If there were a prize for the best “do as I say, not
as I do” politician, the latest winner would be California Senator Dianne Feinstein.
Senator Feinstein, who is currently leading a crusade to
plug
the White House’s recent spring of classified military leaks,
is the Chairwoman of the powerful Select Committee on Intelligence. Because of
her position of power, she has become “deeply disturbed by the continuing leaks
of classified information to the media.” In other words, Ms.
Feinstein finds it appalling that the American public is finding out about the
not-so-glamorous doings of its own government. Her scorn for disinfecting
sunlight has inspired her to call for the
prosecution of Wikileaks founder Julian
Assange for espionage.
This
talk of super secretive government would be all fine and good for a minion of
the security state except for one thing: Senator Feinstein is one of the biggest
leakers in Congress herself. And
it just so happens that her husband has benefited financially from contracting with the U.S.
military. For all her talk of protecting the American people, Feinstein
is just another well-connected thief in the societal racket known as the
state. As Salon’s Glenn Greenwald trenchantly observes:
That the powerful Senator who has devoted herself to criminally punishing low-level leakers and increasing the wall of secrecy is herself “one of the biggest leakers in Congress” is about as perfect an expression as it gets of how the rule of law and secrecy powers are sleazily exploited in Washington
In the scum filled world of politics, unscrupulous behavior is a permanent fixture. It’s why the rule makers go out of their way to convince the voting public that its best interests are being taken to heart. The vision of a righteous government is sold to the people not just on Election Day but everyday thereafter. As long as voters stay complacent in the fantasy that their elected representatives are fighting the good fight, outspoken critics of the state will remain a minority. No amount of shoddy logic, guilt tripping, or blatant lies will awake the masses before it’s too late and all previous memories of freedom have been violently stripped away.
The
truth is suppressed by the fantasy being continually force fed to the public,
not just by politicians and their teleprompters, but by the a vast portion of
the media which acts more like a squawk box for the state itself rather than an
independent observer. The New York
Times, the supposed great standard-bearer of journalistic quality, recently admitted that its stenographers and reporters allow
their writings to be contorted by the same public officials who they claim to
cover objectively. These reporters, so desperate to get a few words with
any government official, are willing to give full discretion on what is
reported right back to the people whose interest lies in manipulating the
information the public receives. As the Times article reveals:
From Capitol Hill to the Treasury Department, interviews granted only with quote approval have become the default position.
The
unconscionable behavior of the political class should be thought of as a
contagious disease that infiltrates any industry that comes within influence of
the state. Government contractors, lobbying associations, favored
corporations, and even the press all seek to use the monopolized power of
government to further their own interests. Instead of attempting to roll
back stifling regulations, many of these firms simply wish to get in
on the spoils of the great extortionary
scheme. The results are always the same. Politicians pretend to be
saving the people from cold-natured capitalism while politically-connected
businessmen and bankers act as if their commercial success is completely of
their own doing. The hidden truth is both act in tandem to fleece the
average taxpayer.
The
fantasy then continues unabated. As F.A. Hayek recognized in The Road to Serfdom, central planners and their
intellectual patrons achieve their power by gathering the “support of all the
docile and gullible, who have no strong convictions of their own but are
prepared to accept a ready-made system of values if it is only drummed into
their ears sufficiently loudly and frequently.”
No
matter how many times government policy fails to deliver on its promises, the
reasoning stays the same: Politicians just need more tax dollars to spend
goods into existence, central bankers need to print more money, human rights
must be stripped away to ensure safety, consumers need to spend more and save
less, and government will always know best.
Today
as most major economies are taking a turn for the worse, news outlets are
filled with the pleas of esteemed intellectuals for further monetary stimulus
and spending. Even those economists generally considered in favor of
markets are looking to central banks, which are given a totally non-free market
government grant of privilege, to induce a boom in lending and demand through
printing money. As Pater Tenebrarum pointed out, it appears that Federal
Reserve is close to announcing another round of monetary expansion. The Telegraph’s veteran economics commentator Ambrose
Evans-Pritchard even went as far as to pen an editorial titled “Weimar solution
beckons as manufacturing crashes in US Fifth District?” No one seemed to ask
the more important question of “since when does destroying a nation’s currency
and setting the foundation for the rise of a murderous regime actually help out
manufacturing when all is said and done? “
Even
the man on the street, unlike Evans-Pritchard and his money-crankish peers in
academia and print media, realizes that adding to the stock of currency does
not add to society’s overall stock of wealth. More paper dollars, euros,
yen, etc. isn’t the same as more foodstuffs, personal computers, and cellular
phones. When Zimbabwe’s stock market was
skyrocketing to heavenly heights in 2007,
the inflation lovin’ crowd must have looked on with delight at the uninhibited
fruition of their favored policy. Grandmothers carrying wheelbarrows full
of cash to the supermarket to purchase a few loafs of bread meant nothing in
the face of accelerating GDP figures.
But
again, the fantasy at play here is the idea that the state can create something
out of nothing with the magic of the printing press. But as history
proves time and time again, unbacked credit expansion always as the boom
must inevitably turn to bust. The real beneficiaries of newly created
fiat money isn’t society in general but, as Murray Rothbard notes, “the State, State-manipulated
banks and their favorites” who are first in line to receive the currency first. Proponents
of central banking must spend a good deal of time concocting nonsensical
explanations to ensure the overall public realize how ripped off it really is.
At
no place in time were governments ever formed with good intentions in
mind. This is the unvarnished truth as opposed to the fantasy world that
is indoctrinated first within public school classrooms and is repeated in
various outlets until old age. The state being a burden on society is a
universal principle that transcends through all governmental levels and
sizes. It was recently reported that a thirteen year old had his hot dog
cart shut down by city officials in the city of Holland, Michigan.
Because of zoning restrictions aimed at protecting already established restaurants,
the boy, Nathan Duszynski, saw his small enterprise succumb to the crookedness
of local government officials.
Now
just think about this for a minute. A thirteen year old was savvy enough
and had the foresight to purchase a significant amount of capital to start a
modest business. When most kids his age are sitting in front of the
television, Duszynski was gaining real world business experience. His
customers didn’t say no to his effort; the government did. The public is
typically told that zoning laws are for their own safety when quite the
opposite is true. Zoning laws, like practically any decree that stems
from closed-door dealings of politicians, are to the benefit of some
individuals at the expense of others.
Mr.
Duszynski, by virtue of his entrepreneurship, has already accomplished more
productive-wise than any lifelong bureaucrat or politician. It is this
writer’s hope that the shutting down of his small business will serve as a
lesson for him in that he won’t buy into the fantasy that the state exists to
provide peace and liberty.
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