There’s a phrase by Ludwig Von Mises I hold particularly dear:
The struggle for freedom is ultimately not resistance to autocrats or oligarchs but resistance to the despotism of public opinion
In the past I have often written how the biggest threat to freedom is not Big Business, the pro-Israeli Lobby, Fascists or Communists but the public. Yes, ordinary people on the streets.
When people talk about cutting or even just modifying the existing “Social Security” and “Medicaid” (I am using US jargon since most readers are from the US) systems I always end up saying: sure, it’s a brilliant idea. But have you asked the people? People want Social Security, want Medicaid, want a ton of “free stuff”, “free stuff” that somebody has to pay for.
Hayek wrote that all this “free stuff” is in the end but a bribe to be be paid to the most turbulent and less productive sectors of society to avoid troubles. The problem is once an occasional bribe becomes a regular tribute it is only bound to increase, to the point that it will become an unbearable burden to the people paying it to “avoid troubles”. And when, for a reason or another, this bribe doesn’t meet the expectations, troubles start.
All these protests were initiated by a proposal to raise age requirements for pensions by two years. And don’t think it’s just a Gallic thing: as budgets get tighter and running up large deficits become more problematic governments will be forced to cut benefits to everyone, including ordinary people. And ordinary people will take to the streets in protest. The reasoning is simple “I pay my taxes, so government owes me big time”. Gerald Celente has said that “French-style” protests could hit the US as early as 2012 as the Obama Administration will be forced to cut expenses. Cheating on numbers, cooking the books and inflating the currency aren’t going to work and in the end budget cuts will be the only way out.
The rest of Europe is looking uneasily to France. Every single government knows it will be forced to cut benefits, and cut them damn soon. But as German minister said during a meeting in 2002 “i don’t plan to be around when we will be forced to do it”.
“In the past I have often written how the biggest threat to freedom is not Big Business, the pro-Israeli Lobby, Fascists or Communists but the public. Yes, ordinary people on the streets.”
And who shapes the information the public gets, the news they see 24 hours a day?
“Big business”, special interest groups all via the state either directly or indirectly.
Who shapes their education? Public school - indoctrination for a decade plus.
10 years, say - 300 days a year. 3,000 days for 6 hours each day, not including home work.
18,000 hours. And that’s just to the end of middle school. Add another 8 years if they go to high school & college.
How can you really expect anyone to escape such mind numbing crap?
Alas, people never listen to facts. Never. We’re genetically wired to listen to 1)what we see to work and 2) those who’re higher than us on the social order.
Show them that anarchists are richer than others and they’ll shut up. A business run along Rothbardian lines is the only hope I see for the long-term success of liberal ideas. Reason will only convince a handful of us (basically us on this site).
But yes, i agree that Western Europe is in for a rough ride.
Merlin, I don’t think simply showing that anarchists, minarchists or whatever are better off would a tiny bit of good.
Most artisans, shop owners etc are already fighting the State as much as they can by trying to avoid being bled dry by various forms of legalized robbery. Are they better off than most? Perhaps. Are they admired? No. They are hated and despised for “overcharging”, “cheating on their taxes” and “being too greedy”. These people parading on the streets under red banners (seriously: what do they think this is? 1890?) really think that by bleeding these “leeches” dry they can be kept in bread and butter. Nevermind the cooked economical datas, nevermind the slight but steady decline in living standards, nevermind that 10% of Europe’s workforce is unemployed. All they care about is “free stuff”.