDS).

Similarly for the notion of 'individualism' when portrayed as a 'lone wolf' mindset (as advanced by both J.S. Mill and John Dewey), which is no more valid an alternative to, or in truth much different from, that of 'collectivism'. A coherent society can only be formed by multiple individuals consciously acting in concert with others, on the strength of what they've agreed to establish as the shared concepts, understanding, and recognition of what is real and true. That shared understanding is what makes it possible for them to form a system together, and is what makes living together in liberty possible, for all in that society.

It is important to recognize that a 'diversity' of antithetical principles, is far from being 'our strength', and is much closer to being a recipe for desolation and destruction. Likewise, society must recognize that tolerance should only be extended to those whose actions are tolerable - when those whose Common Sense has been so corrupted as to have made their behavior unfit to live in accordance with even a minimum of such expectations, they cannot and must not be tolerated. An is of behavior, must be recognized as leading to a justifiable ought.

At the risk of belaboring the point, Liberty by its very nature, cannot be whole or complete, until those common societal defenses are formed and maintained as the basis of accepted norms for its judicial system, which is entrusted to render justice in a manner that becomes durable across time, with reliable systems and rules for preserving and defending its people's lives, property, and rights, and resolving whatever disputes might arise over them, within laws that a civil society can prosper within. The effectiveness of those actions is limited by how well or poorly We The People observe and abide by what is real and true, while at the same time so long as they don't forcibly interfere in another's rightful choice or peace of mind, they remain at liberty to choose it.

No function can be legitimate - no matter what 'benefit' it promises - if it originates in the idea of taking actions that violate that liberty which is common to all - there can be no 'good' that can be served by that (or a 'right' to promote it without consequences).

Every additional feature added onto a society's form of government that might be prompted by conditions of either peril or prosperity in times of war or natural disaster, is and can only be legitimate so far as it passes that test, be it courts, legislators, police, military, school, etc. And no, the circumstances and actions required in legitimate emergencies, are not in conflict with a full and proper understanding of what is good for the individual and for the community, so long as that understanding is hierarchical and integrated, rather than the flattened spreadsheets of complicated and dis-integrated and mis-integrated lists that typify utilitarian positions and which are blind to both height, breadth, and depth of thought.

King of what goes unseen, is the question of how can those who know best, know best if they don't even know what you know about what's of value to you?! How do T.U.R.D.'s know better than you, your reasons for setting a price for your labor or product, or to decline what another is offering? 

And if they don't know your reasons, can they know any better the individual reasonings of those making up entire industries?

Can the words 'being certain' have any meaningful part in such goals, when 'certainty' is used to close off questions? And by what authority do they silence your right to set that price?

"Van? What do you mean by 'Silencing you'? Setting limits on 'fair wages & pricing' is not an issue of free speech!"

Oh really? When I say "It's not worth it to me to do X for that much", is that not expressing my judgement in words of what I've judged the value of an item presently is within the context of my life and interests? What is meaningfully changed by expressing that in an abbreviated form with a $ attached to it, so as to communicate the value it might have to you?

Your decision to set a price, is not only your statement of what in your judgment is a fitting value for a product or service, it's also an invitation to others to join in a discussion with you in order to come to an agreement over it. That mutual freedom of thought and action - liberty - is cancelled when you are both forbidden from doing so (see everything from 'minimum wage laws', to limits on stock trades).

How is forbidding you to give and defend your legitimate judgement, not silencing you? In forcing you to conform to the judgement of another - a bureaucrat or regulator no less - can be nothing but the deepest afront to Franklin's "This sacred Privilege is so essential to free Governments, that the Security of Property, and the Freedom of Speech always go together;"?!

The only answers that 'Economics' can offer, are necessarily utilitarian, and at best come down to 'Letting people do what tends to lead to productivity', which unavoidably comes down to ignoring or rejecting that revolutionary understanding which had formed our Founders' understanding of property, liberty, and the Rule of Law. Those concepts which were fundamental to their understanding of how our system would serve the 'Common Good', are being reverted back to the earlier seedy assertions of 'state craft', by disregarding the understanding of Political Economy that Jean Baptiste Say, and Frederich Bastiat (deTocqueville had some fine observations as well) had clarified.

The 'economic thinking' that blithely advocates for the social and governmental power to nudge, impose, force, every individual's actions to comply with what 'experts' have decided from the ignorance of a distance that's blind to what you can see firsthand, is of value, and insist instead that you should do [... Should...?] as they say, in regards to what is of concern to you in your life, is a thoroughly revisionist conception (and corruption) of the 'common good'/'greater good'. I identify that as being Pro-Regressive, as it necessarily entails a process of eliminating the unity of virtue, morality, ethics, and recognition and respect for reality, individual rights, and property, from consideration, so as to reduce matters to a transaction of quantities of usefulness as assessed by those TURDS in power.

To that, and to all other such acts of barbarity, I'm personally a hard 'Hell No!' on. And of course what makes that important, and why it's deliberately left unseen by 'economic thinkers', cannot be explained under the label of 'Economics'.

What is obviously seen in a moral, ethical, and judicial understanding, remains unseen to the economically minded, in that no systems - political, economic, or otherwise - can have a 'liberty' to deny the liberty of an individual who has not (criminally) violated the liberties of others, and no amount of calculated usefulness or efficiency or other diversions into complexity worship, can justify such unjust activities - and yet that is what is implicit in every aspect of 'economic thinking'.