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FROM BEHIND ENEMY LINES:A Conservative Libertarian Inside Academia
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NEW WORLD ORDER, UNITED NATIONS, ONE WORLD GOVERNMENT AND AMERICAN SOVERIGNTY
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Compiled and Summarized by
Dr. Jimmy T. (Gunny)LaBaume
Our Enemy, The State: A Study of Social Power vs. State Power and of The State in Colonial America by Albert Jay Nock. Available from the Mises Institute at www.mises.org
Chapter 2. The Origins of State and Class (Pages 45-61)
For as long as civilization has existed there have been two fundamentally different types of political organizations. We will see what they are and how they come about.
Thomas Paine (in Common Sense ) once said, ”government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.” He continues to explain that government originates in the “common understanding and common agreement of society,” and “the design and end of government is freedom and security.” Government does not go beyond that. It makes no positive intervention in the lives of its citizens—only negative.
The State system is different. The primitive State originated in conquest and confiscation. Its primary purpose was the economic exploitation of one class by another. It accomplished this by positive intervention intended to stratify society into an owning-exploiting class and a propertyless dependent class. Its interest was not social, but anti-social. Its administrators were indistinguishable from a professional criminal class.
There are two distinct types of political organization. When we include both under the general term “government” we get into logical problems. To elaborate:
Paine's theory is consistent with the Declaration of Independence. The doctrine of natural rights, the foundation of the Declaration, is implicit in Common Sense. All civil rights are founded on, and proceed from, natural rights.
This type of “government” is different from the type that has prevailed throughout history. Consequently, the two types should be distinguished by name because drawing a distinction between them is “the most important duty that civilization owes to its own safety.” Hence we will call the one described in the Declaration “government” and the second type, the State.
Conquest and Confiscation
The historical method applied to the State provides positive evidence that the State invariably had its origin in conquest and confiscation. No primitive State originated in any other way nor could it possibly have had any other origin. Economic exploitation of one class by another is the sole invariable characteristic of the State. It has no other purpose.
The primitive method of establishing the State was for a stronger group to raid a weaker one, confiscate their possessions and either exterminate or disperse them. However, it was soon discovered to be more profitable to reduce the conquered to dependence and the primitive method was appropriately modified. It should be noted, however, that where the modified method was impractical or unprofitable, the primitive technique was reverted to—for example, by the Spaniards in South America and by the uS against the Indians. But these are exceptions. The modified technique has been in use from the beginning. (At this point Nock provides an exhaustive list of historical examples [Page 51]).
The modified technique was used everywhere with but one exception. Whenever economic exploitation is impractical or unprofitable, the State has never come into existence. Government has existed, but the State never has. The American hunting tribes provide an historical example. Although they did have systems of governance, they never formed a State. There is simply “no way to reduce a hunter to economic dependence and make him hunt for you.” The only way to reduce the hunter to subservience is by preemption of the land under the State-system of tenure. For occupational reasons this is simply not worth it for hunting tribes.
So, the difference between government, as described in the Declaration of Independence, and the institution of the State is easy to see. Government secures natural rights to the individual by negative intervention. It makes justice costless and easy to access. It does not go beyond that.
The State, on the other hand, is not based on natural rights. The individual has no rights except those that the State grants him. Justice is costly and difficult to access. The State holds itself above justice and common morality. It has, as Madison predicted, “turned every contingency into a resource for depleting social power and enhancing State power.” Sigmund Freud observed that the State has never shown any disposition to suppress crime. Its only disposition is to safeguard its own monopoly of crime.” Anywhere in history where one finds a State there is no way to “differentiate the activities of its founders, administrators and beneficiaries from those of a professional criminal class.”
Converting Social Power into State Power
Such are the antecedents of the modern institution which is so rapidly converting social power into State power. This understanding is a great help in explaining the inconsistent behavior of the State. For example, the State always moves slowly towards any purpose that benefits society. In contrast, it always moves rapidly towards one that is to its own advantage. Furthermore, the State does not move towards social purposes on its own initiative. It must be pressured heavily. By contrast, movement towards anti-social purposes automatically spring from within itself.
Spencer summed it up when he said that State power applied to social purposes is “slow, stupid, extravagant, un-adaptive, corrupt and obstructive.” Furthermore, the State does not fulfill even its basic duty to society—to adjudge and defend the individual's basic rights. ”Had we…proved its efficiency as judge and defender, instead of having found it treacherous, cruel and anxiously to be shunned, there would be some encouragement to hope other benefits at its hands.”
Society indulges itself in this far fetched hope in spite of the daily evidence that it is an illusion. For example, pick up any newspaper and you will see contradictions. There will be a leading editorial “exposing the corruption, negligence or mismanagement” of some segment of the State. Then, in the next column, you will invariably read proposals for an extension of State supervision or interference.
This social behavior can be seen throughout history. It is what Spencer called “the perennial faith of mankind” in State action. This “gross delusion” is a result of the prestige which the State has built up for itself through propaganda and other instruments. One of these is unique to the republican State. Republicanism seduces the individual into persuading himself that the State is his creation. It is his action. It “expresses him, and when it is glorified he is glorified.” Naturally, the State encourages this line of thinking because it is such an efficient way to enhance its prestige. “ Lincoln 's phrase, ‘of the people, by the people, for the people' was probably the most effective single stroke of propaganda ever made in behalf of republican State prestige.”
The individual sees the failures of the State with “the eye of a parent.” He gives it the benefit of a special code of ethics. He expects the State to learn by its mistakes. He sees no reason why the State should not improve—with experience and responsibility.
Actually this is the basic assumption of collectivism—e.g. let the State extinguish social power and its character will change. It will merge with society. But, the application of a little logic reveals that this falls apart against the iron law of basic economics—“ man tends always to satisfy his needs and desires with the least possible exertion.”
Economic Means vs. Political Means
There are only two methods by which man can satisfy his needs and desires. One involves production and exchange—Nock labels it the “economic means.” The other is the uncompensated appropriation of wealth produced by others. This he calls the “political means.”
The primitive State's way of applying the political means was by conquest, confiscation, expropriation, and the introduction of slavery. The feudal State and the merchant-State took over what the primitive State bequeathed them and developed more sophisticated methods of exploitation. They are nothing more than higher integrations of the primitive State.
The State is the organization of the political means. Furthermore, man's first instinct is to employ the political means whenever possible. The expectation that collectivism would alter the essential character of the State is an illusion. It would be just like its predecessors. The only difference would be a shift the incidence of exploitation.
History supports Freud's comments on the disparity between State ethics and private ethics. It also provides the reasons for that disparity. It establishes that the depletion of social power by the State is just like a parasitic disease. It can not be stopped after it has progressed beyond a certain point. America is approaching that point at an accelerated rate. Furthermore, “there is no evidence of any disposition to retard it, or any intelligent apprehension of the danger.” (Again note that Nock was writing in the 1950s. Now, 55 years later, America is well beyond that point of no return.)
Copyright ©2004, FlyoverPress.com
Jimmy T. LaBaume, PhD, ChFC is a full professor teaching economics and statistics in the School of Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences, Sul Ross State University, Alpine, TX. He does not speak for Sul Ross State University. Sul Ross State University does not think for him.
Dr. LaBaume has lived in Mexico and spent extended periods of time in South and Central America as a researcher, consultant and educator.
“Gunny” LaBaume is a decorated veteran of the Vietnam War and Desert Storm. His Marine Corps career spanned some 35 years intermittently from 1962 until 1997 when he refused to re-enlist with less than 2 years to go to a good retirement. In his own words, he “simply got tired of being guilty of treason.”
He is also currently the publisher and managing editor of FlyoverPress.com, a daily e-source of news not seen or heard anywhere on the mainstream media. He can be reached at jlabaume@sulross.edu.
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