Establishing The Rule Of Law

The question I will seek to answer today is this: How do we move from our present socialist-fascist democratic goondacracy to the harmonious world of Natural Liberty Under Natural Law?

The answer to this lies in another question: Who will “govern” the land in such a Natural Order?

The answer: No one. Only The Law will govern. It will be “an Empire of Laws and not of men.”

Which raises yet another question: How will The Law be established?

It is here that Politics comes in. But what is Politics? Is it what we see today, when goon squads and criminal tribes ask for our votes? Or is it something higher, something moral and civilized, something so sublime that Aristotle was prompted to write a book on it?

Aristotle called Politics the “master science.” The only alternative to Politics is civil war – which must be rejected. We must use the Master Science to arrive at the establishment of Natural Liberty Under Natural Law.

As Bernard Crick says in his penetrating analysis of the nature of political rule:

"The moral consensus of a free state is not something mysteriously prior to or above politics: it is the activity (the civilizing activity) of politics itself."

It is in this sentence that the answer to our first question is revealed. The purpose of politics is to establish this “moral consensus.” And what is a moral consensus if not The Law – which tells us what is forbidden?

Our task therefore is to engage in free politics aimed at establishing this moral consensus – on The Law. The aim: to establish a political community in which we feel a sense of belonging based on the common recognition of the same rules. As Hayek wrote, it is common rules agreed to by all that creates a sense of community. This leads to a successful political order.

Today, we are not a successful political order because the criminal tribes that masquerade as political parties do not recognize common rules. Over half the territory is under Naxalite control. There is secessionism in many parts. And terrorism too. Democracy has failed to establish a successful political order. There is widespread unrest; there is widespread discontent. The “politicians” are playing the proverbial fiddle while India burns. They are singing the same tired old songs. They have no new ideas; the have no vision of the future. They profess to no principles: theirs is just a clash of personalities. No “moral consensus” can arise from such politics, for all that is being aimed at are the loaves and fishes of office.

The task before us, those who believe in establishing the Rule of Law, is to garner public opinion on our side – and nothing more.

In the final analysis, it is opinion that governs.

Today, opinion is on the side of democracy. Yet, this is rapidly changing. An important article by a retired professor of IIM-A in Mint today argues for the so-called “negative vote”: the right of the voter to vote against all candidates. He calls for the right to cast a None of the Above Vote – or NOTA. It seems that even pillars of establishment thought are now waking up to the ugliness of reality. This is a very good sign.

Note that while I say we libertarians in India need to engage in Politics, I have not said that we need “political organization.” Our enemies possess political organization: they are all “machine politicians.”

Libertarians, on the other hand, can dispense with political organization. As in market exchanges, so too in Politics, there must be Individualism. We need thousands of Individuals to spread the virus of Natural Liberty Under Natural Law.

To begin with, the NOTA vote must be supported. Let us cast the NOTA vote en masse. Once we have done so, thereby undermining the legitimacy of our democracy, let us then, as Individuals, preach the alternative gospel – of Liberty Under Law, of the Inviolability of Property, of Natural Justice. This must become the New Public Opinion.

The rest will naturally follow.

Have faith.

We shall surely overcome someday.