Examples Of "Natural Order"

If you read the newspapers today, you will get the impression that our country is on the boil: 27 central government police personnel have been murdered in Chattisgarh; and in Kashmir there is war on the streets yet again. What hope is there for "natural order" in such a dismal scenario? What we need is a military dictator, you might think.

So let me tell you about the oasis of peace where I have been living for 6 years now: Canacona, South Goa. Canacona is about 350 square kilometres in size, with a population of about 100,000. Yet for this entire area, there is just ONE police station. And for those who staff this police station, there is little or no work, because of the "natural order."

Chaudi is the only "town" in Canacona, 3 km from where I live. I drive there for most of my needs. The police station is not in Chaudi; rather, it is a few kilometres further south, closer to the Karnataka border. It is an imposing building on an elevation abutting the highway, NH 17. A friend went to this police station the other day to file a report about a lost share certificate. Here is what she had to say after that.

First, that nothing much was going on in the police station. The guy at the desk was busy reading the newspapers. There were lots of other policemen just sitting around. She got her work done pretty fast and then asked the policemen some questions on the law and order situation in Canacona. Here is what she was told.

According to the policemen, there in no crime in Canacona. When the tourists come in the season, there are petty thefts of laptops and mobile phones. Apart from that - nothing. Even drunken and disorderly behaviour is rare - although the bars open early every morning.

Actually, even Srinagar and our forested tribal heartlands were like this some decades back. Everyone holidayed in Srinagar. Indeed, Srinagar received more tourists than Goa. I remember driving into the "core area" of the Palamau National Park in 1982 - unarmed and unescorted. There were four of us, including two girls. On our way we were accosted by a herd of wild elephants, with their calves, and I had to "off-road" the jeep to reach the forest guest house where we were to stay. There, we found fresh pug marks of a tiger on the riverbank.

That night, after a simple dinner of dal and rice, we heard the jungle drums. The sound was mesmerizing. The drums sounded pretty close so we ventured out on foot to look for the party. We were scared of wild animals - but what we found were peaceful, hospitable tribal people, having a big party. We drank and danced with them.

Why have things turned so bad in these areas today? The answer to that must lie in the injustices committed on the peaceful people by our The State. In Srinagar, the men of the central police have shot dead another little boy. In Chattisgarh and Jharkhand the tribals HATE the police.

Socialism is a philosophy of Injustice, Corruption and Chaos. It is this philosophy that has to be unceremoniously junked in favour of Free Markets and Private Property. And Liberty Under Law. Only then will the "natural order" be revived.

On Bastiat... And Natural Order

Today, June 30th, is the 209th birth anniversary of Frederic Bastiat, arguably the greatest economic journalist that ever lived. His writings continue to enthrall us today. I have compiled a collection of his essays that I recommend to all citizens - for Bastiat wrote for the common man, the man on the street. This collection can be downloaded for free here. The first essay is "To the Youth." The second essay contrasts the "natural order" of Liberty with the "artificial order" of State controls. The collection also includes his famous "The Law" - a powerful defence of Private Property, which concludes with these words:

"And now that the legislators and do-gooders have so futilely inflicted so many systems upon society, may they finally end where they should have begun: May they reject all systems, and try liberty; for liberty is an acknowledgment of faith in God and His works."

Bastiat was a devout Catholic, and his belief in Liberty was a fundamental part of his religious outlook. To him, the "invisible hand" was the hand of God. "To believe in Liberty is to have faith in God, and in His greatest creation, Man," he said.

Bastiat was certainly no worshipper of The State. In a short, humourous essay on this Beast - also included in the above collection - he defined The State thus:

The State is that grand fiction by which everyone tries to live at the expense of everyone else.

Think deep about this: What do the personnel of our The State do in the sense of "work"? What does Manmohan do? Or Rahul Gandhi? What are their various schemes to help the poor but schemes by which millions are encouraged to live off others? Obviously, if we abolish this The State and revert to the "natural order" then everyone will have to "produce" and "exchange" in order to survive. They would all have to "serve the people" - viz., their customers.

Thus, "consumer sovereignty" matters more to "social order" than the vote. If the idea is to see that all people are engaged in "good behaviour" then consumer sovereignty holds the key. With the vote all we get is The State - that "grand fiction by which everyone tries to live off everyone else."

Download and read my The Essential Frederic Bastiat by clicking here.

Long live the memory of Frederic Bastiat!

On Competition And Privatization

State-owned companies like Air India do not fold up when they make losses. Rather, their generous master, The State, always chips in, allowing them to continue in operation. This fact makes it impossible for efficient private players to "compete" with State-owned entities. The very presence of a State-owned company in the fray makes competition unfair. We must realize that our "mixed economy" is, in reality, a very "mixed-up economy." It is not a "middle path" between Socialism and Capitalism; rather, it is a very "muddled path."

In either case, if there are private citizens running businesses in competition with each other, why should The State try to wreck the party? Is that a reasonable "role of State"?

Look at it any way you like, and the only way in which "fair competition" can prevail is if the State keeps out of business. How can a private school come up in a village if the State sets up a free government school? How can private universities compete with State-funded universities that charge very low fees because they are all heavily subsidized?

I started off with the purely economic case for total privatization, here. I then examined the legal, moral and ethical issues involved, here. With this post I sum up the entire argument: The State should be constitutionally kept out of business.

Onwards to that Second Republic!

On Ethics... And Privatization

They say "possession is nine-tenths of the law," but when it comes to India's public industrial sector, we must look into the balance one-tenth. The question in law is: How did the socialist State come to acquire the titles to these properties?

In the case of Air India, the coal mines, the banks and the insurance companies - in all these cases, these properties were acquired by the State through illegitimate force. That is, these properties were unjustly acquired and in the Second Republic these titles should not be recognized as legitimate. The best thing to do with these properties is to return them to their rightful owners. JRD Tata was a "pioneer aviator." Under him, Air India was one of the world's finest airlines. Let the Tatas take over the airline once again, and let us hope that its brand equity has not been damaged for ever. The same should apply to all "nationalized" entities: these property titles of the socialist State should not be recognized as legitimate, and the said properties should be restored to their rightful owners.

This brings to mind something James Madison wrote long ago:

"Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his possessions" -- James Madison in the National Gazette, March 27, 1792.

Let the Second Republic be based on the inviolability of Private Property. Let this principle be the foundation of the Rule of Law.

That said, there are scores of other properties the socialist State has acquired through purchase using tax revenues as well as "deficit financing" - what is better called "inflationary finance." All these properties too, it must be judged, were acquired through force and fraud. Inflationary finance is fraud. And using tax revenues to build cycle, scooter and car factories in a country devoid of roads is but the diversion of public expenditure from public goods. It is a betrayal of the people's mandate.

Thus, on moral, legal and ethical grounds - quite apart from the strictly economic argument which I presented here - the entire socialist State-owned industrial sector should be privatized.

Long live the Second Indian Republic!

The Case For Total Privatization

Socialists and communists believe that private ownership of the means of production is harmful to society. Thus, Indira Gandhi nationalized vast swathes of the economy, including Air India. Till today, the government of India owns and operates a vast number of "public sector undertakings" (PSUs) - all of them making losses. They refuse to privatize. Indeed, the very word is never used in our public discourse.

The truth is that socialists and communists are dead wrong. Private ownership of the means of production is NOT exploitative of anyone. You can remain in ownership of these assets only so long as you satisfy consumers better than your rivals. If you fail, the ownership of these factories will immediately go to a better company. The real gainers are the consumers. It is their decisions to purchase or to abstain from purchasing that ultimately determine who will own the means of production. This ownership is a "public mandate." Workers gain too - because workers are the biggest group of consumers. Modern capitalism is mass production for mass consumption; and production for the masses means production to satisfy the needs of workers.

Now, look at public ownership of the means of production. Who gains from this and who loses? Who gains while Air India or the local electric company are publicly owned, and who loses? If this question is truthfully answered it will be seen that in all cases of public ownership of the means of production the only gainers are the ministers and bureaucrats who run these State-owned companies, and their trade unions. The biggest losers are the consumers. Tax payers lose too - as in the case of Air India, the electric companies, or even the railways.

That is, the working classes lose from public ownership. Indeed, working classes have historically prospered only under Capitalism and the private ownership of the means of production. Every American worker owned a car by the 1940s because of Henry Ford.

Thus, in the true interests of the masses of poor people in our country, every PSU should be privatized. The State should not own anything - no factories, no hotels, no airlines, no railways, no electric companies, no land: NOTHING. The State should only perform its basic function: to apprehend and bring to Justice all enemies of the Market Order. Further, it should provide accurate land titles - titles, that is, of Private Property. There is NO ROLE for the State in economic affairs.

Seeing Through Chacha

When Chacha Manmohan S Gandhi became our Prime Minister, the mass media hailed him as a "liberal." After all, they said, he was finance minister when Narasimha Rao's big "liberalization" happened. Today, it is time to re-think this naive assessment. A "liberal" believes in freedom from the State; he believes in the market economy; he would like to cut down the bloated Indian socialist State. Chacha has done the very opposite.

Indeed, Chacha has only sought to compensate for Rao's liberalization - which bore such handsome results - by INCREASING the role of the State in other areas. A clear case is his emphasis on "education." He is actually not interested in the lamp of learning lighting up Indian minds. Rather, his basic intent is to see that the propagandists of socialism who occupy sinecures in State-funded institutions have a field day ruining Indian intellects. His motive is evil.

The same applies to his fetish for funding ditch-diggers in rural India. It is a ploy to siphon our money to useless bureaucRATS. Any true blue "liberal" would have trimmed their "rural development" budgets and forced them to do real "work" - like property titling. Chacha is merely pumping our money into the spoils system. He is increasing the role of the State by increasing its share of public wealth.

Thus, Chacha has worked very hard to increase taxation. The Value Added Tax is just another way of sucking our blood. He has imposed an "education tax." There is now a "goods and services tax" coming. All this increases the funds at the disposal of the State. Under a true liberal, the opposite would happen. Citizens would get to keep more of their money to save and invest; the State would be cut down and forced to manage with less.

This verdict also applies to Chacha's sudden rush for "civilian" nuclear power which is anything but civilian, being under State-ownership. It increases the role of the State in power generation - something any liberal would seek to avoid, if not abolish altogether. India needs electricity badly - from the private sector. Chacha is against this idea. He is an unabashed agent of the State.

I hate Chacha Manmohan S Gandhi with every fibre of my being.

The India To Dream About

Utopians usually dream of a Perfect Society. This is an impossible dream because human beings are imperfect. Because of these imperfections - many are thieves and murderers - we have the institution of government or State to use compulsion and force on such people, so as to prevent them from harming the good people. Yet, even this minimalist government or State can never be perfect, because it too will be composed of imperfect human beings. This realisation should call for a sober assessment on what can be accomplished through the agency of the State.

Classical liberals like Ludwig von Mises were quite clearly against any kind of anarchism. They thought anarchists commit the error of imagining society to be composed entirely of good people. To Mises, government was necessary in order to force the bad people into submission, while leaving the good people alone. They thought that all constitutions were meant to control those who wielded these powers, for if they run amok, society would disintegrate. There would be tyranny. Bad people would take over the government.

Thus, classical liberals were not against government per se; what they were against is any increase in the role and powers of government. The economics of Ludwig von Mises clearly established that governments have NO ROLE to play in economic affairs. Mises opposed every manner of interventionism; he opposed inflationism, fiat currency and central banking; he opposed trade unionism and immigration restrictions too. His ideal was the "unhampered market economy." The government was just supposed to be the "nightwatchman," performing an essential role, but a strictly limited role; limited, that is, by constitutional law.

Adam Smith was no different. His "three duties of the Sovereign" do not include any role in economic and commercial matters; not even the production of money. To Adam Smith, only three things were necessary to make a society flourish:

Peace
Easy taxation
And a tolerable administration of Justice

In Independent India, the founding fathers made the colossal error of expecting too little from people, and too much from The State. They called it "socialism" but this philosophy is actually "anti-social." It involves the Worship of The State. The nightwatchman is seen to be the Planner of the Economy, the Universal Teacher, the Universal Provider. It is such thinking that has destroyed both society as well as government in free India. It is not unsurprising, therefore, that many bright youth favour the complete abolition of this State. I myself have often called for a Second Republic - a new Constitution that strictly limits the scope of State action, including taxation, and thereby ensures Liberty to all the good people who wish to survive through exchanges in a Free Market.

But do note that neither society nor government would be prefect in such a setting. There would be thieves and murderers who might escape justice. There would be poor people - though there wouldn't be "mass poverty" as at present. There would be decadence and vice. There would definitely be business failures and bankruptcies. Yet, there would be much more of pure Profit, and very little Corruption.

But the good thing is that there would be no bullies pushing us around. There would be Liberty. There would be a Civilisation that would progress endlessly. That is the India we ought to dream about.

On Coercion... And Torts... And Ganja

We are all being coerced into paying compensation for the victims of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy. As this news report says, the tax-payer is picking up the 1500 crore rupee tab. This money is being coerced out of us. We can go to jail if we do not pay taxes. All this should be borne in mind when the Nuclear Civil Liability Bill comes up in Parliament, for in that too, it is contemplated that, rather than the tortfeasor, it is the tax-payer who will pay. Coercion heaped upon coercion.

Now, the interesting thing is that coercion is an actionable tort. Coercion is actually a horrible thing. The libertarian ideal is a society wherein there is no coercion and every exchange is voluntary. That is a free society. That is the ideal. In this Utopia, he who coerces another commits a tort - and pays compensation to the wronged party.

I hate coercion because I have been its victim many times - and all over ganja. The fucked-up State police coerced me in Mangalore. And some of my fucked-up relatives coerced me in Delhi - by forcing me into a lunatic asylum against my will on alleged "cannabis induced psychosis." The psychiatrist, on meeting me first, said I was "schizophrenic." Luckily, my wardmate was a smackie named Lala Hardyal who was carrying a goodly quantity of hash on him. We smoked his hash every day in the hospital. I was let off after a month of smoking hash! By then the doctor had revised his diagnosis and said I was "bipolar." Today they say I suffer from "hypomania" - a condition I share with every driven entrepreneur. The doctors were wrong.

This is coercion. It is an actionable tort. I should be able to sue the doctor and my fucked-up relatives some day.

Now look at the photo accompanying this post. It shows a sadhu exhaling a nimbus cloud of ganja smoke in front of an image of the Lord Shiva, the greatest of all Hindu gods. Why does the law treat sadhus differently from non-sadhus? Why is this coercion so arbitrary? This is because the fucked-up police coerce only those they can, and leave alone those they can't. The law cannot be applied uniformly because it goes against Indian "culture."

Property, Contracts, Torts - this is the world of "private law." This is all the law we need. Say no to coercion - including taxation. Say no to the Nuclear Civil Liability Bill. And say yes to ganja - the smoke of the "holy man."

On Kaya... In The Monsoon

April and May were unbearably hot here in Goa. So when the monsoons finally hit us on Monday, it was bliss. Clouds kept the blazing sun away permanently; it has been raining off and on ever since; it is cool. Unfortunately, all our "narco tourists" have returned home and, for those left behind, getting a "decent smoke" is proving impossible. I haven't managed to score in weeks. Nor have two friends of mine who live nearby. This really gets my goat.

In my head, in this weather, Marley plays his lovely song:

Gotta have kaya now,
For the rain is falling.

"Kaya" is another Jamaican word for ganja. Marley has a great album of the same name, in which the above is the title song. Every song in that album is on ganja. My favourite is "Easy skankin'" which begins:

Excuse me while I light my spliff...

This impossibility of getting ganja when you need it bad really pisses me off. It makes me smoke too many cigarettes - and fouls up my mood. I frown and scowl all the time. I do not enjoy anything - not even music. Not even blogging.

So if you don't see fresh posts on this blog for some time, you know why. If you are in Goa and can help, please do so - write in. If one of my students from my years in Mangalore is reading this, I hope he will be duly activated. You can find me on Facebook quite easily.

Mangalore reminds me of the time when the fucked-up State Police locked me up half-a-dozen times for just smoking grass. This is a Liberty I will fight to the death for. Smokers of the Noble herb deserve the right to smoke unmolested by the fucked-up State Police. Farmers of this great "cash crop" need Liberty too. My dream is to do to the spliff what Henry Ford did to the automobile: mass manufacture them. Then we won't have to spend twelve and a half minutes rolling one. We can draw two huge spliffs out of a packet and smoke them, one in each hand. We can sing the Marley song in plural:

Excuse me while I light my spliffs...

Ha ha.

Campaign For Torts # 3

While we mull over the disastrous implications of the Nuclear Civil Liability Bill, BP has agreed to cough up $20 BILLION to compensate victims of the recent oil spill. Our Total Chacha State capped liability for NUCLEAR accidents at $100 million - thereby selling Indian lives cheap. This is a Predatory State. If allowed to continue on its path, this State will totally screw all of us.

In the meantime, there is an excellent article on Bhopal in the Wall Street Journal by Shruti Rajagopalan, now a doctoral student at George Mason University. If you really want to know how this Predatory State screwed the victims of India's biggest industrial disaster so far, read it. She says that scores of American lawyers landed in Bhopal in 1984 to seek clients for a civil tort case. But then:

To "protect" the victims, the Indian Parliament passed the Bhopal Gas Tragedy Act in March 1985. The law handed the Indian government the exclusive right to represent all the claimants.

It is this same Parliament that is trying to pass the Nuclear Civil Liability Bill. "All I wanna say is that they don't really care about us."

Rajagopalan's conclusion is stark. She says:

New Delhi's paternalism, far from protecting the interests of Bhopal victims from sharks, cut those victims off from one of the most promising avenues for seeking compensation in a free-market system.

In this context, the weak criminal sentences against a few employees at the plant are simply the latest in a long string of failures. The people of Bhopal were first betrayed by the employees of UCIL and regulators who allowed this disaster to happen. Then they were victimized by their own government, which has failed to deliver either criminal or civil justice.

We need "free market justice" - via torts. Let no more Bhopals happen. Let this apply to all instances of damage caused by negligence, including especially in the case of nuclear power plants.

Anyway, what's the big deal about nuclear energy anyway? We have a State-owned National Thermal Power Corporation - and we have no power. We have a State-owned National Hydroelectric Power Corporation - and we have no power. What good will a State-owned National Nuclear Power Corporation do? We need to privatise power. We need to privatise everything. Every State-owned entity must be sold.

Good thing is that our Prime Minister, Chacha Manmohan S Gandhi, has completely lost the plot. He is batting on an extremely sticky wicket now. A well orchestrated public campaign for free market Justice - which is Torts - will clean bowl him.

The Monkey... And The Sword

The Predatory State sitting ugly in New Delhi has declared WAR on the peaceful, tax-paying, industrious and enterprising people of South Goa. The act of aggression was an advertisement spanning eight and a half pages of the local edition of the Times of India yesterday, in which were listed out Private Properties that the Total Chacha State wants to "acquire" in South Goa for the widening of the National Highway 17. The minister responsible is Kamal D Nutt, WTO-wrecker and arch protectionist (ugh!). He is a Sanjay Gandhi acolyte in the CONgress, so his idea of the State must be meaning the unprincipled use of force.

NH 17 is veritably the "lifeline of Goa." But it is not a real highway. Real highways do NOT provide access to roadside properties; they merely link point A to point B. NH 17 is an access road to all kinds of properties. In South Goa, the principal towns of Chaudi, Balli and Cuncolim all lie on NH 17, which also serves as the "Main Street" of these towns. Widening this road is pointless. It was built in an age when widespread automobile ownership was not prevalent in India. However, automobile ownership has become near universal in Goa now, which is one of the most prosperous provinces of India. Thus, this province needs a proper highway linking north to south, linking up to Maharashtra and Karnataka, the surrounding states.

Now, there is enough UNOWNED LAND in Goa that can be presented to the Predatory State in New Delhi for building this proper highway. The manner in which Goa has developed is that all the action is along the coast. All the mountainous areas to the east lie vacant and unpopulated. Indeed, New Delhi must be aware of this, because they have been awarding mining leases en masse to cronies who want to dig up the mountains to export red mud containing low grade iron ore.

If this vacant land could be given to New Delhi to build a proper highway, the problem would be solved, the eastern parts of the province would see real "development," and NH 17 could be downgraded to the status of a local highway under the ownership of the provincial government.

Obviously, the Predatory State in New Delhi is blind to such possibilities. In India, it is a monkey that wields the Sword of State. All this monkey knows is unjust use of force. It has provoked widespread armed rebellion in many provinces already by unjustly taking over privately occupied lands. It wants to do the same in South Goa. It is looking to create trouble. It is asking for trouble. If so, it must get it - in spades.

The people of South Goa must needs disrupt their normal lives and engage in "politics" to save their Properties from this monkey's predations. I suggest that they convey a loud and clear message to all their "democratic representatives" as well as the district administration that NO PROPERTY will be peacefully delivered for this useless widening of a "notional highway." They must demand a proper highway and instruct their rulers to use vacant, unowned forest land for the purpose.

Song of the Day: "Shock the Monkey" by Peter Gabriel.

Campaign For Torts! #2

An editorial in the ToI of today titled "Red Herring" echoes my view that calling for the extradition of Warren Anderson is just bull. The victims must be compensated and we need "strict laws," the editors conclude. But what are these strict laws? After all, the pig-sty is about to pass the Nuclear Civil Liability Bill that is patently "un-strict."

There is also a news story in the same paper that says the government must compensate the victims. Now, that means tax payers must pay for the crimes of private companies. The same clause applies to nuclear liability too. Why should the taxpayer pay?

There is NO ALTERNATIVE before India than a return to all the just principles of "private law": Property, Contracts and Torts. There are many fighting for Property today. I suggest that, given the current environment, more fight for Torts.

So I am once agin using the powerful illustration by Jayachandran of Mint. It shows Justice lying dead in her coffin. On the top of the coffin are inscribed the words: "Bhopal / Last Victim / 1984 - 2010." This illustration tells us what volumes of words could not express. Indeed, Justice is Dead - and the CONgress are set to bury her with the Nuclear Civil Liability Bill. If we want true Justice, we must clamour for protection under Torts. There is no other way.

To see this illustration in the paper, click here.

To know more about Torts, click here for the Wikipedia entry.

Et Tu, Parth J Shah

Ever since 1991, after returning from the LSE, I have been a private scholar and writer; a struggling one, if I may add. My first break occurred around 1994, when I met Barun Mitra at a Mancur Olson seminar. We got along like a house on fire and I was soon invited to a "Freedom Workshop" conducted by his newly established Liberty Institute. I presented a paper titled "Bauer Power: Getting the State OUT of Development." It was there that I first met Parth J Shah, then visiting from the US, where he was a professor of Economics. It was great meeting other Indian libertarians. It gave me strength to carry on.

In 1997, Parth set up the Centre for Civil Society (CCS) in New Delhi. I was then a freelance journalist, earning little. But the very next year I was invited by Swaminathan Aiyar to join the editorial team of the Economic Times. While I was there, I did a lot for Parth and his CCS: I publicised them in my columns; I travelled far and wide to lecture for free at his "Liberty & Society Seminars" for college students. In 2000 Macmillan India published my Antidote: Essays Against the Socialist Indian State.

In 2002 I walked out of the ET edit team over an editorial I had written against Sonia Gandhi which the editors butchered. Shortly thereafter I received the Frederic Bastiat award from Baroness Thatcher. Parth and his wife Manali were there at the Royal Commonwealth Club in London when I received the prize. He offered me the HONORARY post of editorial director of CCS. I accepted. In early 2003, Macmillan India published my Antidote2: For Liberal Governance. Unlike the previous volume, this second one was not a success at all (though it is a better book).

Now, to get to the point: Parth requested me to order 150 copies of this book, Antidote2, for CCS in my name, so that CCS could avail the special 40 percent "author's discount" - which meant I got NO ROYALTY. This was in March 2003 and I assumed that CCS had settled the bill. Recently, Macmillan India has furnished me with written proof that these books were delivered and received by CCS, but NOT paid for. Till today, Parth refuses to pay Macmillan the 30,000-odd rupees he owes them. Because of this, Macmillan is treating the matter as a debt I owe them, and deducting it from my royalties year after year. For over 6 years now, I have received no royalties from Macmillan, for both books.

I have written to Parth - but he refuses to reply. I find this very strange because I have worked only for the good of CCS. I wrote Free Your Mind: A Beginner's Guide to Political Economy for them - and did not take a paisa. I have met countless young people who joined CCS and became libertarians because of this book. As I said, I have lectured for free for them all over the country, for many years, at my expense. I took "earned leave" from my job to do so - thereby sacrificing holidays. I see no reason for this peculiar behaviour.

The other day a friend tried to talk to Parth about settling the bill and he told her: "I have even given Sauvik a GRANT of 1,00,000 rupees" - as though this exonerates him from his dues to Macmillan! Anyway, this is a lie.

In 2007, Parth offered me the said sum for the PURCHASE of the copyright to my unpublished travelogues, many of them travels with Team CCS. But he never published the book! Indeed, I asked him if I could offer the book to some other publisher and return his money. He agreed. Unfortunately, the book is still unpublished, though you can read the e-book for free here.

So here I end my sorry tale of a false friend. I had to get this off my chest. Parth must be pressurised to settle with Macmillan. I, still a struggling author, cannot subsidise CCS.

Campaign For Torts!

An interview with Abdul Jabbar, convener of the association fighting for justice for Bhopal's victims, set me thinking. He says:

The Supreme Court had diluted the charges in September 1996 from culpable homicide to section 304-A (death by negligence).

He adds:

... in 1989 the Union Carbide paid $470 million as a final settlement with the Union government.

"Death by negligence" should be a tort. What happened to the US$470 million? Why was it not given to the victims? Is this money still lying in the coffers of the State?

Abdul Jabbar seems to be looking for "criminal justice" - for some sort of "retribution" (like jail) for Warren Anderson. He seems least concerned about torts - i.e., monetary compensation of a very high order for the VICTIMS. "Restitution" would be real Justice in this instance.

We need a widespread campaign in India for a comprehensive system of torts. Not only for Bhopal. Not only for "nuclear civil liability." But no less for traffic accidents, for poisonous hooch, for spurious medicines, building collapses and the like. I have recently blogged about this.

What is suggest is a t-shirt and poster campaign. I have now added the word "TORTS!" to the image from Mint that accompanies this post. Designers can be roped in to make t-shirts and posters with such images and words emblazoned on them.

Let's just do it!

Still On That Road To Serfdom

The news has it that Friedrich Hayek's The Road To Serfdom, his only book written for the wider audience of general readers, is topping the Amazon bestseller list these days, some 40 years after it was first published. If you haven't read it, here is an illustrated version that captures the gist of his message very succinctly. Do go through it - it will take just a few minutes - and then read on.

The Road To Serfdom is a powerful book against government "planning." It tells you why planning must fail, and further, why these failures will lead to the call for a "strong man" who will inevitably lead the nation on the path of totalitarianism. The book was a huge success in its time, with Readers' Digest publishing a condensed version that made Hayek a household name in much of the world - except India, of course, where the "planners" control the universities, and much of the press. If India is to escape totalitarianism and progess on the path of Liberty, this book must be widely read throughout the land, especially in schools, colleges and universities. The illustrated version must be published here in book form and widely circulated.

Today, with Chacha Manmohan S Gandhi at the helm, central planning continues. The rhetoric is bad enough - what with the press extolling the wisdom of chhota ustad montek - but what is much worse is the FACT that in schools, colleges and universities, all students of Economics do a compulsory paper in "Indian Economics" (as thought a science has a nationality!) that centres around planning, planners and their pious intentions: every plan, from the first to the twelfth, is studied in detail. This is not Economics. This is propaganda - something that the Road to Serfdom warns us against. This is not education; it is indoctrination. It is vile.

Economics is about the pith of human existence - of buying and selling, something we all do many times each day in The Market. It is this that students should study - on their own, and challenge the intellectual authority of their government-sponsored teachers.

Let us not forget that a "strong man" is currently waiting in the wings - Narendra Modi. I was in a bookshop in Panjim the other day, where I found an impressive hardbound tome on this fascist titled Narendra Modi and the Making of a Modern State. More from the propaganda machine. If this guy and the ugly BJP take over because of Chacha's many abject failures, the nation is doomed.

Read The Road to Serfdom. Spread its message. And let's get on the road to Liberty. The totalitarians must be defeated. Serious students are also advised to read Hayek's Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism. The first two volumes of Law, Legislation & Liberty are also highly recommended, especially for students of Law.

Bad News

Industrial production data for April has just been released, surprising analysts with the index rising by 17.4 per cent over the last one year. However, a multinational bank which has done its number crunching sent me a private report that says that "the key driver was capital goods, production of which rose by a record 72.8 per cent." The bank adds that this is "not sustainable." Thus, this is bad news, although at first glance it seems good, for the index has risen substantially. To understand why the news is bad we need Austrian Business Cycle Theory (ABCT). Note that without sound theory, statistics (which is "history") cannot be correctly interpreted.

ABCT tells us what goes wrong when business cycles of "boom and bust" occur. It tells us that the real damage occurs in the "boom" period, when all business calculations are torn asunder by cheap money at artificially low interest rates. Thus, projects which would not have been deemed profitable under normal circumstances are entered into, loans are taken, and investments made in capital goods. When the bust hits, it is this false optimism of the boom that causes widespread losses. This is the bust - the "correction" of the boom.

What the Index for Industrial Production tells us therefore is that Indian businessmen have made huge "malinvestments" in capital goods - and that a "bust" is forthcoming, when losses will have to be booked. Bad news, indeed.

The lesson: Keynesianism - or should we call it Chachaism? - and central banking CAUSE business cycles. If we are to be rid of them forever, we must adopt the gold standard. Under a gold standard too businessmen will make losses when their optimism over the future proves unfounded, but they will be few. What is happening today is that these errors are widespread. Why is everyone making the same error?

The reason for that is that the boom is accompanied by inflation - and this makes "economic calculation" impossible. Businessmen will overestimate profits under inflation and further overestimate demand. This is another way by which inflation leads to "capital consumption." And that, as we all know, is the very opposite of progress.

Note that it is government management of the economy that is causing all this. With gold, no politician can meddle with money. That is the only cure.

Time To Nail The CONgress

The CONgress is getting screwed over Bhopal. They are party of corruption and injustice. The illustration accompanying this post, from Mint, tells it all: The CONgress has killed Justice - and is proceeding to bury her, if they are allowed to pass the Nuclear Civil Liability Bill. It seems the Opposition BJP is already calling for the withdrawal of this horrible Bill. After Bhopal, our usually inert masses seem to have woken up to the fact that a nuclear disaster could be 10 times worse, and this CONgress sponsored Bill only seeks to indemnify US nuclear suppliers. I had called for killing this Bill when it was about to be introduced in Parliament.

There are two editorials from Mint that I recommend, both advocating tort laws: first, on the Nuclear Civil Liability Bill; and second, on tort taw and Bhopal. Both are pertinent. Mint must be commended for these learned views, for it is the only mainstream daily that is calling for a comprehensive tort law system as a solution to all further issues relating to damages on account of negligence. What do I have to add to their viewpoint?

First: Tort laws are CIVIL laws. They are settled in CIVIL courts. Thus, they do not require our corrupt CRIMINAL justice system at all. This is a huge benefit. Thus, for any damages resulting from negligence, compensation can be claimed WITHOUT the fucked up police having to step in.

Second: Tort cases are therefore NOT decided on the basis of "beyond reasonable doubt": the judicial requirement for criminal cases. They are decided on the basis of the "preponderance of evidence," and this means cases are decided quickly.

What does this mean for nuclear disasters?

Or hooch tragedies?

Or building collapses?

Or fake medicines?

Think about it.

And screw the CONgress before they screw you.

Interventionism For The Environment

Why do politicians the world over love environmentalists and hate libertarians? Why is environmentalism taught in schools and libertarianism never? If you carefully look into the reasons behind this phenomenon, you will find that politicians and bureaucrats hate libertarians because libertarians wants to cut back the State, get rid of arbitrary powers, abolish many taxes and so on. Libertarians talk and write about all the wrongs the State does to human society.

Now look at environmentalists. They hate human beings – the “population problem.” They see all human activity as a threat to the world – and they call upon the State to fix things. As with “global warming” and “climate change” – the environmentalists have thought of a new tax, the “carbon tax.” No wonder Al Gore loves to be an environmentalist.

Next: look at the different “utopias” of libertarians and environmentalists. Libertarians idealise the most perfect freedom. Environmentalists idealise “pristine” Nature. They are all from cities – but they love the jungle. They love beasts – the tigers and the elephants – and never consider what life must be like for someone who lives near wild elephants and tigers. These forest-dwellers are enemies of the environmentalist. Their greatest friends are the State forest guards – the very people the forest-dwellers hate.

Environmentalists are therefore enemies of Man, enemies of Freedom, and friends of the State. This should always be borne in mind. They are all “watermelons”: green outside, but red inside.

This is not to say that libertarians are against the conservation of nature and energy. But the approaches chosen by the libertarian are very different from those of the environmentalist. To the libertarian, forests and wildlife are best conserved (and trees are best looked after) under a system of Private Property. Environmentalists want the State to take over the forests and wildlife (and minerals). Their policy prescriptions are the root cause of Maoism. It is they who murdered Veerappan, who could have well been a sandalwood farmer. In Goa, every beach belongs to the State because of the environmentalists: the Coastal Zone Regulation Act passed by a Parliament 2000 miles away from the coast!

As for conservation of energy: libertarians believe man naturally conserves energy if market prices hold sway. We buy fuel-efficient cars to conserve petrol. We stitch off lights, fans and air-conditioners when we leave the house. We turn off the taps.

On this score, too, the environmentalists suggest strong State action. In India, they want to BAN ordinary filament bulbs in order to FORCE all the people to buy expensive, new-fangled fluorescent lamps. Truly laughable in a poor country. Do not forget that Laloo Yadav’s electoral symbol is the kerosene lantern, far more energy inefficient than Edison’s bulb.

Thus, environmentalists want to impose heavy taxes on certain sources of energy in order to promote “clean” energy – that which is still not “economically feasible.” No wonder the State loves them and hates us.

Environmentalism is thus a new sort of Interventionism that has been sanctioned by gullible public opinion. It is this opinion that must be changed. In the final analysis, what the public must consider is this: Do you love human beings? Or do you love the State? In India, at least, the answer should be obvious. In India, environmentalism should be thoroughly rejected in favour of the idea that human beings are the “ultimate resource”; that Liberty from the State is what we all need; that cities are our natural environment; and that jungles should belong to those who live there.

Finally, it must be noted that Nature is a merciless enemy of man. My garden would be overrun by weeds and bugs if I did not protect it from nature. The history of civilization (cities) is but a story of man’s conquest over the forces of nature.

Even pretty birds are a threat to man. Notice the scarecrows on every farmer’s field. Yes, look at scarecrows most carefully next time you see one. They tell a story about the romantic delusions of environmentalism.

[This is the concluding post of a 5-part series on Interventionism. To read the others, click on the label "Interventionism" on the right-hand bar.]

Interventionism - And The Labour Market

Interventions in the labour market are directed towards the goal of increasing wages above the market rate. There are minimum wages stipulated (which cause permanent unemployment); there are trade unions which are protected in their violent and coercive actions (which cause more unemployment); there are doles for the unemployed (which cause even more unemployment); and finally there are immigration restrictions (which cause unemployment by making exports uncompetitive). Thus, these make no sense whatsoever. Rather, they are a fitting illustration of Lingle's Law:

Government intervention-> Distortion -> Impact on special interest groups -> demand for government intervention-> Distortion -> Impact on special interest groups -> demand for government intervention -> Distortion ->Ad infinitum /ad nauseum ….

Let us begin with the basic objective: raising wage rates in the domestic market. Now, in a completely unhampered market, all goods and services are sold at their competitive price. Thus, the benefits go to everyone as consumers of goods and services. It is in no one's interest as a consumer of, say, motor cars, that the trade unions make them costlier. It is also not in the interest of the "nation" taken as a whole, for export markets shrink, capital is transferred abroad, and the factories open in foreign countries.

Yet, Lingle's Law tells us that nations persist with these interventions because of the pressure of small groups who benefit from these interventions. These lead to more and more interventions - ultimately, to the complete destruction of the market economy. In the case of the market for labour, unemployment doles are the price paid for all the unemployment caused by minimum wages and trade unionism - and these are paid for by printing money. Since this cannot go on indefinitely, the international capital market is torn asunder and the gold standard destroyed. Each and every nation retreats into a "national economy" - and this is a recipe for war. Instead of mutual co-operation, we have mutual antagonisms.

The root of all this is the false and corrupt idea that the role of national governments lies in increasing the income of certain groups - either domestic workers, or domestic producers. What the science of Economics teaches is that there is no such role for the State. The government is nothing but the social apparatus of compulsion and coercion, whose only role is to act against enemies of the free market, enemies of natural social co-operation. With interventionism, it is the government itself that becomes such an enemy. The Predatory State is just a short step away from the Interventionist State.

This is the fourth post on the subject of interventionism. All these posts can be found by clicking on the label "Interventionism" on the right-hand bar. Tomorrow, I will conclude the series by discussing interventionism on "environmental" grounds. We will see that the environmentalists are enemies of Liberty and friends of the Interventionist State. Very misguided people, indeed.

Interventionism - And US Foreign Policy

I have been discussing the vicious effects of interventionism for the past two days: first, its effects on bureaucracy; and second, its effects on democracy.

Today, let us conclude this series by looking at what the USSA proudly calls its "interventionist foreign policy." As with all interventions, there are many who gain financially from such policies. In the USSA, these gainers are the infamous "military-industrial complex." While poor, misguided American soldiers are the "dogs of war," these profiteers from warring must be considered the "pigs of war." The more wars the USSA commits itself to, the more they gain. They buy up support in the legislature and among the US "power elite"; they control both the Democrat and Republican parties; they thus have huge influence on the presidency itself.

Yet, war is incompatible with the international division of labour. The USSA purports to make the world "safe" - but safe for what? The only answer to that is: Safe for trade, for peaceful exchange, for the international division of labour. It is indeed tragic that there are too few among the world's politicians who are spreading this message.

In our own backyard, the USSA is now involved in a protracted war in Afghanistan - and there is no telling when this war will end. History tells us that no one has ever won a war in Afghanistan. It would be much more prudent to encourage trade and commerce in Afghanistan than engage in this fruitless war. But prudence does not guide US foreign policy; interventionism does. So the pigs of war rule.

I think Chacha Manmohan S Gandhi and his CONgress party are doing our nation much harm by siding with the USSA in their Afghan misadventure. Our embassy in Kabul has been bombed several times and one of our ambassadors even killed. We are making enemies with Islam - and that may be the US foreign policy stance; it should not be ours. In this, the CONgress is just as bad as the BJP.

Thankfully, the US has Ron Paul, the only politician who stands for a strict non-interventionist foreign policy. All the world should support this good man and elevate him to the presidency of this important nation.

In my book, I see no reason for all this fuss over "radical" Islam. In reality, Islam is not one civilization; it is many civilizations. To our east, Malaysia and Indonesia are also Islamic - and peaceful The radicals are a fringe element - and they can be sidelined only by policies that encourage trade and commerce between peoples.

I seriously suggest that the USSA make peace with Islam by according most favoured nation status to Morocco and requesting their King to sort out the mess in Afghanistan. Let us all smoke the peace chillum together.

Boom Shankar!

And Om Shanti.

Interventionism Destroys Democracy, Destroys Society

Yesterday I discussed how the doctrine of interventionism has corrupted and virtually destroyed our bureaucracy. In this context I referred my reader to Ludwig von Mises' pamphlet on interventionism.

But bureaucrats only serve politicians in our democratic system. Today, let us therefore deepen our analysis to how interventionism affects democracy. Mises examined this too in the above pamphlet, written in the USSA in 1940, but published posthumously. He says, in the chapter on the consequences of interventionist policies, in the section titled "Parliamentary Government and Interventionism":

The idea underlying representative government is that the members of parliament are to represent the whole nation, not to represent individual counties or the particular interests of their constituencies. The political parties may represent different opinions about what helps the whole nation, but they should not represent the particular selfish interests of certain districts or pressure groups.

The parliaments of interventionist countries are today quite different from this old ideal. There are representatives of silver, cotton, steel, farming, and labor. But no legislator feels it his duty to represent the nation as a whole.

This is true not only for the USSA, but also for India. The true interests of all members of a society lie in social co-operation under the division of labour. The duty of the government is to foster this co-operation. What interventionism does is to divide society into hundreds of minority interest groups, each battling for benefits at the expense of the mass of consumers. This destroys democracy; it destroys society.

Mises says:

Government by the people can, therefore, only be maintained under the system of the market economy. In the market economy only the interests of the citizens as consumers are considered. No producer is granted a privilege, because privileges given to producers diminish productivity and impair the satisfaction of the consumers. No one suffers if the cheapest and best satisfaction of the consumers is accepted as the guiding principle of policy; what producers then fail to gain as producers, because privileges are denied to them, they gain as consumers.

With rampant interventionism, the interest of consumers is sacrificed in favour of those of small groups of producers. A good example is the import tariff - and the curious case of Kamal D Nutt, WTO-wrecker. Who does Kamal D Nutt represent? His own constituency lies in poverty-stricken, backward, land-locked Madhya Pradesh, where the people would definitely benefit from free trade as consumers. He certainly does not represent them. He also does not represent the innumerable coastal port cities of India, which would all become Hong Kongs with unilateral free trade. If examined closely, it will be found that he represents a small minority of producers who have bribed the CONgress. This party does not uphold the true interests of all Indians, only because of interventionism.

My old friend, Professor Christopher Lingle, has enunciated the "Lingle's Law" on interventionism. There are two posts on this on the Natural Order Blog, Part 1 here, and Part 2 here. In brief, the law goes as follows:

Government intervention-> Distortion -> Impact on special interest groups -> demand for government intervention-> Distortion -> Impact on special interest groups -> demand for government intervention -> Distortion ->Ad infinitum /ad nauseum ….

He offers many examples of these harmful interventions, from agricultural subsidies to asset bubbles. All these affect democracy. All these affect peaceful co-operation in society. All these, especially import tariffs, affect the international division of labour and foment irreconcilable conflicts between nations. Note how Kamal D Nutt was "irreconcilable" at the WTO.

Thus, not only domestic society, but the Great and Open Society comprising all the peacable nations of the world are affected by interventionism. It should be halted forthwith in our own country. Laissez faire, laissez passer is the only way forward.

India: Stifled By Baboons

BBC has a news report that says that India's bureaucracy is the "most stifling in the world." I got the news from www.indefenceofliberty.org - and their story contains this damning fact about the report that nails our baboons:

The report ranks bureaucracies across Asia on a scale from one to 10, with 10 being the worst possible score. India scored 9.41.

This should be a cause for widespread revolt. Not only are all our cities and towns a mess; not only is our countryside devoid of clear property titles - on top of all this, our baboons are going about hassling entrepreneurs.

The root cause of all this is their "miseducation" at the IAS Academy in Mussoorie. It is the continued teaching of the "commanding heights" and "central planning" doctrines that is responsible for this mess. Our baboons think that they have a role in economic affairs. This is what their professors of Economics teach them. These professors should be fired.

Actually, what Economics really teaches is that the government has NO ROLE to play in economic affairs. If the IAS Academy wants to reform its ways, they should carefully study Ludwig von Mises' little pamphlet on "interventionism." Mises proved that interventionism is worse than socialism. Interventionism ultimately destroys the market economy; it makes people poorer.

This is completely true with regards to India. All the central planners and all the PSUs do not cause as much damage as our meddlesome baboons.

There is plenty of good work to be done by our bureaucracy if they want to do good work: they could look after cities and towns; they could provide the nation with clear land titles; they could be public magistrates looking after law and order and preventing violent acts - but they must stop there. Mises also wrote a little book called Bureaucracy that sketched out the limits of this mode of organization. This book has been published in India by Liberty Institute. You can find the pdf here.

So there is lots for our baboons to read and mull over.

In the meantime, citizens should consider revolting.

Overthrow these corrupt and ignorant rulers.

Institute a "private law society."

5th June Is Adam Smith Day

Today is the 287th birth anniversary of Adam Smith. He was named after the first man and he was the first man as far as "political economy" in the English language is concerned. He was a lover of Liberty and he stood firmly for both religious as well as commercial freedom, for strict curtailment of the arbitrary powers of the King; he was Whig in his politics. The quintessential absent-minded professor, his life is a story of humble origins and great achievements. He was a Scot - and Scotland in his time was a backward, poor province where the people did not speak very good English (a major disability). He studied in Glasgow University at a time when this small university led the "Scottish Enlightenment." Later he spent six years in Oxford on a scholarship - Oxford then was a richly endowed but dead university. There is much inspiration to be gained from the story of this man's life.

I heartily recommend John Rae's Life of Adam Smith, which can be ordered in India here. After you have read this wonderful book, you may consider reading his Theory of Moral Sentiments (I recommend the 6th edition), followed by the 4th edition of the book he is famous for - An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.

Adam Smith founded classical political economy. As a Professor of Moral Philosophy he began by expounding on the moral virtues of the free market. Later, he went on to show how the selfish interests of each economic actor are harmoniously intertwined and, although no one intends it, the whole of society benefits as though by an "invisible hand." He therefore proved that the rightly understood long-term interests of all individuals lie in a free market - a great finding indeed for his time, some 300 years ago.

The great Murray Rothbard scored an "own goal" by rubbishing Adam Smith in the first volume of his history of economic thought. It is interesting that Rothbard acknowledges the fact that it was at Mark Skousen's behest that he undertook to write his history. Yet, Skousen's own history of economic thought, which appeared later, begins and ends with Adam Smith, and is an excellent resource for all young students. You can order this book here. I attended Skousen's lecture in New Delhi at the launch of this book - and he had a bust of Adam Smith on the lectern. Skousen recommends a piece of classical music to go with each thinker: for Adam Smith he chose "Fanfare for the Common Man." Adam Smith truly sang this song. His books are full of disparagements of the high and mighty, and full of praise for the ordinary man. Indeed, in the 6th edition of Moral Sentiments he has a chapter on the "corruption of our moral sentiments": how we tend to admire the rich and highborn, neglecting the moral virtues of the humble butchers, bakers and brewers who provide us our lunch.

May these words of Adam Smith be immortal:

It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the baker, or the brewer, that we expect our lunch, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages.

In other words: Shubh Laabh.

So today, here in Goa, I am having an "Adam Smith Lunch" to celebrate this great day. I will buy a leg of mutton from the local butcher, some bread from the local paowallah, and King's beer, the local brew. I will play the ROCK version of "Fanfare for the Common Man" by Emerson, Lake & Palmer real loud. I wish you could all be here for the party. However, wherever you are, you can do the same. May this day, the 5th of June, always be Adam Smith Day. Do not let the environmentalists (ugh!) steal this great day away.

Rule Indica, Indica Rule The Waves

It should come as no surprise that the head of the "freedom fighters' association" - those who fought for Independence from British rule - should publicly assert that "we were better off under the British." This is proof that socialism and the Total Chacha State have destroyed India.

Yet, we cannot go back to the Brits and ask them to return. After all, today, the Brits themselves are fed up of British rule! And why the Brits: if you read LewRockwell.com regularly, as I do, you will find that most Americans are fed up of American rule - the "welfare-warfare State."

So what do we do?

I suggest: Let us first think.

And to help you all think I have today another short essay by Ludwig von Mises titled "The Idea of Liberty is Western." This is very true. But the ideas of socialism and communism are also western. We adopted the wrong western ideas - and Mises quotes Professor Harold Laski of the LSE repeatedly. It was Laski who "poisoned the mind of the East with an anti-capitalist bias." (This fact about professors of the West was also discussed yesterday.) Laski trained each one of Chacha Nehru's lieutenants.

On the very western idea of socialism, Mises says something that we in India, especially our disillusioned "freedom fighters," must note:

No intelligent man could fail to recognize that what the socialists, communists, and planners were aiming at was the most radical abolition of the individual's freedom and the establishment of government omnipotence. Yet the immense majority of the socialist intellectuals were convinced that in fighting for socialism they were fighting for freedom.

We in India must now adopt the best idea of the West, one that the West has forgotten and abandoned: Liberty. Who knows, someday soon the Brits might well clamour for "Indian rule." Who knows, may be the people of the USSA will admire the "Indian model of Catallaxy." And the Chinese might then say that "India's Chairman is our Chairman."

Liberty!

What a sweet word.

Mises On Underdeveloped Nations

Today, I have a special treat for you: Ludwig von Mises' 1952 essay titled "The Plight of the Underdeveloped Nations." It is a brief essay, and it leaves you with the feeling that our country would today have been a paradise if this was widely read here in 1952 - when Chacha Nehru began "planning."

It was Clement Attlee's Labour government that handed India over to the socialist CONgress. Mises starts off by talking about Attlee's nationalization of coal mines in Britain - and how this meant the British could do nothing when the Iranians nationalized British oilfields in Iran!

Mises' main point is that the underdeveloped nations benefit from foreign capital, and they are grievously hurt when the international capital market breaks down because of socialism, nationalization, exchange control and other interventions aimed at expropriating foreign capital.

Mises goes on to say that the greatest harm done to the East was sending their bright youth to the West - because the professors of the West poisoned the minds of the East with an anti-capitalist bias.

The Lesson: Don't go to Harvard, Princeton, Yale or the LSE. Study at home - and visit Mises.org for all your study material.

This great essay by Mises on the plight of underdeveloped nations did not receive any attention in 1952. I hope it receives huge attention today. Read it here - and circulate far and wide.

Horrifying!

I find it particularly horrifying that the Total Chacha State has decided to use the Army and the Air Force to tackle the Maoists in the jungles of Central India. Chacha Manmohan S Gandhi wants to "enforce the writ of the State."

In the meantime, the historian Ramachandra Guha has penned a thoughtful column on the ongoing crisis in Manipur, wherein he concludes that the best thing that can be done is to repeal the Armed Forces Special Powers Act. This Act, by which the Army has called the shots in Manipur, has been in force since the 50s, since before I was born. And there has never been any peace. Indeed, if anything, the "writ of the State" was never to be found on the ground. It is this scenario that our Total Chacha State wants to repeat in Central India. They want to thrive on chaos. They want never-ending civil wars all over India so that the sheeple have no other choice but to look towards them for a solution. This nefarious plan of theirs must be defeated.

Democracy means self-government. It means Liberty. It means the diffusion of power, not its centralization. It means politics solves conflicts, not bullets. The implications for the Maoists are threefold: the tribals must enjoy their rights to Private Property and free exchange; they must "self-police" their homelands; and the Maoist ideology must be tackled politically - which is impossible because liberalism is debarred entry into Indian politics.

Let us not forget that Chacha is a central planner. He overestimates the ability of the State's powers of compulsion and coercion in economic affairs. He therefore proceeds naturally to overestimating the ability of the armed forces to solve a mass uprising. We need a mass politician to do that. Not Chacha. He is taking us headlong into disaster.

Horrifying!