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I had a request to reprint one of my articles from my blog site “Capitalism vs. Statism” at http://capitalism-vs-statism.blogspot.com/. “Capitalism vs. Statism” is set up differently than most blogs, as my writings on the subject have been pre-entered and setup somewhat like a book. I hope you will visit my blog.

The article requested was Item No. 46 titled “Economic Progress vs. Economic Stagnation.”

Here of late the famous classic novel Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand has become more popular that ever in its entire 52-year published history. I myself have read Atlas Shrugged many times over the past 30 years. It is not only an engaging fiction novel that grabs the reader’s attention from start to finish, but also an amazing philosophical accomplishment -– and I think one that started a new intellectual revolution of ideas. It is a story of what happens to the world when the mind of man goes on strike.

In this context, Atlas Shrugged has many, many messages to offer to the reader. Volumes could be written regarding the meaning and impact of these messages. But for the space of this blog, I will focus briefly on two of my favorite messages, with my own commentary: who actually went on strike, and John Galt’s final message to the world (Galt being the novel’s hero).

The first message deals with who actually went on strike. While most favorable book reviews and commentary of Atlas Shrugged tend only to focus on the businessmen, the entrepreneurs, and the industrialists who were the “strikers” against a world that was enslaving them, there was so much more to the makeup of the actual striker. Exactly who was the striker?

I think that many reviews, readers, and even admirers, of Atlas Shrugged tend to forget that it was not only the entrepreneurs, industrialists, and prominent businessmen that went on strike, but also the philosophers, historians, doctors, engineers, scientists, teachers, writers, poets, artists, music composers, including many of the common laymen (laborers, truckers, secretaries, etc.). I think it is equally important to recognize that it was not only single individuals that went on strike, but also many couples (married or not), including couples with children, all of whom went on strike. In short, it was the thinkers, i.e., the producers, who went on strike, from every section and part of the economy and society, from every walk of life.

They all went on strike so as not to provide, or leave to, any part of their lives, work, wealth, efforts, and ideas (their minds) to the “moochers and looters” of any section and part of the economy and society (including especially the crony capitalists, the unions, the special-interests groups, the statists from all walks of life, all government leeches, and the government power-lusting politicians and bureaucrats). Remember, Galt said he would stop the motor of the world: he meant he would stop the creative, thinking mind of the world –- from every section and part of the economy and society. In the end, most strikers where ordinary people who just quit on their own accord without Galt’s influence.

It is also interesting to note that Ayn Rand purposefully withdrew first such thinkers and workers as the philosophers, the historians, the doctors, the engineers, the scientists, the teachers, the writers, the artists, and music composers. Ms. Rand than began to withdraw secondly the entrepreneurs, the businessmen, and the industrialist. If you recall, for example, it was a sculptor who set up a simple foundry in Mulligan’s Valley -- before another businessman, who went on strike and came to the Valley, took over the foundry and hired the sculptor to work for him -- and then Hank Rearden took that business over, after he himself went on strike and arrived in the Valley, hiring both the previous owner and the sculptor to work for him.

In addition to the above example, here is an excerpt from the conversation between the novel’s heroine, Dagny Taggart, and the great composer, Richard Halley, who is on strike, and whom Ms. Taggart eventually meets in the Valley, after she crashes her plane there. Mr. Halley speaks to her about the nature of the artist, and he concludes:

“…For if there is more tragic a fool than the businessman who doesn’t know that he’s an exponent of man’s highest creative spirit – it’s the artist who thinks that the businessman is his enemy.”

As an artist and composer, I personally have no desire to start or run my own business, nor to own or even manage a company. Yes, the idea has been tempting to me in the past. But though I choose art and music, I am very glad and even grateful that there are those men and women –- those individuals –- who are willing to take the risks and have the true desire to start and run their own businesses, or to own and manage a company. I am glad that there are those people who want to be publishers, gallery owners, or artist agents. I admire that. I also admire those incredible entrepreneurs and industrialists of the world who are the true driving forces of a free-market social system, not some statist deadwood in Washington, D.C.

I want businessmen, businesswomen, entrepreneurs, and companies of every kind imaginable -– from the small business to the giant corporation -- to have complete, unhampered, unregulated individual and economic freedom, the freedom to compete to the greatest extent of their abilities and to succeed at the highest levels they are capable of. I do not envy or hate their lives, their abilities, their success, or their wealth. I cheer it on. I, like anyone else, can only benefit and prosper from complete unregulated economic freedom for everyone.

The true businessman is not my enemy; he is my ally in freedom and prosperity. It is coercive government force and control, along with the crony capitalists, crony businessmen, and special-interest groups who favor government interference and manipulation for their own benefit, that are the true enemies of our freedoms and liberties, our individual rights and property rights, our work and relationships, our prosperity and wealth, our dreams and happiness. In short, they are the true enemies not only of our individuals lives, but the true enemies of life itself.

The other message from Atlas Shrugged deals with John Galt’s final message to the world.

Towards the end of the story, Galt delivers his famous “This is John Galt speaking” radio broadcast. He points out what is causing the world’s social and economic crisis and chaos, and makes very clear what is philosophically necessary to rid the world of its corruption and chaos, as well as what will bring back freedom, economic prosperity, and social peace. Not long after his speech, John Galt is captured by the American corrupt statist government.

The corrupt government imprisons Galt, trying desperately to convince him to tell them and the world how to fix America’s social and economic crisis and chaos. They believe Galt has some “secret formula” that will fix everything. But of course, he doesn’t. But what Galt does have is a message for America that will solve its social and economic crisis and chaos. The corrupt government sets up a plan to have Galt speak to the nation via TV, to force Galt to offer his solution and message of hope. They force Galt to the TV studio at the point of a gun. At the part where Galt is to appear on national TV and deliver his message, he stands up and moves to the side, exposing the gun aimed at him for all of America to see on national TV. Then Galt says this:

“Get the hell out of my way.”

One cannot enslave another man and force him to be a productive, prosperous individual; one can only force another man to produce enough to survive and exist like an animal in chains, or die. One cannot force another man to think nor to be free (either is a contradiction); one can only force another man either to blindly follow orders, rot in slavery, or die. This is the difference between Capitalism (where there is the recognition and protection of individual rights and property rights, where all property is privately owned, where there exists individual freedom, and a free, peaceful division of labor society), versus that of Statism (where man’s life belongs to the state, where the government controls the economy using force and tyranny, and everyone lives in the collective rat’s nest of feudalism).

It’s either one or the other: Capitalism or Statism, individual freedom or collective slavery, individual rights and liberty or coercive government force and tyranny, freedom of thought or forced indoctrination and censorship, economic freedom or labor-camp enslavement, productiveness or stagnation, prosperity or impoverishment, abundance or starvation, happiness or misery, life or death.

These are our only choices. Unfortunately, the Obama Administration, along with most of the U.S. Congress and our Judicial System, all support the latter, i.e., Statism and force. So does the supposed G-20 nations. But it will only be to our demise, our peril, and our destruction, whether they know it or not. I fear they know it, and our impoverishment, our starvation, and even our deaths are the price they are willing to pay to maintain their political power over free individuals. Period.

However, the true thinkers and producers of the world -- from all walks of life -- are waking up to this madness. They no longer feel guilty for wanting to live as free individuals, for wanting freedom and liberty, for wanting their rights and property protected, for wanting prosperity, for wanting wealth, for wanting happiness, for wanting life! They are becoming proud for wanting to live as free individuals. They are no longer willing to be the victims that continue to sanction the very hatred and tyranny against them. At some point the true thinkers and producers of the world, each as individuals and together as a group of individuals -- which will hopefully include much of the American public -– will reach the same conclusion that John Galt did, and openly stand up to the statists, the socialists, the environmentalists, the crony businessmen, the unions, the government leeches, the government power-lusting politicians and bureaucrats, and all the other “moochers and looters,” and loudly proclaim:

“Enough is enough! You have no “right” and no claim to our individual lives, our liberty, our freedoms, our individual rights, our property rights, our property, our work, our productivity, our money, our wealth, our happiness! Our individual lives, our freedom, our rights, our property, our work, and the economy do not belong to the state or the government, nor to any other group, nor to any of you statist zealots! The state, the government, does not own man’s life, or any part of it! The state, its politicians, and its cronies do not own our individual lives, our freedom, our rights, our property, our work, our wealth! In addition, you statists and socialists do not own our individual lives, our freedom, our rights, our property, our work, our wealth! Only we, each as free individuals, own our individual lives, our freedom, our rights, our property, our work, our wealth! Our lives, our freedom, and our rights belong only to each of us as free individuals by birthright, by the very nature of who we are individually as conceptual human beings, and do not require any government’s or anyone else’s permission or decree! Our property, our work, and our wealth belong only to each of us as free individuals who have acted and produced such, for our own voluntary and peaceful use, action, consideration, and exchange! We create the government, and it exists only to protect our freedom, our rights, and our property! The government does not exist to enslave! We recognize now that you desperately need our individual lives, our minds, and our productivity, and you will take them at the point of any coercive government force and gun necessary. But your statist game is up. We do not need you or your cronies! You need us, but we do not need you! Therefore, we send this message to you…"

“Get the hell out of our way!”

Keynes’ Quote:

For full text, see Project Gutenberg eBook - The Economic Consequences Of The Peace.

What a mess Mr. Keynes has gotten us into! In my world, he is not a laissez-faire economist by any stretch of the imagination, but a true statist-oriented economist. Any power-lusting and power-seeking statist politician or crony-capitalist would fall in love with this type of economist – and they have.

For my own commentary regarding the obsession for political power, see my previous posting “Political Power At All Costs.”

From these thoughts, the next logical move was to define some terms.

Economic Definition of Inflation:

From www.inflationdata.com-- According to Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary published in 1983 the second definition of "inflation" after "the act of inflating or the condition of being inflated" is:

 "An increase in the amount of currency in circulation, resulting in a relatively sharp and sudden fall in its value and rise in prices: it may be caused by an increase in the volume of paper money issued or of gold mined, or a relative increase in expenditures as when the supply of goods fails to meet the demand.”

This definition explains the basic economic causes of inflation, and shows that inflation is not defined as the increase in prices, as many people believe, but as the increase in the supply of money that causes the increase in prices, i.e., inflation follows the laws of cause and effect: inflating the money supply “causes” inflation which it turn “causes” price increases, amongst other things. And, when a government-controlled central bank does expand the money supply with complete reckless abandonment, especially a money supply not based on a gold standard, watch out! Then, if you can, run to get your investments and savings out of that particular expanded, inflated currency as fast as is humanly possible. Hyper-inflation is just around the corner. Anyone think that this might include the U.S. dollar some day … someday very soon?

Reality check: we just got one more step closer to this scenario this past Wednesday, January 28, 2009, with the U.S. House of Representatives majority vote passing the multi-hundred-billion dollar “bailout-spending” scam-bill. The U.S. Senate could be that final nail….

Quoting Ayn Rand on Inflation:

From inflation, on to that which government interference and control also destroys: wealth.

Economic Definition of Wealth:

My own thoughts on wealth:

And, finally, a wake-up for all those who thought that a house was one’s best investment:

Houses are not investments:

From George Reisman’s Blog on Economics, Politics, Society, and Culture, in his article “Falling Prices are not Deflation but the Antidote to Deflation,” Dr. Reisman explains why houses should not be regarded as investments. It must be remembered that a house is still a depreciating consumer good, even though the depreciating value is slower than most other goods. So why are houses regarded as investments today? To partially quote Dr. Reisman from his posting:

”Only decades of inflation and credit expansion could make it possible for people to think of the houses they occupy as an investment. In reality, a house is a consumers’ good, just like an automobile or a refrigerator. The only difference is that it depreciates more slowly than they do. Only a long string of years in which inflation took place more rapidly than houses depreciated enabled their prices to rise every year and people to come to regard them as a source of financial gain. If not for inflation and the rise in prices that it produces, it would be very clear that housing is a wasting asset, a slowly wasting asset to be sure, but a wasting asset nonetheless.”

Ouch! Dr. Reisman is definitely a true laissez-faire economist (i.e., reality based and reason oriented), for sure. To which I say, thank you for that.

Also, the blogsite The Rational Capitalist adds some additional commentary to this subject. I recommend visiting this blog when you have some time.

My closing thought for the day:

What does “at all costs” mean? Specifically, it means following the obsession for political power, particularly under political systems of Statism (systems based on some form of collectivism, such as socialism, communism, nationalism, totalitarianism, theocracies, environmentalism, or democracies) all the way to its very destructive logical conclusion and end: total economic chaos and collapse, along with complete societal and cultural devastation. In other words, complete destruction of a rational, industrial, prosperous, stable, and peaceful civilization – that is, destruction of Capitalism and Freedom, particularly individual rights and property rights.

“How is this so?” you ask. First, let’s tour history.

Historically, we have witnessed the dire consequences of this obsession for political power over and over again in all types of statist-oriented societies:

·         the collapse of the Roman Empire from the reckless, political tyranny of the Roman state and its Caesars;

·         the total destruction of German society, its economy, and the death of millions of Jews from the statist folly of Hitler’s rule and outward European aggression;

·         the Russian societal devastation, economic chaos, and death of millions of Russians from both Stalin’s and Lenin’s political dictatorships, relentless tyranny, and statist policies;

·         the decades of medieval serfdom horrors, ghastly political tyranny and cruelty, and the murder of millions of innocent Chinese citizens from such dictatorial regimes as those under Mao Tse-tung;

·         the total destruction and devastation of the entire country of Cambodia, along with deliberate, open murder of hundreds of thousands of Cambodian peoples including doctors, scientists, and businessmen (The Killing Fields) through the extreme statist and cruel Khmer Rouge Regime under Pol Pot;

·         the murder of thousands of innocent Africans and destruction of any viable economy by the murderous statist rule under Idi Amin in Uganda;

·         and more recently, the destruction of the economy of Iran, with the religious tyranny and statist-political enslavement of Iranian people under the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, as well as the economic devastation and statist military tyranny in Iraq under Saddam Hussein.

In more contemporary times, we continue to witness the same statist political tyranny and economic disruption, chaos, and devastation of this obsession for political power and the various statist political policies and agenda that follow suit (wealth envy, wealth redistribution, massive taxation, massive welfare programs, crippling government regulations and mandates): the decline of economic wealth, prosperity, personal safety, and stability in Iran, Zimbabwe, North Korea, Mexico, England, France, the continued enslavement of the Chinese people by their communist dictatorship government even with some free-market upgrades, and now what is beginning to happen in the United States of America, with the growing popularity of statist-socialist oriented politicians, their agenda and policies, mixed with crony capitalists.

How does the obsession for political power relate to Statism?

Because of its very fundamental defining characteristics, Statism will always inevitably lead to economic collapse and total societal unrest, no matter how it is applied. Why? Statism, by its very nature, is always about tyrannical political power, control, ownership, and enslavement over the individual and the economy, and never about individual and economic freedom, or economic progress, prosperity, and stability. Statism means that (1) the individual’s life and work belong to the state (the government), and (2) the state (the government) controls the economic system of a country. Due to these two defining fundamental elements, Statism – by its very nature - attracts, encourages, and even promotes, those people who are obsessed with power and control over the world around them, including other people. These power-obsessed individuals uncontrollably crave such power and control – and any political system of Statism gives such people the perfect platform they need to achieve such power and control. Statism encourages, breeds, and unleashes their obsessions for political power, leading to obsessions for pure political tyranny and evil.

It is my view that people who are obsessed with political power do so because they are actually trying to hide and avoid a terribly low self-esteem and low sense of self-worth, perhaps some deep emotional pain, and are trying to “fill” an empty emotional void in their inner selves - a void that I call some sort of a psychological “hollow core” – an inner core without a self. Since they fear dealing directly with this hollow core, I believe they, instead, attempt to fill this void by falsely lashing out with all forms of misplaced emotions, such as irrationally based fear, anger, hatred, and envy towards life, the world, and other people. Since they cannot, or are not willing to, deal with such misplaced, irrationally-based emotions, their own emptiness, and including perhaps some unidentified inner hidden pain, they instead form an obsession oriented towards some sort of power and control over life, over the world, over the economy, and over other people – an obsession to try to counter their own inner feelings of emptiness and low self-esteem, an attempt to try to gain control over their own life.

They are not trying to build up their “egos.” They are simply trying to avoid inner emptiness and pain, trying hopelessly to find self-esteem and a sense of self-worth, trying to “fill” an inner void through controlling other people. But such an effort is futile. Building a pseudo self-worth through controlling the lives of other people is not self-worth. Feeling good about yourself by controlling, forcing, and enslaving other people is not self-esteem. It is a false strength, a false confidence, a false security, a false happiness – it is empty and it is hollow. The obsession for political power and control simply grows. The inner emotional emptiness - the hollow core - remains.

A word about ego: I think that people who are obsessed with political power are not individuals searching to expand their own “egos” as is so popularly expressed, as in my opinion, this is a gross misunderstanding and misuse of the concept “ego.” In my opinion, the ego is that which represents a person’s true positive, inner self-worth oriented towards using reason and understanding reality, towards truth and logic, towards rational self-interests that improve and enhance the individual’s life and self-confidence -- self-interests that do not control or enslave other human beings just to feel good about one’s own self. The pursuit of a healthy, strong, confident ego is oriented towards trying to improve one’s own independent, freedom-oriented life, mind, and self-worth, and gaining true individual confidence in using one’s reason and in living one’s own life independent of having power and control over other people, not in being obsessed with controlling the lives and work of other people. The person with a healthy ego has no desire to live for the sake of other people, or demand that others live for his sake. Further, it is my opinion that the pursuit of a healthy ego is not oriented towards any type of obsession for power or control over people, including political power, and the ego is certainly not oriented towards trying to cover up low self-worth and low self-esteem by controlling others, or towards avoiding, evading, ignoring, or fighting against one’s own inner emotional emptiness - one’s own hollow core - by controlling and enslaving other people. Despite what is said about those obsessed with political power as having “strong” egos and “high” self-esteem, I contend that people who are obsessed with political power have low self-esteem and do not pursue their egos at all - they only follow their irrationality, madness, and obsession for political power in an attempt to avoid and cover up their own inner emptiness and hollow core.

This is why I think that such people follow their obsession for political power to any ends at all costs – they have actually disconnected their obsession from their self-worth - from their ego - and from the consequences of their obsession and actions that follow, no matter how dire or destructive the consequences may become. To give up their obsession is to destroy themselves.

It is my view that such obsessed individuals tend to blame other people, the world, the economy, Capitalism, individualism, and freedom for their own miserable state of mind, and therefore for their life. It is also my view that many such obsessed individuals believe that the world and other people somehow owe them something, something to “fill” their inner empty life. But it is really their own empty, “hollow core” life that is to blame. Finally, the political characteristics of any statist political system becomes the perfect platform for their obsession for power and control, in seeking either a political position, government employment, or in voting for their favorite statist politician(s) to “rule” over and “control” all of society. In the end, this obsession becomes the obsession for political power - at all costs, including, I think, the eventual complete destruction of a society and its economy by using the coercive power and force of a statist government to do so, if need be. All just to maintain their political power.

It is also my view that those obsessed with political power care little to nothing about society, the economy, freedom, individual rights, property rights, the “public good,” the poor, charity, a good standard of living for people, prosperity, including not even about national defense. Again, the only basic focus of such power hungry people is all about whatever it takes to maintain their political power – at all costs. That is their only bottom line. Why? Because losing their political power means that they would have to face their low self-esteem, their low self-worth, their own fear and hatred of life, their emptiness, their hollow cores.

Aside from the examples of the obsessions for political power and its consequences throughout history listed above, I think that this obsession for political power can also be observed in our own U.S. contemporary politics, by simply observing the actions and words of various politicians all around us, as with such U.S. Presidents as Franklin D. Roosevelt, Richard Nixon, John Kennedy, and Jimmy Carter, as well as observing the actions and words of most of the present members of the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives. Even at the most local levels of government in my own state and city, I see this obsessive behavior for political power and control in several, local government elected and/or appointed officials, including even in hired government employees. Statist social-political systems, including mixed economies – by their very nature – attract those obsessed for political power to any level of government.

It should also be clear at this point that one cannot rationally or peacefully negotiate with such power-obsessed individuals. It is my view that unless one can convince such a person through reason that their obsession for political power is wrong, immoral, and harmful, and that they should give up their relentless obsession for political power over people and the economy, any attempt to negotiate is wasteful. They will not give up or let go of their obsession, even if their very life depended on it – and the lives of other people are worth far less than their obsession for political power. It is of my opinion that the mere attempt to negotiate would be viewed as a threat to such political power and control.

The Alternative to Statism and the Obsession for Political Power

On the other hand, only Laissez-faire Capitalism as a social-political-economic system, because of its fundamental defining principles, represents individual and economic freedom for all individuals and businesses. Laissez-faire Capitalism means (1) the recognition and protection of individual rights, including property rights, where (2) all property is privately owned (this also means that all economic production and ownership is private). The government under Laissez-faire Capitalism represents a proper, objectively established, constitutionally limited government – a government constitutionally constrained to its only proper function to recognize and protect individual rights, property rights, and complete, unrestricted, unregulated economic freedom. Because of its two defining fundamental elements, Laissez-faire Capitalism – by its very nature - will always lead to prosperity and economic prosperity, stability, and expansion, along with societal stability and peace, and creates a society that shuns and rejects those with an obsession for political power, as there is no place or want of such political thuggery and tyranny in a true capitalist society. For example, witness the economic and societal growth, prosperity, and stability of the United States from the late 1700s up until around 1925, and for the most part, the relative absence of coercive political corruption and interference. Also, observe the more recent economic and individual freedom developments in such countries as Ireland, Chile, and New Zealand, including the decline of coercive political interference, regulation, and taxation in these countries. Such capitalist-oriented systems become less and less attractive to people obsessed for political power and control – their “platform” is taken away as Capitalism and freedom increases, and Statism and coercive force decreases.

On the reverse, witness what has happened in the United States from 1925 forward, as the coercive and destructive components of Statism, Socialism, big government, progressive liberalism, and environmentalism have grown and spread throughout the political system, attracting all types of people obsessed for political power and control. Simply observe the caliber and character of the majority of politicians, government officials, and government workers attracted to our present day semi-statist, semi-socialist government.

Though in a free society of Capitalism there may exist individuals that obsess for political power and control, it is because of the fundamental principles behind a proper capitalistic government, that such people cannot really do anything with their obsession, because such a government will not support it or allow it. It is my view that under a true Laissez-faire Capitalism, the majority of public officials, military personnel, and government employees that would be needed to administer the proper functions of government, would focus their energies on recognizing, upholding, and protecting individual rights, property rights, and economic freedoms of all individuals and businesses, as they would focus on their proper job duties, reality, reason, facts, the search for truth, objective observation, etc., not on their public image, popularity, their legacies, any attempts for political power, government manipulation, using coercive government force, etc. Their proper governmental jobs and their focus would be the recognition, upholding, and protection of individual rights, including property rights, and the economic freedom that follows.

I thoroughly discuss the distinctions between Capitalism and Freedom versus Statism and Force, including prosperous and peaceful outcomes of Capitalism versus the predictable chaotic and tyrannical outcomes of Statism, based upon its inescapable, fundamental principles, along with my own discussions regarding the obsession for political power, on my own blogsite Capitalism vs. Statism, including with my posting “Economic Power vs. Political Power.”

I am convinced that Statism is as dependent upon the obsession for political power, as Laissez-faire Capitalism is as dependent upon the passion for individual freedom.

I repeat: it is my contention that statist-oriented politicians, political leaders, government officials, and crony capitalists would rather let an entire nation be completely destroyed socially and economically than step aside and relinquish, give up, and let go of their almost psychotic obsessions for political power, control, and use of coercive government force, including not letting go of, or reversing, any of their statist regulations, mandates, policies, and agenda - from the national down to the local levels of government. They are severally obsessed and consumed with political power, and with the statist agenda and policies that follow – those same agenda and policies that cause economic collapse and societal unrest.

Where the United States of America is Headed

Regarding my own country, the United States of America, if our current politicians, political leaders, and government officials do not give up their personal obsessions for political power, as well as giving up the continuance of the already established statist agenda, programs, policies, government regulations and mandates, including the uncontrolled Federal Reserve expansion of fiat credit and fiat monies, along with also giving up the forced infusion of all the new proposed statist plans coming down the pike from the incoming Democrat Party and statist-oriented conservatives (including the massive taxation plans, increased economic regulations and restrictions, unchecked government spending, and severe environmentalist controls, fines, and regulations), make no mistake about it: the United States of America will experience overwhelming economic chaos and devastation, total wealth destruction, overall societal unrest and collapse, and the loss of individual liberty, individual rights, and property rights.

Unless the Statists, their obsession for political power, their followers, and their statist agenda and policies are completely stopped, reversed, repealed, and rejected, the destructive consequences of Statism are inevitable: the total devastation of the United States economy, destruction of wealth production and the division of labor, and including the total loss of all individual freedom, economic freedom, individual rights, property rights, and derivative freedoms (such as freedom of speech, freedom of religion, right to keep and bare arms, etc.).

No amount of wishing, blanking-out, “change” hysteria, or “We can do it!” chanting, can change or stop the statist economic and social guaranteed destructive end: the fundamental nature of – meaning the fundamental principles of - Statism “guarantees” this destructive end, as in reality it should.

One cannot “do it differently from the old socialists,” one cannot “manipulate political control and the statist system to make the outcome somehow different,” or “apply the right form or amount of Statism to fix or correct things.” There is no such thing as the “right” form or the “right” amount of Statism. Trying to “fix” and “correct” things with Statism in any form, along with an unbridled and unchecked obsession for political power at all costs, is not possible - ever.

It’s like being an envy-obsessed person, and to make yourself feel better, you force a small amount of poison onto a free, independent, healthy, competent person because you fear and hate (envy) them, thus making them ill and weaker. You want to control them to try to give yourself a false sense of power over your own empty inner life. Then, because this healthy person is now sick, weak, and can’t perform as they use to, all because of your initial poisoning – due to your own ignorance, evasion, denial, arrogance, and/or deliberate malevolence – you blame them for their illness and tell them that the state of their condition is their own fault. You then continue to force onto this now semi-healthy person more and more poison because you believe – mistakenly and psychotically - that more of the same poison given in a different way will somehow “fix” the healthy person’s illness and weakness (and because you still fear and hate this person, and because your dirty little secret is that the sicker he gets the better you feel). And you continue to do this until the healthy person is so sick that they finally die. Because of the fundamental nature of the poison and its danger to human life (just as in the fundamental nature of Statism and your obsession for political power), no matter how you administer the poison, the result - the consequence of forcing more and more of it onto another person – is increasing illness and, ultimately, death.

The same applies to the forced application of Statism, and the obsession for political power, onto a free people and an unregulated free-market economy: the initial poison “injection” of Statism (socialism, communism, leftist liberalism, environmentalism, etc., and all the agenda, policies, regulations, controls, and taxation that follow) makes a free society and economy sick (less productive). Then to “fix” the sickness that Statism creates in the first place, more and more of the same Statism is pushed onto society and the economy, through coercive government force, pushed by the obsessed political power seekers, causing both society and the economy to get weaker and sicker, and no matter how you administer your coercive statist “poison” (more taxation and regulation, welfare, business bailouts to crony capitalists and unions, wealth redistribution, discarding the gold standard, expansion of state controlled fiat money and credit, tariffs, price controls, public work projects, disregard of property rights, environmentalist controls and fines, climate change mandates, political corruption such as voter fraud, disregard for the U.S. Constitution limits on government, etc.) the final result will be social and economic chaos, collapse, devastation, and finally death for all, including even for the Statists and obsessed political power seekers and supporters themselves (as any parasite will also die when its host dies and there are no more victims to consume). As I said, Statists and those obsessed with political power are disconnected from reality and the consequences of their actions.

Economic freedom, economic stability, economic prosperity, along with economic “fixes” and “corrections” simply are not possible under Statism, no matter how it is applied. Never. And it simply isn’t possible under the unbridled and unchecked obsession for political power. Ever.

Again, the only outcome of Statism, along with the unbridled and unchecked obsession for political power, is total and complete economic and societal chaos, collapse, and devastation.

The Only Solution to Our Obsessive Statist Woes

However, on the bright side, there is an answer and solution to all of this present statist governmental mess, to our current looming economic crisis, and to the current relentless obsession for political power. Actually, it is the only possible answer and alternative, the only possible way to fix and correct the current chaotic state of economic and social crisis, and it involves two essential steps:

(1) the complete and total rejection, repeal, prevention, and end of all statist-socialist-environmentalist ideas, agenda, policies, projects, programs, government departments, agencies, and commissions (such as the Executive Departments of Interior, Agriculture, Education, Housing and Urban Development, etc., and including such agencies as the IRS, FRB, FDIC, SEC, FDA, EPA, FAA, FCC, FEMA, etc.), the complete deregulation of all commerce and business activities, including all government taxation, welfare, mandates, restrictions, regulations, and controls, and along with the demand for the rejection of, prevention of, and ousting of those corrupt politicians and other political leaders, government officials, government employees, and crony capitalists who exist only for their obsession for political power; and then,

(2) the complete and total implementation, application, preservation, and protection of Laissez-faire Capitalism, meaning complete unrestricted and unregulated economic freedom for all, with individual freedom for all, especially the reimplementation, defense, and protection of individual rights, including property rights, all recognized and protected by a proper, objectively established, constitutionally-limited, small government – a limited government defined by its only proper three functions: (1) military for national security and defense, (2) domestic police system to protect against domestic crime (initiation of force and fraud), and (3) a proper, objective justice system (courts) based upon the objective rule of law, administered under objective rules and laws that recognize and protect individual rights, property rights, and derivative freedoms, including dealing with such things as fraud, criminal and civil law suits, breach of contract and/or contract disagreements, other conflicts between individuals and/or businesses, etc.

That’s it. That’s the solution, pure and simple. This is a process not to be determined by what the majority of people may want, or by “democratic” vote. No one person, nor any majority, group, or mob, has any “right” to any form of Statism or Socialism, or to enslave other people. No such “right’ exists. The process is to get back to the fundamental building blocks of individualism and individual rights, including property rights, that the United States was built on, NOT the all consuming entitlement frenzy of the majority, the group, the mob, the gang – back to a representational republic of the individual and individual rights, NOT a devouring democracy of slaves ruled by power obsessed tyrants.

Regarding the reimplementation of individual rights, see Gen LeGreca’s essay “Why We MUST Invoke Our Individual Rights – NOW,” a must read. Also, see Dr. George Reisman’s essay “Towards the Establishment of Laissez-faire Capitalism.”

Regarding what I call the present feverish, almost psychotic, mob-style chanting blaming Capitalism for the current economic crisis, see Dr. George Reisman’s essay “The Myth that Laissez Faire Is Responsible for Our Present Crisis,” and also Dr. Walter E. Williams article, “Capitalism and the Financial Crisis.”

Despite the popular emotional clamor about blaming the free-market for all our current economic and social woes, it is Laissez-faire Capitalism and complete individual freedom, and the invoking of complete individual rights, including property rights, that are the only possible rational and, therefore, moral answers to a bright, happy, expanding, prosperous, stable, peaceful economy, society, and future – for the U.S.A., or for that matter, anywhere else on earth: the pursuit of Laissez-faire Capitalism and Individual Freedom, without any influence and interference from the obsession for political power, including the complete end to coercive government restriction, regulation, taxation, force, control, enslavement, and tyranny.

The only other alternative to Capitalism, Freedom, and Happiness is the irrational and, therefore, the immoral: the continued pursuit of Statism in any of its forms, with its coercive government force, control, and tyranny, including the continued unruly obsession for political power that only Statism allows, encourages, and makes possible – the obsession that leads to complete murderous control, thuggery, and tyranny at all costs, including total and complete economic and societal chaos, impoverishment, collapse, and destruction.

The mindless, drooling, bloodthirsty obsession for political power at all costs.

I was encouraged by, and inspired by, my good friend Beth Haynes (see her blog "Wealth is not the Problem" ), who came up with a brilliant way of formulating and expressing rational, fundamental concepts in a clear, concise manner. She herself was inspired by a famous formulation by President Abraham Lincoln. His formulation was this:

"As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my ideas of democracy."
-- Abraham Lincoln, (1809-1865) 16th U.S. President

This was Beth Haynes' formulation regarding Morality:

"As I would not be a victim, so I would not be a thief. This expresses my idea of morality."
-- Beth Haynes, 2008 U.S. Citizen

Thanks Beth!

From Bloomberg.com -- "How the Democrats Created the Financial Crisis" by Kevin Hassett

From City-journal.org –- "The Trillion-Dollar Bank Shakedown That Bodes Ill for Cities" by Howard Husock – written Winter 2000.

I recommend taking a few moments reading them just to raise one’s awareness of the trail to disaster. I only ask that after you read the Winter 2000 article, image that even then there were concerns about "billions" of politically-manipulated dollars going off to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac supported "community" and "social" projects in political la-la land -– and that there has been eights years since of such accumulated loaning, borrowing, and spending.

Also, check out the latest column by one of my heroes, the brilliant Dr. Walter E. Williams, "Scaring Us To Death." Crisis scare tactics and policies of the statist-leftist kind. Karl Marx would be proud.

One of my favorite pastimes is “puttering” in our yard on weekends, working in the garden and doing a bit of landscaping, when needed. With so much of my time and work spent indoors in front of a computer, it’s nice to retreat outside once in awhile to venture into the outdoors and experience nature directly. And venture I did, just a couple of days ago.

I enjoy getting out into the fresh air and sunshine, tending to the various shrubs and flowers throughout our yard, and getting “up close and personal” to … spiders? Yes, spiders. And, boy, do we have some “big” garden spiders here in the Southeast U.S., including the beautiful yet startling black-and-yellow argiope (argiope aurantia). See some “startling” pictures and read about this species at this University of Michigan Museum of Zoology Animal Diversity Web page.

After working in the yard for about two hours, cleaning up the “cuttings” and gathering the garden tools to put back into the shed, I was approaching the side of our house where the garage door is, when “something” caught the corner of my eye, right above a bush, to which I turned and looked and gasped “Yikes!”

After I composed myself, I took a closer look, fascinated by such a large spider. I have seen the black-and-yellow argiope before, as they are fairly common here. But this particular one webbing “her” way between the bush and our garage wall was quite the sight. I say “her” because only the female of this spider species can get so large and so colorful, while the male is only one-third or so as big. She was just sitting there on her web, rocking in the breeze, spread out from leg tip to leg tip to at least three inches! Though they can bite if provoked, the bite is not harmful to most humans. Argiopes tend to mind their own business, and are not interested in the indoors. Which is just fine by us.

I immediately went to retrieve my wife from her own weekend activities, to witness this awesome sight, and also to let her know how close to the garage door the spider was. I didn’t think my wife would have appreciated being surprised by “Ms.” Argiope when opening the garage door.

Once seeing this beautiful specimen, my wife wanted to photograph “Ms.” Argipoe. So we got our Kodak digital camera and clicked away. I suggested to my wife that we should name our neighborly spider. We thought about it, and decided to call her Miss Scarlett, after another famous southern bell. Miss Scarlett just sat there on her web, completely undisturbed by our constant back-and-forth movements taking pictures. Actually, I think Miss Scarlett enjoyed the attention, though she wouldn’t let on about it. You know how these southern bells are.

Now, you are probably wondering why I call Miss Scarlett our Free-Market Spider. Well, after all the pictures were taken, and I finished cleaning up the yard and putting the tools away, I sat for a spell and thought about what had just transpired.

Here I was, enjoying some of my earned leisure time in the freest country in the world, using these marvelous modern gardening tools to care for our plants and landscape, including using a two-wheeled wheel barrel made of a man-made reinforced plastic material that is almost indestructible -– all made possible by the wonderful, competitive, division-of-labor, wealth-producing, capitalist “free-market” system (redundancy never hurts) -- all the while caring for various plants and flowers to beautify and add color to our yard, mowing the lawn with a wonderful Craftsman mulching lawn mower, all occurring around the very nice home we own, built on a wonderful piece of property we also own, when there “she” was, Miss Scarlett, the big garden spider. She was just sitting there, taking it all in -- and taking full advantage of, I might add, a nice, sunny spot, built and provided for by human beings –- by man, the thinking, conceptual animal.

I pondered how wonderful existence, capitalism, the division of labor, individual freedom, private property, and wealth production are. My dream world…

Then reality hit, and I couldn’t help think just how much unnecessary interference, regulation, mandating, taxation, and control there is by our “statist-socialist-communist-environmentalist” oriented dingbat, lunatic political leaders and government officials -- coming at us from every level of government, local-state-federal -- over our freedoms, rights, property rights, income, wealth, finances, including all commerce and business. From a personal point, I can only image how much more could be possible, and how much more I could achieve, if I were able to retain more disposable income and wealth to save and spend, even possibly establishing more personal time to spend with my work or pastimes.

Gee, if I could actually keep more of my earned income and wealth from being taxed to death, and have more of my personal time back instead of using it to earn money to pay taxes, what could I possibly spend more disposable income, wealth, and time on? Oh, I don’t know, how about:

- saving more money for my future security, benefiting a bank or investment company, or

- contribute more money to our favorite private charities, benefiting their activities,

- buying a bigger house and yard with more plants and flowers, benefiting the seller,

- paying someone to help care for my larger yard, benefiting a landscape company, while

- using the time I save from yard work reading and writing, adding to my knowledge, and

- buying more books to read, benefiting the book stores, writers, and authors, or

- paying someone else to mow my lawn, benefiting a lawn-maintenance company, while

- using the time I save from mowing my lawn playing my piano more, and

- paying for professional piano lessons, benefiting the piano teacher, or

- buying more meals out, benefiting the area restaurants and cafes, or

- buying a bread machine to make my own bread, benefiting the bread machine manufacturer, or

- buying better garden tools, benefiting the hardware store, garden shop, and tool manufacturer, or

- maybe build another “man-made” sunny spot providing a home for another garden spider, and

- spending more time with my wife, which would make her very happy.

There was a time when people were proud of using the correct definition of words when speaking and writing, and made every effort possible to apply those correct definitions to the correct context (of the subject matter in which they spoke). If honest mistakes were made and the wrong word was accidentally used out of context (usually due to not clearly understanding a word), apologies were made, the mistake was corrected, the dust would settle, and rational discussion would go on. Or, using the wrong word was a deliberate attempt at humor by purposefully using a word out of context.

For example, one cannot “inoculate” people against certain ideas, but one can “indoctrinate” people against certain ideas. Or for humor, one might say that they wear “stun” glasses, instead of sunglasses.

I’ve certainly had, and occasionally still do have, my own share of using the wrong word in my writing or discussion, thinking that the definition of the word I am trying to use fits the context of the subject matter at hand, but it quickly becomes apparent that the word is wrong. As a musician, I know immediately the wrong note or chord applied, but since I am not a professional wordsmith, word application is a little more challenging. But I digress.

Obviously, not all of history was so innocent of misusing words, of course. But the purposeful skewing and mixing of words, and their definitions, to deliberately mislead and obscure, seemed to be the exception to the rule, not the norm of expressive behavior.

Not any more.

In the confines of this post, I limit the discussion to the latest, deliberate bastardization and misuse of language by the current political class and media in the popular phrase “America’s Addiction to Oil.”

To which I say, “What a crock!” Let’s start with a definition for addiction.

From Merriam-Webster Online: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/addiction

Addiction - 1: the quality or state of being addicted [to devote or surrender (oneself) to something habitually or obsessively] <addiction to gambling> 2: compulsive need for and use of a habit-forming substance (as heroin, nicotine, or alcohol) characterized by tolerance and by well-defined physiological symptoms upon withdrawal; broadly: persistent compulsive use of a substance known by the user to be harmful.

Now, I am no doctor or psychologist, but I think we can infer that an addiction is a certain type of psychological behavior that is associated with certain desires and needs that become compulsive, obsessive, or habitual, which may also develop into a physiological need. Because of this, I think we can say that addiction is a type of behavior that is irrational in nature. Thus, addictions are potentially bad for us because the irrational fixation for certain desires and needs may become destructive to our life; they represent subjective and negative forces against life. For example, an obsessive fixation on and abnormal fear of germs may lead a person to compulsive hand washing addiction, lasting for hours and damaging skin.

Conversely, we can conclude that the opposite is true, that a type of psychological behavior that is rational in nature – non-addictive, normal, healthy mental behavior - is associated with certain desires and needs that are not compulsive, not obsessive, and not habitual. That is, a rational psychological behavior associated with healthy and normal desires and needs is NOT an addiction, but a proper, objective, good, and rational process for living, enhancing, and enjoying our lives; it represents an objective and positive force supporting life. For example, a normal, objective awareness of germs, and what they can do, leads people to wash their hands for a moment after they handle raw meat, avoiding contamination.

Dependency is also another term associated with addiction that needs to be addressed. As with desire or need, to be dependent upon a thing does not necessarily imply “addiction” to that thing. Again, context is important. For example, we depend upon the sun to continue to supply plentiful sunlight so we can grow food and survive, but this doesn’t mean that we are “addicted” to the sun or to sunlight. This type of dependency is neither compulsive or obsessive, and is considered rational. However, being compulsively and obsessively dependent on the drug cocaine to the point where one resorts to crime to fulfill the irrational need for cocaine would qualify that dependency as an addiction, and therefore, it would be considered irrational.

For simplicity’s sake, I will refer to those desires and needs associated with addiction as irrational desires and needs for something, and those desires and needs associated with normal, non-addictive behavior as rational desires and needs for something.

In my opinion, a rational dependency, desire, or need for a drug or substance or resource is NOT an addiction, even if that rational dependency, desire, or need is for a substance that we know to be potentially harmful or dangerous to our life, such as the use of radiation for X-rays or fighting cancer, or the use of uranium to produce electricity inexpensively and cleanly, or the use of insulin to stabilize diabetes.

Here, I would continue to argue that our dependency, desire, and need for oil is rational – it is NOT an irrational desire or need – it is NOT an addiction. We rationally depend upon, desire, and need oil to help enhance and better our lives. We, as human beings, rationally and objectively depend upon, desire, and need all kinds of drugs, substances, and resources to help enhance and preserve our way of life, our health, our wonderfully high standard of living, our prosperity, our wealth, our property, our businesses, our careers, our happiness, our dreams, and ultimately, our very life.

Our rational and objective dependency, desire, and need for oil is no different. We use oil in the production and manufacturing of health and medical products, everyday home and food products, farming and agricultural products and processes, toys and entertainment products and devices, medical-scientific-technological research and development, and yes, the various fuels and gasoline to run all types of machines, equipment, trains, tractors, trucks, boats, and automobiles. All of these things benefit us and make our lives prosperous.

For politicians and the media to label our desire and need for oil as an “addiction” – implying that it is an irrational dependency, desire, and need, and, I think, a deliberate attempt to also imply that it is evil and immoral – is to imply that our dependency, desire, and need for all things that make our lives safe, healthy, happy, and productive are also “addictions,” and therefore, irrational, evil, and immoral.

This means that to describe our rational dependency, desire, and need for oil as an “addiction” is to directly imply that we also have an “addiction” - an irrational, evil, and immoral dependency, desire, and need - for all the other things that enhance and better our lives, things such as individual freedom, individual rights, property rights and our property, wealth, prosperity, good health, and happiness.

How “purposefully and deliberately” twisted, malevolent, sick, disgusting, and absurd an idea is that?

And yet, this is the type of venom that is purposefully spewed out everyday by the media, our politicians, government officials, and several cowardly, leftist-appeasing private businesses, corporations, and organizations. I don’t think these folks are innocently misusing words, and they are definitely not messing with context for humor’s sake.

Using the word “addiction” to describe our dependency, desire, and need for oil is not only an attempt to distort and skew the context in which we use and need oil, it is also a deliberate, despicable, conniving attempt to convince us that our dependency, desire, and need for oil is irrational, evil, and immoral. If these people can convince you to “feel” guilty, shameful, and immoral for rationally and objectively wanting and needing those things to make your life healthy, happy, productive, and prosperous, then they have succeeded in convincing you to build the gallows on which to hang yourself. Or, at best, live in a filthy, miserable feudal system.