Small Government

The everlasting quest for small government is a bit of a ruse. It's used, typically by right-wing politicians, to contrast freedom with top-down control, which is nonsensical. Here's why.

For all libertarians and anarcho-capitalists who wish for less government involvement, it might be a good idea to first learn about the origin of government, and identify when and why government grew "bigger." As it turns out, capitalism and individualism are the main drivers behind the government's growth. It starts with an incorrect understanding of the term "survival of the fittest," which has been used to promote the idea that survival of the individual is the one and only thing that matters, and that it's perfectly rational to build a system on that idea alone. It's a core tenet of capitalism to pit individual against individual, as they're all supposed to be rational agents who maximize their own wealth first and foremost. Now just stop and think about this; is it any surprise that a society of individuals who see each other as competitors, fighting each other for supposedly scare resources, needs a strong set of rules and a well armed overarching institution to enforce those rules? Peter Kropotkin's "Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution" explains it like this:

However, as soon as we come to a higher stage of civilization, and refer to history which already has something to say about that stage, we are bewildered by the struggles and conflicts which it reveals. The old bonds seem entirely to be broken. Stems are seen to fight against stems, tribes against tribes, individuals against individuals; and out of this chaotic contest of hostile forces, mankind issues divided into castes, enslaved to despots, separated into States always ready to wage war against each other. And, with this history of mankind in his hands, the pessimist philosopher triumphantly concludes that warfare and oppression are the very essence of human nature; that the war-like and predatory instincts of man can only be restrained within certain limits by a strong authority which enforces peace and thus gives an opportunity to the few and nobler ones to prepare a better life for humanity in times to come.
_{source: The Anarchist Library}

I've said in yesterday's post that the police exist primarily to maintain and protect the capitalist hierarchy with white men at the top. You can add to this the military, secret service agencies and all other government institutions in our western societies. With the accumulation of private wealth in the hands of "the few and nobler ones," nobility in the past and large industrialists backed by some vague myth about "meritocracy" in modern times, comes the need to protect that wealth against the poor masses. Yuo can complain about the government being inefficient, but know where that inefficiency hails from; governments proudly organize themselves in a "business-like" manner. Even Adam Smith understood that capitalism can never function without strong government regulation. Neoliberalism is founded on the idea and knowledge that markets can not be free, but rather need to be regulated and even stimulated.

When our "few and nobler" rulers instilled in us the false idea that we're just individuals, having to fight or compete with other individuals for our own survival or growth, we lost the strong sense of community and the principles of mutual aid that were the main tools for our survival and growth as a species, village or nation. The notion of society as a granular and loose collection of self-centered individuals is the very reason why big government needs to exist. Linked above is the entire text of Kropotkin's book on mutual aid, but if that's too time-consuming, linked below is a book review that explains very well its main themes. I just wanted to highlight how the atomization of society under the capitalist ideology has led us astray and is a big factor in the growth of government. Real anarchists can't also be proponents of this ideology, which is why "anarcho-capitalist" is a contradiction in terms. Smaller government starts with rediscovering our interdependence, the knowledge that the main unjust hierarchy is that of concentrated wealth, and that government grows to maintain that hierarchy.

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