The events in recent months in Venezuela provide a textbook example of statolatry—the term popularized by Ludwig von Mises in Omnipotent Government about tendencies to make government and its figureheads objects of veneration. This week’s Economist magazine reports (in an article on Hugo Chávez efforts to form a socialist ruling coalition in Venezuela):
I learned a new word from the TV yesterday. “Perp” — like, “he’s the perp who solved the long lines at the grocery checkout counter by blowing away ten patrons.” “Perp” — a “perpect” word for our non-judgemental society. Not hoodlum, thug, or even criminal. Just Perp. Short for perpetrator — a doer, you might say. A word bereft of ethical connotations.
Traveled to a big city lately? If so, you must have gotten words of wisdom from someone close to you. Advice, such as: do not walk the streets after dark; and, beware of pickpockets. Sound advice indeed. However, let us look closer to what is being said, and what is not said.
The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has just released the summary of its latest, forthcoming report on global warming. It’s most trumpeted finding is that the existence of global warming is now “unequivocal.”
I’ve noted before how many libertarians and Objectivists simply seem unable to appreciate the virtues of our federalist system; and that this is rejected implicitly when libertarians use “the government” to refer to both state and federal government (see Libertarian Centralists; The problem with “government”: The rejection of federalism by libertarian centralists; Objectivists on Kelo).
A strange culture of emergency has taken over this country, and the slightest provocation triggers it. It could be an expected terrorist or just an old-fashioned weather warning. The officials are quick to swing into action, and tell you what to do.
The problem is that these demands are often based on nothing other than government plans that are not in your best interest. It behooves all of us to think carefully about genuine preparedness, which might often involve bucking the system and telling the emergency nazis to mind their own business.
Sophistpundit gives What Has Government Done to Our Money (print, audio) a mostly favorable review, but he does have this reservation:
How do you restore the dignity supposedly missing from our capitalist society? According to the socialists at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), you restore dignity by having one group of Americans thieve from another, and you have government arrange the transaction.
Where is William Graham Sumner when you need him most?
