It is election time in socialist India, and our excursion into the basic principles of “civil government” has already established the fact that something is very wrong with “government” throughout India; this, despite the fact that The State is quite strong.
But The State is just Laputa. It comes From On High. Note that it attempts to “represent” The Collective: The Nation. Wee The Sheeple.
And recall my defence of individualism, in which I had showed how we are all competing individuals in urban catallaxies, serving strangers and being served by strangers, and there is no “we” at all.
Our society is a failure today because the collectivist philosophy is wrong. We need to build local governments where we all matter as contributing individuals. Of course, these can all be run on auto-pilot if Principles are followed.
With arbitraryism, the absence of principles, the consequent entry of the government into areas it does not belong, and its inability to attend to any of its basic duties, coupled with a public treasury that is in disarray, all that The State can do is “firefighting.” Every day a new crisis occurs, every day a new legislation is passed, and another one proposed, and every day it is seen that nothing is working at the level of the City and Town.
Especially The Road.
And it is The Road that holds the key to a bright urban future, the spread of population, widespread settlements all organically linked to cities and their markets, and a betterment of life for both the urban as well as the rural populations.
Note how “rural development” has completely failed despite zillions being spent on it. It failed because it is based on wrong principles. Markets are urban. The winds of commerce must therefore blow from city to the village – and roads are crucial for this purpose.
So our greatest task as a people lies in establishing political arrangements to run our cities and towns, with our own resources. The first Principle at this foundational stage of civil government is Subsidiarity.
The Principle of Subsidiarity states that nothing should be asked of the local government that can be supplied by the people themselves, either as businessmen or charities. Even at this foundational stage, this Principle has huge implications for innumerable tasks that governments have taken on – from supplying money, to education, to healthcare, to ration shops for the poor.
The Principle of Subsidiarity, if strictly applied at the foundational stage of Civil Government – the level of the City or Town – will lead to a small government, one that will require a small public collection to administer. I believe this to be of vital importance: this is the Key to keeping government small and local – that is, “civil.”
Of course, there will be some things we all need but these local governments cannot provide – like, say, trans sub-continental highways and maglev railways – and for these higher levels of government will be required to solve these problems and provide these goods. But if the Principle of Subsidiarity is applied throughout the scheme of building a new civil government, then there will be very little for The State sitting in New Delhi to bother itself about, or bother us about.
Do not forget that in Switzerland, where they have direct democracy and 26 “cantons” that fly their own flags, and three languages, not many people know the name of their country’s president. Such polities are very good. There is no tyranny.
I will continue these discussions tomorrow.
In the meantime, on voting and elections, here is something Tavleen Singh wrote in her Sunday column entitled “Pity the poor Indian voter”:
The BJP manifesto comes as confirmation that it is not a party worth voting for. It is nothing more than a copy of the Congress Party without the royal family. And, with some ugly saffron accoutrements and a very old Leader. In the words of a friend in the Congress Party, “We may not look so good but we know that the BJP looks much worse than us.”
The Congress is happy with the competition it has allowed into this “socialist democracy.”
So Don’t vote. Think!
No comments:
Post a Comment