I suppose I regard the message of “Fountainhead” to be more elemental than that of “Atlas.” I think, I hope, that we are nearing the end of the short run in which statism will have run its course.
Tag: collectivism
A Dumb Cultural Narrative
No longer are people concerned with overt racism nor dignity of the individual. Today we are focused on the original sin of whites, the covert racism that leads to inequality of results, victim/predator narratives, cultural appropriation, etc.
What is Fascism?
As an economic system, fascism is socialism with a capitalist veneer. The word derives from fasces, the Roman symbol of collectivism and power: a tied bundle of rods with a protruding ax. In its day (the 1920s and 1930s), fascism was seen as the happy medium between boom-and-bust-prone liberal capitalism, with its alleged class conflict, wasteful competition, and profit-oriented egoism, and revolutionary Marxism, with its violent and socially divisive persecution of the bourgeoisie. Fascism substituted the particularity of nationalism and racialism—“blood and soil”—for the internationalism of both classical liberalism and Marxism.
How Strong Are Your Principles?
Much of human history is comprised of people bitching and moaning about one tyrant, only to cheer for another–suffering under one form of oppression for years and years, only to replace it with a slightly different flavor of authoritarian collectivism.
“Collective Punishment”
If the kinderprison teacher doesn’t know who is guilty of some offense (real or imagined) he’ll just punish the whole class. This is an extremely common practice in government schools and similar places. I think the lesson this teaches is different than the one authoritarians might imagine.
Collectivist Thinking Leads to Atrocities
Collectivist thinking isn’t just about being cliquish or rude to others; carried to its natural extreme, it allows individuals to imagine a conflict where none exists and to use that imaginary conflict as an excuse for the most barbaric of behaviors.
Politically Generated Fear Campaigns Work
Notice how many people are currently concerned/worried/scared/terrified about the existence of all them dadburn Moooslims!! “Aaaaaah, if we don’t go full fascist, they’re gonna invade and kill us all! Ban them all! Make them register! Build a wall! They’re gonna somehow force Sharia law on 100,000,000 armed Americans! Help us, Emperor Trump!”
Polar Opposites, or Two Sides of the Same Bloody Coin?
The alt-right and the ‘leftists’ (broadly speaking) see themselves as polar opposites despite embracing nearly identical tactics of dehumanizing their opponents and using violence against them. Both sides believe that peace can be achieved only after the streets run red with the blood of their enemies.
Ideology, Identity, Solidarity, and Collective Action
The interrelated complex of ideology, identity, solidarity, and collective action form the ground level in fruitful social analysis. Leaving out this complex, as both mainstream and Austrian economists usually do, means that one sacrifices the opportunity to understand what otherwise seems inexplicable or gets explained only by bizarrely twisting the standard model. At least, so I have argued since the early 1980s, most fully in chapter 3 of Crisis and Leviathan, but with some elaboration and many applications in later works.
2017: The Year Statism Starts to Die
In 2017, it is more important than ever to take a stand against collectivism and the hate it inspires. Don’t be silent. Don’t be part of the problem. Raise your voice and let the whole world hear you say—in blatant defiance of the state—that peace is possible, war is unnecessary, and liberty is achievable.