Earlier I noted the who and how of oppressive government, but not the how come. People need a narrative, and organizing principle, to rationalize they why of their actions.
National myths are popular, Virgil provided one for Rome and a particularly motley crew came up with the Teutonic master race idea of Nazi Germany. People need a why or a how come or a raison d’etre for their actions.
Domination of others is a pretty raw excuse, both sides need a cover story, something that allows them to feel good about what they are doing, the system in which they participate.
The modern state was ruthlessly efficient, and could expand and conquer far afield. These voyages and expeditions opened a strange, and to many, a terrifying world. Colonialism disrupted traditional free markets, and much suffering followed.
Malthus became convinced that modernization would lead to population outstripping food supply and wrote convincingly of his fears in the late 1700s. In time his theories would prove nonsense, but nonetheless a belief in overpopulation is a conditioned reflex worldwide today. There is no evidence of overpopulation, just a widespread premise that it exists.
Yes, there is famine and starvation, but never a shortage of food, merely a failure of government policy to properly distribute the food. In fact, any policy will inevitably have winners and losers, the obese poor in USA and the starving poor in Darfur. Either way, these are the losers in government policy. Free markets never treat people thus.
Given the modern state’s relationship to violence, government policies can become genocidal, as in Germany, Cambodia, Soviet Union, USA, etc. Starvation is policy failure, not market failure.
Given the putative problem of overpopulation outstripping supply, Darwin arrived at the theory of natural selection, and it fell to others to take it a step further to “survival of the fittest.“ One is not responsible for those who abuse their writings, but genocidal racists did depend on Darwin as their intellectual fountainhead. We are told overpopulation is kept in check by natural selection (survival of the fittest) but sometimes people like to hurry up the process. hence genocide. Here one of our best playwrights offers his ideas.
No where is it written as a premise in law that there is overpopulation, but everywhere people proceed as if this is a truth. Forbes Magazine relates that the primary concern of the Gates Foundation is overpopulation. Planned Parenthood gets a half billion a year in taxpayer support. You no doubt believe the world suffers from overpopulation. We are overwhelmed with conditioned reflex presuming overpopulation.
It is probably more widely held worldwide than any other belief system, when you calculate how many Christians believe it to be true. Both theories, overpopulation and natural selection, are core curriculum in any school at any level, and our society proceeds from these two premises in considering public policy. It is just the way things are.
I am doubtful of overpopulation hypothesis since I fly a lot and see most of the earth is uninhabited. It seems to me anyone experiencing “overpopulation” may remedy it rather easily for himself. Move. It is quality of life, and that is decided by the individual, in freedom, not be central planner. But the central planners use the threat of violence to keep people form exercising their human right to move.
But back to the problem, overpopulation, and the solution, natural selection. Much government policy worldwide is ordered to assisting natural selection.
Here is a series on Soviet experiments with population control, and indeed the advanced form in which man is transformed through the process.
Note how the National Socialists are widely reviled for targeting a racial group in entirety, whereas the Soviets get a pass since they did not. The Soviets picked on a class, not a race. We do this in the United States too. We have a system that defines the right people, and then advances them to the commanding heights. You find people of all races and creeds in top positions, but they all think alike. It is both self-selection and survivorship bias in action. Hold these views, move on up. One fundamental view is that the world suffers form overpopulation, and we can do something about it.
We have a wonderful construct in USA, wherein we have a truly classless society, acknowledged by one and all. Except the people in the commanding heights privately see themselves as a separate class. Politicians commonly exempt themselves from the laws they pass. Government workers are given exceptional benefits. There is a dividing line, and it is roughly along educational attainment. Community College and below are expendable and takes orders, BA is in doubt, but advanced degrees and above are the ruling class.
This all sounds so harsh, but look around you, the world is a very harsh place. How come? Because Arab terrorists hate our freedom? Because women do not have access to reproductive health care in some countries? Because of overpopulation?
No, it is harsh because of violence. The violence is fundamental to the modern state. The people who subscribe to the state employ violence to maintain their advantages. They rationalize their position by claiming there is a problem, and they claim they work within the scientific field of natural selection to solve the problem. You may never actually hear anyone speak in those terms, but it is what drives policy.
Think about the line of reasoning for our economic troubles: bank failures due to toxic assets from subprime (poor people) loans, and USA jobs going overseas to where overpopulation leads to cheap labor. Banks made bad loans because they knew they would be bailed out. USA sources overseas to escape govt regs on employees, to launder money and escape taxes. the masters made bad rules, and then they blame the poor for the bad results. Our economic problems are due to bad policy, not overpopulation.
Wealth is not money, but access to a range of goods and services. There are no government services people prefer to private services. Even the US Military top officers prefer to be protected by private contractors rather than their own soldiers. Anyone who can afford private goods and services prefers those. And the free market makes more, better, cheaper, faster more affordable to so many more.
Self employment is a process of personal transformation. Stepping aside form destructive nonsense is part of the process.
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