Lew Rockwell cites some arresting insights from Hans Hoppe on the Constitution and on the ultimate nature of democracy and the total state:
“History bears this out. Hoppe dates the onset of modern democracy to World War I and following, and he has scandalized many by calling the U.S., the Soviet Union, and Nazi Germany all democracies, but he means this in his special sense: the people neither own themselves nor are owned by anyone. The citizens are public property and are said to all participate in their own governance understood as an elected executive state. This was a modern form of government that displaced the old form – and it goes a long way towards explaining the advent of total war and the total state.”
Robert said…
1, Indeed. The frightful thing is that most don;t seem to mind. Very scary. I missposted in other section, but I wonder who or what at core is this new (or scary old) man? Happy denizens of a government sponsored workhouse–work at mostly meaningingless work and you get to go home to Pizza Pockets and TV–yay. Oh and I have game boy and porn! They let me do that?
On a related tangent–the much heralded information technology has done much to aid and abet conformity and control. Am curious if within India data is starting to be kept in large volumes on citizens–I suspect Indians much too sensible. Odd, when you think about it India and many indians are serving as the keepers of the wests elaborate corporate and governmental filing cabinets. I suspect historians in the future will be amazed at the amount of energy and thought put into our amazingly elaborate record keeping systems–and very little to actual production as all else is really much the same as pre-IT “revolution”.