The Fascist Threat Is Real - And Everywhere: Part - 2

In yesterday's post, the first of this series, I discussed Lew Rockwell's speech on the growth of fascism worldwide, and provided my reader with the 8 points he outlined as the signs of this ideology. I also said why India has turned fascist - because Gandhi and Nehru were wrong.


Today, let me begin by quoting Lew again, on why fascism is "invisible":

"It is true that fascism has no overarching theoretical apparatus. There is no grand theorist like Marx. That makes it no less real and distinct as a social, economic, and political system. Fascism also thrives as a distinct style of social and economic management. And it is as much or more of a threat to civilization than full-blown socialism.

This is because its traits are so much a part of life — and have been for so long — that they are nearly invisible to us.

If fascism is invisible to us, it is truly the silent killer. It fastens a huge, violent, lumbering state on the free market that drains its capital and productivity like a deadly parasite on a host. This is why the fascist state has been called the vampire economy. It sucks the economic life out of a nation and brings about a slow death of a once-thriving economy."

We now see why India's "Vampire State" is essentially Fascist - because it stands for NO CLEAR IDEOLOGY. It is a little Gandhian, a little "socialist," a little "capitalist" - a little bit of everything. However, when trade unions as well as syndicates of capitalists combine with the State - then this is what we call "corporatism," which is nothing but fascism. In a free market economy, there is no "producers' policy" - and the consumer is always the king.

Now, politics without any clear ideology cannot be "democratic." A political party must be based on CLEAR IDEAS. We do not find this anywhere in the world today - and certainly not in India. In our country, the Representation of People Act says all political parties must swear by "socialism" - but are the BJP and the Shiv Sena "socialist"? All that is intended by the legislation is that pro-market parties be kept out. The voter loses choice. And "politics" is bereft of those with a clear ideology - a "world view." Their "voice" is not heard. The "battle of ideas" which is democracy does not happen - at least not in India. 

Not that there is much hope in democracy. In the USSA, which is definitely a corporatist State, what with the nationalisation of General Motors, the Republicans and the Democrats are much the same. There is not much difference between George W Bush and Barack Obama on war, on the Fed, and on foreign policy. Ron Paul sticks out like a loner - and do recall that Bastiat's biography is tiled A Man Alone. Ron Paul stands like that. All we can do is hope and pray that he wins.

Similarly, in the UK, where the "mother of all parliaments" sits, they have just announced another round of "quantitative easing" - a pseudonym for printing paper money. Disaster looms. But the last round was under Labour! Corporatism in the UK?

In my "Austrian" view, there is NO REASON why a few people should not go bankrupt. That is far better than inflating a whole nation - and then, the whole world. In a free market, no one can be insured against bankruptcy. And, anyway, that is surely NOT the "role of the State." Repudiation of the "national debt" is the Austrian solution - not "austerity."

But then, the question remains: Why is democratic politics all over the world devoid of clear ideologies, devoid of clear principles? The answer must lie in State education - which has sowed the seeds of confusion in the minds of the people, who are the voters. Yesterday, I suggested an uprising against the RBI. Today, let me suggest another against the Ministry of Education. 

Indian democracy is really peculiar in that there is NO DEBATE. Sonia is quiet, Rahul seldom speaks, chamcha manmohan is always silent, and the opposition - if we can call them that - never take up vital issues. They just play the fool - in parliament and out of it. And as for the TV channels... I would call them "yellow journalism."

In India, officially a "socialist" nation, with a democracy restricted to socialists, our biggest mistake as parents has been to agree to State Education. For twenty years, the Market has proven its efficacy - but the "ideology" of this Market, this "world view," is unable to penetrate the syllabii of schools and colleges. Under these circumstances, voters will remain as confused as the politics. All these so-called political parties will go on with this fascistic system masquerading as democracy, and as a welfare state.

Wake up and smell the Fascism, dudes!

This is a Vampire State, and a Vampire Economy. That is what inflationism is all about. This is the "Reverse Robin Hood" at work. We must wake up the masses to their plight.

The Fascist Threat Is Real - And Everywhere

Today I would like to comment on two speeches: first, Boris Johnson saying that "Gandhi was wrong on urbanisation"; and second, Lew Rockwell's speech on fascism. In the Indian context, I will attempt to link the two - to illustrate the fact that ours too is a fascist State, because Gandhi (and Nehru) were both wrong.


Boris Johnson, Mayor of London (not Lord Mayor of the Olde City), made a speech the other day in which he said that "Gandhi was wrong in stating in 1948 that India's future lay in its villages as the country's future actually was in its cities."


In other words, Gandhi was blind to the "division of labour" - which is specialisation, and which is maximised in towns and cities, for even tea shops cannot run in sparsely populated villages. 


Now, when we specialise in the division of labour and perform services for each other "society" is formed. Gandhian "self-sufficient village economies" where each spins his own yarn is NOT a vision of "civilised society": indeed, it can be called "anti-social." And then, of course, Nehruvian socialism is anti-social as well, something we can see only now, when it may be too late. Now, fascism is upon us. If the UPA goes, the BJP comes in - and fascism will intensify.


What is fascism: Over to Lew Rockwell's excellent and timely speech, full text here. Lew lists 8 points as to what fascism is all about:


1.The government is totalitarian because it acknowledges no restraint upon its powers.


2. Government is a de facto dictatorship based on the leadership principle.


3. Government administers a capitalist system with an immense bureaucracy.


4. Producers are organized into cartels in the way of syndicalism. This includes workers as well as manufacturers. Consumers get screwed. The free market is, on the other hand, where the "consumer is king."


5.  Economic planning is based on the principle of autarky.


6. Government sustains economic life through spending and borrowing.


7. Militarism is a mainstay of government spending.


8. Military spending has imperialist aims.


Lew says the USSA and much of the world is fascist in this sense. 


What about India?


Each one of the 8 points holds true for our country.


The reason is because Gandhi and Nehru both got it completely wrong. They said "socialism" - but they did not know what society is. They thought the State and the Party and the Leader are all society. They did not know what "civilisation" was - cities and towns, where markets happen and trade occurs. They destroyed urban India - and dreamed of a rural utopia. Thus, they destroyed the "civil service" and made it "bureaucracy": all socialist and interventionist "administrators," the "mammaries of the welfare state."


And now, they have paved the way for the BJP and their "communal hatred." Internal wars will result. Things will get worse.


Hope? The only hope we have is:

REVOLUTION

Lew ends with these stirring words from Mises:

In the long run even the most despotic governments with all their brutality and cruelty are no match for ideas. Eventually the ideology that has won the support of the majority will prevail and cut the ground from under the tyrant's feet. Then the oppressed many will rise in rebellion and overthrow their masters.

In the USSA, revolution is in the air. They are storming Wall Street - but some smarter folk are storming the US Fed. Washington DC is being "occupied."


In our country, INFLATION is killing. The RBI must be attacked. Welfarism must be ended. The Police and the Military establishments must get FUCKED where 1000 people die or are seriously injured on the ROAD every single day.

REVOLUTION! 

(Part 2 of this post can be read here.)

Saint Augustine - On The Predatory State

The other day, I wrote a post on the Pope's speech at the German Parliament, in which he began by quoting St. Augustine - "without justice - what is a State but a band of robbers?" - and then went on to call for a public debate on legal positivism. I had then written: "Without sound money - what is the State but a band of robbers?"


Well, thanks to Christopher Manion on the LewRockwell.com blog, we now have the full text of the passage from St. Augustine's City of God from which the Pope took his quote, and I am placing that passage below for my readers. Note that these words are written by a bishop who was beatified by the Church of Rome:

KINGDOMS WITHOUT JUSTICE ARE BUT ROBBER GANGS

Augustine, City of God, Book IV, Chapter 4.

Justice being taken away, then, what are kingdoms but great robberies? For what are robberies themselves, but little kingdoms? The band itself is made up of men; it is ruled by the authority of a prince, it is knit together by the pact of the confederacy; the booty is divided by the law agreed on. If, by the admittance of abandoned men, this evil increases to such a degree that it holds places, fixes abodes, takes possession of cities, and subdues peoples, it assumes the more plainly the name of a kingdom, because the reality is now manifestly conferred on it, not by the removal of covetousness, but by the addition of impunity. Indeed, that was an apt and true reply which was given to Alexander the Great by a pirate who had been seized. For when that king had asked the man what he meant by keeping hostile possession of the sea, he answered with bold pride, “What thou meanest by seizing the whole earth; but because I do it with a petty ship, I am called a robber, whilst thou who dost it with a great fleet art styled emperor.”

Remember - this saint uses the word "justice," while these robbers use the term "social justice." I hope you all will read the second volume of Hayek's Law, Legislation & Liberty, which is titled "The Mirage of Social Justice." You can buy this book in India here.


And do reflect a long while on the PRECISE MEANING of the word Hayek uses in his TITLE - the word "MIRAGE." Desert travellers are very wary of mirages. They KILL.

We need Economic Freedom - not funny money welfarism - and we need real "natural justice" in a private law society: Property, Contracts and Torts.

And we need to throw out these robbers - because, as God Alone Knows, I need a Decent Smoke!

Further Implications Of Say's Law Of Markets: Part 2

So far, I have shown how Say's Law disproves the Keynesians, the protectionists and those who oppose free immigration, like the trade unionists. Today, let us take the arguments a few steps further, and also counter the points raised by Murali yesterday - "legal and cultural objections" to free immigration.


Let us begin with the example I gave yesterday - of the bhel-puri wallah. As Say's Law reveals, once he sells his stock, he is possessed of the means to demand other stuff on the market, except for bhel-puri, of course, which he will not buy. Thus, the sale of bhel-puri creates the demand for all non-competing goods. Our bhel-puri wallah might buy a mobile phone!


There are two important aspects worth noting at this stage: first, who are his customers; and second, the fact that the bhel-puri wallah is really a "poor" man, a very small businessman, often hounded by the cops. I will examine each aspect in turn. 


First: the customers of the bhel-puri wallah are a diverse bunch of people who produce a diverse bunch of goods and services, which they have successfully sold, and which has given them the means to enjoy some bhel-puri. This shows that widespread diversity - a hugely diverse division of labour - is good for all businessmen, because there are then more and more "non-competing" goods and services on sale. In other words, the more non-competing goods on sale, the better it is for all businessmen, the greater the demand for his own produce. 


Thus, Say's Law of Markets allows us the possibility of restating Adam Smith's dictum: "The division of labour is limited by the size of the market." This could be also put in the following form: "The greater the division of labour, the greater the demand for all goods on the market." Thus, free international trade is good - because then we have the "international division of labour."


Second: We noted that the bhel-puri wallah is a very small businessman. Now, especially in a poor country like India, the bulk of the businessmen are of this variety in our cities and towns - very small businessmen. And they are victims of the police. They are hounded, robbed, and their surpluses go in paying bribes. 


Yet, capitalism is all about Big Companies. And these Big Companies are ALL producing for the "mass market." Modern capitalism is nothing but "mass production for mass consumption." Our bhel-puri wallah bought a mobile phone - and he will spend the rest of his life re-charging it. Another example: 70 percent of all shampoo sold in India comes in little 1 rupee sachets - for the poor. This has enormous implications for policy.


This shows that the bulk of demand comes from lesser off people - and, if we want prosperity, every effort must be made to ensure that these people are able to sell whatever goods and services they wish to sell.

There must be economic freedom!

And State Predation on these people must end. This is a very different approach from Keynesian "funny money" welfarism of the kind chacha manmohan s gandhi has instituted, copying the West (where it has failed most spectacularly). 


Thus, either we institute Liberty - by which we will become the world's fastest growing market for mobile phones and other gizmos; or we continue with the charade of a Predatory State pretending to be a Welfare State: free rice for all bullshit.


Murali pointed out that westerners are opposed to "illegal immigration." But what does True Law state on Private Property. Does the US Immigration Department own the United States of America? Or is there, indeed, a "patchwork" of private property? In which case, each private property owner has the full right to decide who should enter his area. If I rent a room in a US hotel, US Immigration should not be able to disallow me entry.


As far as "cultural" objections to free immigration are concerned, these are "tribal mindsets" at work - not the sort of "rugged individualism" capitalism is all about. In any case, they make zero economic sense. Immigrants from different cultures are good for a country precisely because they make the division of labour more and more diverse. In Pondicherry, for example, I met a Frenchman who has been living there for 40 years, running three French restaurants. Such immigration is for bidden in Goa. And in Pondicherry of the old days, there were lots of Vietnamese running their own restaurants - and the city is poorer because they have upped and left. Mexicans in the US have popularised their cuisine. 


There is much people of diverse cultures can successfully sell that is "non-competitive" - like handicrafts and jewellery. Would the USA be a better place with just European food, burger joints and the like? And have you ever tried Vietnamese nouc mam sauce? Isn't Britain better off with all the Indian restaurants? And I did find a Vietnamese restaurant in London! Give me a "cosmopolitan" city any day. And do note that all these diverse restaurants ADD to overall demand - unlike Keynesian funny money.


We in India should therefore consider ourselves fortunate that none of our cities are homogeneous. They are all true "catallaxies." Catallaxies, which are "open trading arenas" - open to strangers, that is - are the "key to an Open Society," something I discussed in a column once. We can either have catallaxies and open societies - based on rugged individualism - or we can have "closed communities." 


Say's Law, as I discussed yesterday, makes a strong case for rugged individualism. Our heterogeneous society is best placed to make such a world, and such an Open Society, happen.


(This series on Say's Law is continued here.)

On The Pope... And Black Money: Take #2

Pope Benedict XVI's address before the German parliament has attracted wide attention because at the outset he quoted St. Augustine's dictum:

"Without justice – what else is the State 

but a great band of robbers?"

In our own country, all the fuss is about "black money" - or money that has evaded the tax-collector. The matter has now been referred to a specially constituted board of bureaucrats - but the news report says they are "dragging their feet." So, the issue is now before the Chief Justice of India (CJI), says another report.


But, tell you me, is not all the inflation, stock-market crash, the crises over the Euro and the US dollar all about "funny money"? Will inflation be over, will these crises be resolved for our country, if all this "black money" is unearthed and "brought back" to the Exchequer? Certainly not!

We all need Sound Money - Gold.

And St. Augustine wrote, in his City of God:

"Without justice – what else is the State 

but a great band of robbers?"

So, now that black money is before the CJI, think about Ashok Jain, KL Chugh and Rajan Pillai - how they were humiliated over black money and how two of them died. The "positive law" was FERA - the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act.


Now, as any Misesian knows, foreign exchange regulation is meant to "expropriate wealth." There is nothing "just" about such a positive law. In my book, if the central banker cannot convert his note into money desired by the bearer, it is the central banker who ought to be in prison: a debtors' prison. Savvy?


After all, the "promise to pay" on the note, signed by the central banker, is a SOLEMN CONTRACT - a contract the central banker is refusing to abide by.


And St. Augustine wrote, in his City of God:

"Without justice – what else is the State 

but a great band of robbers?"

Of course, FERA was INJUSTICE writ large, so we could rephrase the above as follows:

Without Sound Money -  what else is the State 

but a great band of robbers?

It is at this point that Murray Rothbard must be quoted, for in his Ethics of Liberty he wrote what would happen to the State if this were to be the case:

For if the bulk of the public were really convinced of the illegitimacy of the State, if it were convinced that the State is nothing more nor less than a bandit gang writ large, then the State would soon collapse to take on no more status or breadth of existence than another Mafia gang. Hence the necessity of the State’s employment of ideologists; and hence the necessity of the State’s age-old alliance with the Court Intellectuals who weave the apologia for State rule.

This "black money" nonsense is the work of State-employed ideologists, judges and bureaucrats. We, the people, must focus on the "funny money" that is the root cause of our problems.


The person with black money has only evaded taxation - which is "moral" in a nation where the State "consumes capital" and there are no good roads or highways, and 200,000 people are killed in traffic accidents every year, and many more seriously injured.


On the other hand, the funny money man is an issuer of dud currency - a "counterfeiter," as I have explained in this brief column. Throughout history, counterfeiting always attracted the death penalty.


However, the Pope did a lot more in his address: he actually challenged "legal positivism" and even quoted Hans Kelsen, who was Hayek's professor of law, and a very important German legal positivist. 


Hayek of the Law, Legislation & Liberty volumes was not Hans Kelsen's student; rather, he had been strongly influenced by Bruno Leoni, whose Freedom and the Law is a must read.


After smashing legal positivism (while maintaining that positivism is essential for the natural sciences) the Pope said:

Where positivist reason dominates the field to the exclusion of all else – and that is broadly the case in our public mindset – then the classical sources of knowledge for ethics and law are excluded. This is a dramatic situation which affects everyone, and on which a public debate is necessary. Indeed, an essential goal of this address is to issue an urgent invitation to launch one.

I echo that sentiment. Down with legal positivism. Down with positivism in the sciences of human action - like Economics.

The God That Failed: Take #2

Democracy is also a form of worship. 

It is the worship of Jackals by Jackasses.

—H. L. Mencken

Democracy has been the recipient of many an abuse - perhaps none greater than PJ O'Rourke's Parliament of Whores, though that is an insult to whores, who, unlike parliaments, do not fuck you by force.

Today, this very same parliament has been heaped with abuse in this LRC post by Laurence Vance titled "The US Congress Contains the Biggest Bunch of Buffoons, Idiots and Morons in the World." 

The subject matter pertains to Google, because of whom we all enjoy so many free facilities, and who are now  being accused of being "monopolistic and violating anti-trust laws." Well, if you download Google Chrome, before installation you have a choice of three search engines. Monopolistic?

Anyway, which libertarian believes in busting monopolies by anti-trust legislation and competition commissions? What did MRTPC ever achieve in socialist India? And, as I discussed yesterday, it is State-owned Air India and BSNL that offer the private sector "unfair competition."

What is required is openness to entry by new players - which is how Microsoft's Windows Explorer got busted by Mozilla and Google Chrome.

Yes. The US Congress is nuts. And, incidentally, they are very corrupt as well.

Let us turn our attention to UK. Here is how a post from Andy Duncan's "The God That Failed" blog begins:

It would seem that as we enter the ‘idiot’ season, in which various British government halfwits (a.k.a. politicians) have pontificated on the need for more ‘stimulus’ – because previous attempts at ‘stimulus’ have been so successful – this country is standing at the edge of an abyss of debt collapse.

When will we learn that those who rule us are morons? 

Do read my comment at the bottom - about a moron I saw on BBC, which is "State-owned broadcasting." Like Pravda. Doordarshan. All India Radio. Ha ha. Poor Brits. "Thought Control" writ large.


And there is worse: The very next post says "UK QE to resume in October." Well, Keynes was English, so whaddya expect? Morons.



And now, let us turn to our morons, "socialist planners." Our Great Leader, the socialist-welfarist-democrat, chacha manmohan s gandhi, is concurrently Chairman of the Planning Commission, and this Very Important Department of our The State has got its knickers in a twist over "measuring poverty." Is 26 rupees a day poor, or is 32 rupees? And what about inflation, etc.? 


The fuss is all about welfare - the "right to food," by which this The State will mail parcels of uncooked grain to the well-measured poor, while street vendors who sell cheap cooked food are preyed upon by both policemen as well as municipal functionaries.

The Predatory State pretending to be a Welfare State.

I suggest these people look at the Corruption Perceptions Index of Transparency International. India is ranked 87/178 with Albania, Jamaica, and Liberia, with a score of 3.3 out of 10!


And I suggest my readers read the World Economic Freedom Index, from the Heritage Foundation, which finds India "mostly unfree," ranked 124/179, below Pakistan, Malawi, Tonga and Benin!


Also, read this analysis of the Economic Freedom Index from the Mises Institute. They are also offering an online course on the importance of Economic Freedom.


Democracy: The God That Failed; The Economics and Politics of Monarchy, Democracy, and Natural Order by Hans-Hermann Hoppe is a MUST READ. Buy it in India here.


Unfortunately, Hoppe does not write much about the "Natural Order": for that, read my eponymously titled book available as a free download on the right-hand bar.

Natural Liberty

Natural Order

Natural Justice