Our Enemy The State

“This is a truism culled from the ages, that social power and political power are always in conflict, that the poverty of the one is the opulence of the other, that one thrives on predation, the other on production.” – The Rise and Fall of Society

“Give Us a King!”  These words rang out from the Israelites in the Old Testament book of I Samuel.  And despite being warned of the enormous price of their demand, they would not listen.  For unbeknownst to them, their shiny new King would come with a complementary yoke.  But this was never how life was meant to be.  It was meant to be lived.  Man began in a state of nature with full freedom and little else.  Through social contract or mutual agreement, man surrendered some of his liberty in exchange for security.  The tug-of-war that ensued has plagued the world ever since. 

Societies formed as the “result of human action, but not the execution of any human design”, said Scottish philosopher Adam Ferguson in 1767, a phrase later coined “spontaneous order”.  Simply put, this means that societies emerged voluntarily among people of common interests.  By mutual cooperation and individual initiative, each pursued their own ends, and mankind grew.  The level of success a society enjoyed was in direct proportion to the amount of freedom it retained.

In a market economy, there are two avenues for societal gain: production or plunder.  Production creates, plunder takes.  The market has no mechanism for force.  The sellers display their wares, and buyers reveal their preferences.  Businesses succeed when consumers vote with their dollars for the goods and services they need.  The larger the reach of the marketplace, the greater the competition and wealth of society. 

The State, on the other hand, contributes nothing towards the economic gain of society.  It acquires its power by theft through taxation, with the State growing in direct proportion to the taxes it collects.  As a result, much-needed capital is taken from investors and given to politicians.  Here, government largesse goes to the highest bidder.  When the State is not collecting taxes, it is intervening in the normal flow of business through quotas, wage-fixing, limits, regulations, and other restrictions.  Ironically, the State itself pays no taxes and has no competition.  As the State grows, society is diminished. 

In Frank Chodorov’s classic 1959 book, “The Rise and Fall of Society”, Chodorov illustrates how the rise and fall of culture correlate to the rise and fall of society.  Critical to the success of a society is the character of its people, and its ability to resist the State’s encroachment.  By examining the differences that exist between the Society and the State, Chodorov reveals the problems that arise when too much power is shifted from the former to the latter.   Chodorov ends his treatise by recommending the steps needed to find our way back. 

The city of Rome grew to enormous heights in its first 500 years as a republic, when personal initiative, free enterprise, respect for private property, and limited government were recognized.  These characteristics produced unknown wealth and prosperity.  But as time went by, the people became careless.  More and more of its citizens turned to the government for benefits and relief.  As the state grew, the moral character that drove individual enterprise was abandoned.  Excess government control resulted in a loss of production, a loss of liberty, and eventually society as they knew it.  Once civilization is lost, it cannot be saved.  The question is, are we Rome yet? 

To address government overreach in the United States, Chodorov argued that the best defense is a return to states’ rights, with decentralization of power, and competition between the states.  When edicts come down from the federal level, there is no place for the citizens to escape.  When states overstep their bounds, people can vote with their feet and leave.  Taxation is the most destructive tool in the State’s quiver.  “The power to tax is the power to destroy” asserted Chief Justice John Marshall in 1819, for it invites forays into every avenue in a citizen’s life; namely, income, property, and possessions. 

In hindsight, perhaps man should have heeded those early alarms.  As it is, governments now demand more from us than God ever did.