In this 2009 debate with 2004 Libertarian Party presidential candidate Michael Badnarik, Stefan Molyneux, an advocate of voluntaryism, made a statement that I find very worthy of further examination.
Namely, that the most free societies produce such prosperity that they become the most tyrannical. His argument is that immense political and economic freedom bring extraordinary economic prosperity, and the corresponding wealth generated is used to control government and use it as a tool for profit and a weapon against political enemies.
To be more precise, he argues not that the expansion in wealth is used to “control” government, but rather, that the expansion of wealth is aggressively appropriated by those in the state (or beholden to the state), in order to control *us*.
This concept is part of a larger theory he has, in which the state is characterized as a modern mechanized farm, and it’s citizens are the farm’s “livestock”. He observes that, to a point, the more liberty the animals are given, the more “productive” they are – and the more “productive” the “cattle”, the richer the farmer.
The whole idea is not a new one: those in power seek to exploit those not in power, for their own benefit. However, the comparison to farming is pretty ingenious, and understanding the historical development of statism as a kind of “modernization of farming techniques” helps to clarify the moral nature of our situation.
Begging the farmer for more grassland to graze on, is not the same thing as fighting for freedom…
[...] first wrote about Stefan Molyneux on July 29, 2010, here. Share this:FacebookDiggRedditTwitterLike this:LikeBe the first to like this [...]
The problem that these guys are trying to solve, whether they know it or not, is monetary policy. The power of credit is being monopolized. If any person or group of people are given the ability to borrow vastly more than they could ever repay by their abilities, in their lifetime, they will control the world. We indeed have a tyrannical world government. It uses its power to divide the masses into political factions who can easily be brought to war. They would use the term “economic freedom” referring to a system that is enslaving the masses. Freedom is slavery. Orwell tried to tell us. We can’t even communicate anymore.