Thread on the US protests. Start with an analogy: when a bubble hits the economy, the longer you try to keep it inflated, the worse the eventual crash will be; when the fundamentals are broken, you can't get everyone to ignore that indefinitely.
The US political system (and many other democracies, but the US is most visible example) has been fundamentally broken for decades at least, possibly longer. The whole political class, of both parties, are venal, corrupt & self-serving.
The ever-more rabid polarisation is just a symptom of this: when you're a blatant plunderer, the only way to win is to focus voters' minds on how awful your opponent is, and convince them that you're the only one who can stop him.
When it reaches the point that even rural hicks have noticed that the government is a parasite and that elections are a massive practical joke by which those in power pretend that the ruled are the rulers...
... then it's inevitable that sooner or later the bubble will collapse, order will break down, etc. And the longer the State keeps a lid on it, the worse and more violent it'll be when it finally breaks through.
It really doesn't matter whether the #USelection2020 was rigged or not. Because it doesn't matter which side wins; the System endures. There's no box on the ballot paper for "I don't want *either* bunch of busybodies telling me what to do while I pay them for the privilege".
Those who've seen Grey's "The Rules for Rulers" may think that the Keys to Power in a democracy are the voting blocs. But those are only the keys to *office*. The System is where the Power resides, and it has much the same keys as anywhere else.
Democracy is a cloak that the kleptocracy learned to wear, but fundamentally it's no different to those Bronze Age kings who realised it was a lot easier to steal your neighbour's crop than spend all year growing your own.
And as long as Government is organised on any lines other than the express and explicit consent of the *individual*; as long as someone can have power over you that you did not personally choose to grant them...
... no amount of voting, or implied social contracts, or anything else will ever constrain the rapacity of power. All that will do so is the occasional outbursts of popular resistance when the régime pushes too far.
"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all. I like a little rebellion now and then. It is like a storm in the atmosphere"
"God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion." — Thos. Jefferson
And sure, it will suck to be in the middle of it all. It's difficult to live your life in the middle of a war. But the longer you keep the bubble inflated, the worse the crash when it finally pops.
America's luck is that they still have their guns. (For now, anyway.) If they have to, they still have the means to put Government back in its box. If they're *really* lucky, just reminding the Powers That Be of that fact may yet suffice.
The choice, ultimately, is between endless cycles of gradually expanding government parasitism checked by popular uprisings, or a society that rests on the uncoerced consent of its members & where each man is responsible for his own condition.
Anarchism doesn't have to mean chaos and communists and black-masked antifa thugs. There is a kinder, gentler anarchy — anarchocapitalism — that keeps Civilisation, yet runs it on the principle of consent rather than the principle of power.
So have a think. Read some Friedman. Because if your country's government *does* fall... you'll want to already have a plan for how to replace it. You can bet the next group of wannabe kings have *their* plans ready. [END]
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