| Notes | Book |
It may be closer than you think. I don't know who coined the term Statism, but whoever she was, the world owes her a large debt of gratitude. She has, in essence, belled the cat. The word Statism defines and delineates an aberrant mental condition that is at this moment afflicting billions of humans, and creating misery, poverty, sickness, and death.
For centuries we have seen the advent of new technologies that augment the power of the state: the printing press, mass production, railroads, airlines, huge ships, skyscrapers, the electrical grid, the telephone network, municipal sewer and water treatment. All these technologies are expensive and require massive social regimentation to support them. They provide us with powers that we didn't experience before their invention, but they also cause a huge loss of independence.
But now the technological trend seems to be moving in the other directions. The copy machine seems to have been instrumental in the dissolution of the Soviet Empire. The tape recorder was instrumental in bringing down Richard Nixon. The video camera created the Rodney King riots, and DNA testing was the undoing of William Jefferson Clinton. The capital-intensive technologies introduced in the preceding centuries are being countered by consumer technologies available to the masses.
Perhaps the Internet will have and even greater impact. It is a very cheap method of intercontinental communication, with steadily increasing bandwidth. Any citizen with sufficient interest can directly check up on what the Government is really doing in Iraq. The Internet seems to be making life very difficult for both the Bush administration and the Democratic Party establishment. Bush & friends are being thoroughly exposed for the liars and scoundrels that they are. The established Democratic Party candidates are having a very difficult time resisting the Internet insurgency of Howard Dean.
Clinton was not the first president to enjoy inappropriate sex, but now we have DNA analysis. Bush is not the first president to lie is unto war, but now we have the Internet, the videophone, cell phones, cable, and satellite TV.
There are proposals to institute direct democracy via the Internet, and it is getting more difficult to get away with public lies. The government used to be able to control information by smashing printing presses, or shutting down TV towers, but now millions of citizen controlled web sites provide an unstoppable deluge of information, and the truth is coming out faster than it ever has before.
Libertarian and counterculture web sites are experiencing an exponential growth curve. The audience for Statist propaganda is steadily shrinking. Musical lyrics enjoyed by the young are more and more angry with the establishment.
Authoritarianism is boring for every one except those in charge. Lies are boring, especially when repeated over and over. It is the truth that entertains, compels and excites. Freedom is fun and slavery is miserable.
Ask not whether you are a republican or a democrat. Ask whether you are for Statism or against it.