Politics is Not the Answer
but what is
I just got a piece up at American Thinker on “The Four Twits” and at the end I linked to one of the final chapters of my American Manifesto: “The Real Meaning of Society.” And I proposed a vision of our future society.
It must minimize the scope of force.
It must honor the space of the transcendental.
It must encourage human flourishing through voluntary social cooperation.
It must protect the vulnerable and the marginalized.
It must understand the range of normal human social diversity, from the ethnic enclave to the enthusiastic Christian to the creative artist to the communitarian to the visionary.
Now, the question for our liberal friends is: which of these bullet points can be achieved by politics and government?
I would argue that the only job of politics and government is to “minimize the scope of force.” But whatabout the “vulnerable and the marginalized?”
Well, I would say that the results are in. Government meddling with the vulnerable and marginalized Makes Things Worse: for the vulnerable and marginalized and also for ordinary people, because the way that rulers deal with the vulnerable and marginalized is to enlist them in their political army and use them as cats paws to maul their political opponents.
And the only thing that politics can do is beat up the enemy and dish out the goodies to the supporters. That is all. And yes, the net result of a century of the welfare state is that everyone, from the richest to the poorest, is focused on getting their bennies from government.
Instead, what we should be doing is giving everyone the space to pursue the transcendental, from ordinary religion to whacko cults to deep spiritual pondering.
We should be backing down from the welfare state so that everyone can get involved in a spectrum of organizations ranging from fraternal to sororal to mutual aid, where we help each other and help those that cannot help themselves.
In doing so, we will free the “vulnerable and the marginalized” from their slavery as the mascots and pets and soldiers of the ruling class.
It seemed like a good idea to pass labor laws and compulsory education laws back in the day. But the result of labor laws was to privilege some workers — such as in manufacturing, construction, and government — and leave other workers out in the cold. And then, in due time, the manufacturing workers priced themselves out of the market. The result of compulsory education is that middle-class students do OK, but underclass students still fail to achieve basic literacy and numeracy, despite a decade in gubmint schools.
It seems like a good idea to have gubmint pensions and health care and welfare, but all such programs degrade into simple bids for votes. What should pensions look like? Who knows, because the current system is cast in concrete. Health care? All the workers, from doctors to nurses to administrators, know that they have to own the politicians. And the consumers of health care just want it to be free. Welfare? Well, we know now, if we didn’t 50 years ago, that welfare basically abolishes marriage and family in the lower classes.
Is it possible to reform and convert the gubmint welfare state into a genuine welfare society where everyone pitches in and contributes individually and in groups to the welfare of society, politicians need not apply? Maybe, but then there is Chantrill’s Law, that
Government programs cannot work because you can never reform them.
But why?
Because the purpose of any government program is not to provide services, but to reward the voters for their vote. If you reform a gubmint program you are going to be taking away someone’s free stuff. And when you do that to people they get very angry.
Still, my belief — my faith — is that when the Commoners create the Next Regime they will want a lot less top-down supervision and a lot more ordinary people just going out and doing the right thing.