[Editor's Note: The following post is by Menno Troyer, TDV Subscriber and a pioneer of the Free State Project]
On this July 4th, Independence Day in the US, it is an ideal time to pause and reflect upon the track record and results of the world-changing endeavor in limited collectivism that was America. An endeavor whose clock began ticking 236 years ago.
That endeavor took further shape eleven years later with the adoption of the Constitution. Its express purpose was to “…form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity”.
Note that each of these otherwise noble ideals is couched in strictly collectivist terms. Each one can in turn be reframed and restated from a rational individualist perspective. If it did, it would go something like this: “…nurture tighter bonds within one’s personal network, establish peaceful barriers to injustice, ensure one’s own tranquility, provide for one’s own defense, pursue one’s own happiness and well-being, secure the blessings of liberty to oneself, and teach one’s posterity to think and fend for themselves.”
Nevertheless, collectivist ideology aside, the endeavor began with an unprecedentedly limited and laissez faire government, paving the way for an explosion of productivity and wealth creation unlike anything the world had ever seen. Over the ensuing span of time that limited and laissez faire government has grown into the largest and most powerful government in the history of mankind, culminating in a final feeding frenzy by governmental predators destroying what remains of prosperity in the US.
America’s founders perhaps believed they had established a collectivist system that could actually stand the test of time. Perhaps Thomas Jefferson thought that by duly exhorting his posterity to refresh the tree of liberty from time to time, the newly birthed monster could actually be kept small and vulnerable forever. Or perhaps the founders simply felt that each generation was responsible for “its” own liberty, and if future generations let the founders’ creation grow out of control, those generations deserved the consequences.
THE FOUNDING FATHERS FATAL FLAW: COLLECTIVISM
But alas, that is also a collectivist notion, and man does not function as a collective: The functioning unit of mankind is the individual. This is a fundamental law of the nature of man. Being unmindful of it invites undesirable consequences.
In reality, the apparently well-intentioned “founding fathers” created a collectivist system which, far from ensuring liberty for future generations, subordinated the individual to the whims of those who happen to be in the majority (by proxy), culminating in a serf-like subjection to overlords who routinely ignore the wishes of the majority simply because they can.
As the inevitable destructive outcome of this collectivist endeavor begins to dawn upon the serfs of the present day US, more and more are seen lashing out at the imaginary collective for dropping the ball. Incredibly, they put forward as a “solution” that very idea whose 236-year history has culminated in the exact opposite of the ideals it expressed: The idea that collectivism is essential to freedom, peace and prosperity, with the caveat that the collectivism must be “limited”. It is like arguing that smoking is essential to good health, with the caveat that the smoking must be “limited”.
CALL YOUR CONGRESSMAN TO EFFECT CHANGE!
Out of a delusional fervor to return the US to its roots of relatively limited collectivism, many liberty-minded serfs are vigorously calling for “taking back our government”. Some advocate doing so through the democratic (read: collectivist) process of voting, others broach the (equally collectivist) subject of revolution – the forcible casting off of an increasingly unbearable government as espoused in another overtly collectivist document, the Declaration of Independence.
This is delusional because these solutions are complete non-starters. An individual is powerless to either reverse the inexorable expansion of government or to effect a revolution. Reversing the expansion of government would require a fantastic spontaneous collaboration between massive numbers of individuals (which is outside the control of any individual) and revolution cannot happen unless a tipping point is reached, which is likewise outside the control of any individual. Yet deluded serfs routinely treat these subjects as if they were at the whim of a functioning entity, envisioned as “the people”, which could vote for smaller government or simply proceed with a revolution if it only had the sense to do so. They lash out in frustration at what they perceive as an apathetic and obstinate collective. In fact, the frustration arises from expecting a fatally flawed metaphor to behave as a functioning entity.
The metaphor referred to is “the collective”, aka “the people” aka “the greater ‘we’”. As a metaphorical entity, it is fatally flawed because it is supposed to correspond at once to multiple independent minds, bodies, and wills, with independent responsibilities, dreams and ideals, engaging concurrently in multiple independent decisions and actions. There is no entity in existence that has such plural qualities – and if there were, it would behave according to an entirely different set of principles from conventional entities.
Thus, the metaphor does not correspond to reality; its attempted application is erroneous and self-sabotaging. In fact, the illusion of this “greater ‘we’” is the seminal source of the greatest harms inflicted upon mankind, always in the name of the greater good.
There is no such thing as a functioning collective; there is only the mosaic effect of the independent choices and actions of millions of functioning units, or individuals. It is precisely this mosaic effect which gives rise to the illusion of a functioning collective – when in fact there is no such entity.
THE COLLECTIVIST DELUSION
The delusion of collectivists is dramatically obvious whenever one hears ridiculous utterances such as, “We need to take back our government”, or “The people get what they deserve. They have the power to vote the bastards out.” Such utterances fly directly in the face of the basic fact that the functioning unit of mankind is the individual, and that no ordinary individual has any influence whatsoever over the choices and actions of untold hordes of fellow individuals.
Even when a tipping point is imminent (an unknown), there is nothing you or I can contribute that alters the outcome. The best an ordinary individual can do is to think and pay attention to the winds of change, and position oneself to profit and stay safe during the coming changes – which is precisely the mantra echoed regularly here at TDV… to survive and prosper during the collapse of the statist systems.
The way forward is NOT more of the same impotent yet destructive collectivist nonsense, but to focus entirely on measures that actually, effectively empower and enhance oneself. To do so, one must abandon all traces of collectivist fantasy.
IN SUMMARY
To summarize:
1) There is no such thing as “limited collectivism”; even the finest efforts at limiting collectivism ultimately fail. The only limit on collectivism is its natural culmination in social, moral and economic collapse.
2) There is no such thing as a functioning collective. The functioning unit of mankind is the individual.
3) The only approach to social order that is consistent with the nature of conscious man, and therefore works, is the self-responsibility and self-empowerment of rational individualism.
If the latter were to be applied universally by all, it would ostensibly lead to a relatively utopian civilization; but to dwell on this is only to further engage in collectivist daydreaming. What really matters is that rational individualism is what works, and works best, for the functioning unit of mankind – the individual – regardless of what anyone else does.
Menno Troyer is a voluntaryist, atheist, and an advocate of free markets. He currently resides in New Hampshire, and is one of the “First 1000” movers of the Free State Project. Forbidden to do so by his Old Order Amish father, he defiantly read the book The Neo-Tech Discovery at the tender age of sixteen – and thus began an inexorable odyssey toward objective thinking and personal freedom. At the age of twenty, he left his Amish roots to pursue his dreams in “the real world”, and has never looked back. Menno counts among his mentors and kindred spirits Dr. Frank R. Wallace, Ayn Rand, Andrew J. Galambos, Ian Bernard, Doug Casey, Jeff Berwick, and – ironically – his own father, Daniel Troyer, who was a renegade in his own right.
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