Dear Friends,
It seems to me, there are a myriad of reasons to increase the power, scope, and role of the State… and all of them are spurious. The arguments sound logical but are in fact circular and meant to manipulate us into self-harm. Evil grows from an imbalance of power. Those who would subject us to the rule of Dionysus, claim they will level all imbalances of power. Well, all but their own. Creating an absolute imbalance of power that must lead to greater evil than the evil it was supposed to stop. Just as the Federal Reserve has created more and deeper recessions, the education department has gutted American education, and the energy department drove up the cost of energy. The solution to all problems according to those that fail is always… more power to them and less for us.
Government exists to level imbalances of power between States. A city state that has marshaled its people into an army has created an imbalance of power that it seeks to exploit, by invading another city state. Other “states” then must exist to limit that imbalance of power. Those rulers who would make war then follow Goering’s advice, ‘Convince the people they are under attack and vilify the peacemakers as unpatriotic.’ Stirring the citizenry into a war frenzy, so their children will gladly lay down their lives, allowing a despot to tyrannize their families. That pattern is as clear as stripes. It repeats across time, geography, and ideology. The elite argue they need an army to outmatch any others or else the people are at risk from other states. Then use that army to invade other states.
The socialist faction exists to level the imbalance of power between the worker and the business owner. Their reason for being is to elevate the power of the worker above that of the owner. They argue if not for them, the worker would face ever-growing deprivation until the workers are used up and tossed out like slaves in Arabia. Yet, not one socialist movement has ever elevated the workers for anything but a short time. In those short times, they have utterly destroyed entire classes of people, national economies, and waged wars of aggression to expand their leprous rule. The progressive faction is another central-planning ideology that promotes socialism by dribs and drabs. They created the education department, energy, USAID, agriculture, etc… all of which are total failures.
At the acme of the early Progressive Era, the central planners instituted the Federal Reserve… to address the imbalance of power between the banks and their depositors. It was sold as the end of recessions, bank runs, and inflation… it created the worst recession in human history, the worst bank runs ever known, while money printing has destroyed 92% of the dollar’s value. By any measure the Fed is a failure. It’s always behind the curve, lowering or raising interest rates too late, or to politically favor the progressive faction. As history shows that the Fed keeps interest rates low for Democrats and high for Republicans. The Fed did indeed address that imbalance of power between the depositor and the bank… in the bank’s favor. So they get bailed out when they fail and we pay the bill.
Despite State power always being sold as a way to limit imbalances of power, empowering an almighty state is the ultimate imbalance of power. So it can only result in evil. The Fed destroys the economy, Education destroys kids’ minds, Agriculture obliterates family farms, Energy drives up the cost of energy… in every way and by every measure State power fails to level imbalances of power. Instead State power only increases imbalances and the evil that comes from them. The answer then is to limit the power of the State. Don’t fall victim to Thrasymachus’ spurious arguments about how the State will balance imbalances of power. Because it doesn’t. It exacerbates them. The State partners up with the former abusers and empowers their abuses under color of law. So just say no to State power.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
