On Putting Out Fires

Lalgarh is on fire. So the ToI edit instructs our The State to “put out the fire.”

I saw the police station on tv last night: the gates are closed and it is locked from inside. They say no policeman has ventured out in two weeks.

Actually, vast swathes of the country are “on fire.”

In all these areas, armed force has been used to “put out the fire” – but the human spirit to fight oppression is invincible. This is a historical fact.

These fires have only burned brighter. More force has been used. The fires got even bigger. Force was increased further – and the fires are still alive.

Force and violence can never accomplish much. These are the weapons of the street bully. These tactics have nothing to do with “political leadership”: but, as the same editorial says, these have been the tactics of the CPM and its “cadres.” This is immoral “politics.” Indeed, it is the polar opposite of “politics” rightly understood, which must always have a strong moral content. Recall Ludwig von Mises on “might.” Might is never Force.

The most effective way to put out all these fires raging in India, in Pakistan and Afghanistan, in parts of Africa, and elsewhere, is to encourage everyone to seek survival in The Market. That is where the Natural Order comes from, where “friendly strangers” interact, and where all can gain without hurting anyone. I would argue for free trade, free markets and economic freedom.

There is a likely story on this approach in Philip Mason’s The Men Who Ruled India, about a British district officer in the early days of Company rule, in Bengal, in whose territory there existed two tribes in a state of constant warfare. Peace ultimately prevailed when both tribes were invited to the main market – to abandon plunder and pillage, to begin a life of peaceful exchange. The book contains many such stories of British political officers in the wild frontiers of the NWFP – all Taliban area today. Even then, radical Muslims existed, and created trouble. But The Market brought about peace. The fires were put out.

Sadly enough, there is no “political party” in India to carry this message to the people. Without liberalism there can never be “liberal democracy.”

In our “socialist democracy” the only message is:

The State will give you employment, rice, education, healthcare, housing and so on.

This politicises society. This creates factions who vie for the goodies. The Natural Order is disrupted.

Thus, our The State can never put out these fires.

And this time, in Lalgarh, as in Khejuri and Nandigram, it looks like the bully has been put firmly in his place.