Another Utopian Central Planner From The Entertainment World Gets Some Attention
I'm a few days late on this…and honestly, I don't like to comment on these things because it my gears grind whenever I think of them…but I just had to comment on Russell Brand's call for a centrally planned socialist utopia. Brand said in that inexplicably popular interview:
"I think a socialist egalitarian system based on the massive redistribution of wealth, heavy taxation of corporations, and massive responsibility for energy companies and any companies exploiting the environment. I think they should be ta– I think the very concept of profit should be hugely reduced. David Cameron says profit isn’t a dirty word; I say profit is a filthy word."
Brand sees that a few people are benefiting immensely at the expense of the majority of the people. But he fails to see that this robbery is a product of the inherently aggressive violence and theft that is the nature of the political system.
He fails to understand that trade and profit are the key to improving standards of living, not the cause of pollution and poverty. The violent system known as the state has shifted shape like a supernatural demon-spawned movie villain so that it can claim that it's now the good guy…a democratic system of violence that's supposed to serve the mob at the expense of the minority profit-seeking elite. Instead, the same class of sociopaths that has always run the world by means of violence is still running the world by means of violence. They continue to steal from the majority through a violent monopoly on money and inflation; they use regulation to prevent the majority from creating new wealth; they sustain poverty under the guise of curing it (welfare); the poverty they sustain breeds misery and the relatively minor crime they have us fret about while they kill on a massive scale in war; they further create crime under the guise of protecting us from harming ourselves (prohibition).
To his credit, this shaggy comedian has eloquence to spare. But despite his passion and diction, his ideas are old and depressingly bad. He wants to fix the poverty caused by the centralization of power among an elite class of those willing to use immeasurable aggressive violence…with even more centralized power among some to-be-announced elite class of those willing to control people at gunpoint. But in his mind this time the political power would be held by more compassionate people who would actually address the needs of the poor who vote for them!
Sigh. Russell Brand is just calling for a more totalitarian state with more power to redistribute wealth and make sure that the wealthy are forced to share with the poor. As if the wealthy won't just seize control of any political (i.e. inherently immoral) system. It saddens me to see that this state-worshiping, market-hating notion is still floating around and that it gets so much attention when some leftist entertainer trumpets it as anti-authoritarian or compassionate. The state is precisely what creates the wealth gap. No one gets as rich as our current crop of elite without buying violent favors from the state in the form of regulation that kills competition and guarantees profits while making tax theft victims pay for private bad decisions. And nothing guarantees and entrenches poverty like the state whose regulations raise barriers to entry and whose welfare "assistance" creates dependency and destroys intelligence and initiative for hordes of millions across generations.
A centralized monopoly of violence (a state) will always draw and empower the very worst of humanity to it. These people have historically always extracted the labor of those they rule at gunpoint (or swordpoint), but in these last few years they've found it much more efficient to give the illusion of freedom, of putting "the peopel" in control by means of voting. And while Russell Brand has caught on that voting is a scam to give the illusion of majority will, he hasn't let go of the illusion that centralized aggression is the answer to the world's ills. He wants more centralized aggression instead, presumably using the logic that nothing cures the the trauma of rape, murder and theft like even more rape, murder and theft.
I hope Brand's surge of popularity is one of the death throes for this old idea. His apparent sincerity has cost me sleep. I am still hoping that the internet is helping people see the light of reason more than it gives popular and passionate redistributionists the limelight.
Regards,
Gary Gibson
Editor, The Dollar Vigilante
Before we get to the review let’s have a look at what you missed in this weeks’ TDV Dispatch.
First, I introduced the newest member of the Adisory Board for my other project, the Ludwig von Mises Institute of Canada, the estimable Eric Sprott.
Next, Jeff updated us on Cambodia, a place he titles “the new Thailand.”
Ed Bugos updated us on the markets in his “Portfolio & Review”, while Xevi Mató told us all about his notion of an ancap hotel in Spain.
Next, Jeff took us around the world of the absurd in his weekly “Other News from TEOTMSAWKI and TDV Related Tidbits”.
Finally, we profiled John Stuart Mill.
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Here’s what we wrote about this week…
MONDAY, October 28
The Unbearable Lightness of Leaving
Wendy McElroy on her departure for Galt’s Gulch Chile.
“From one day to the next, North America is disappearing. Even to me, it sometimes seems to be the same place in which I grew up because everything is so familiar. But the political and institutional framework that supported rights and enabled peaceful individuals to simply live their lives is gone. Freedom of speech has been replaced by political correctness. Privacy is non-existent even for the most personal of communications. Due process has been gutted by an administration that executes Americans without trial and promotes torture. The militarized police are indistinguishable from regular armed forces who occupy their own nation as though it were a conquered one. The school system is a blatant propaganda machine with buildings that look like penitentiaries. Rights have become state-granted privileges with the basic human right to travel becoming more restrictive at every step.”
TUESDAY, October 29
TSA: 75% of Domestic Travelers a Flight Risk
Jeff Berwick on the absurd entity that is the TSA.
“The Transportation Security Agency believes that 75% of Americans are suspect. One indicator that you are a "risk" while flying? Owning a passport.
And so, what does the TSA do about it?
Even for domestic flights, they scan government and private databases including car registration and employment information.
Does your DMV record scream "bad slave?" Thinking that maybe now is a good time to go?
If so, maybe you're too late.”
Wednesday, October 30
Eric Sprott Joins Mises Canada
The estimable Eric Sprott joins Canada’s Mises Institute.
" As the Founding Director of the Ludwig von Mises Institute of Canada, my goal has been to bring the teachings of Austrian economics and libertarian political philosophy to a country that is not so infatuated with the idea of a totally free society. Let’s just say, it hasn’t been an easy journey thus far. A country with the phrase “good government” in its motto can’t be changed overnight. But for almost half a decade now, we have tirelessly worked to teach the Canadian people the value of private property, sound money, liberty, and the most dangerous aspects of tyrannical government.”
FRIDAY, October 31
Feedback Friday – November 1, 2013
Your questions answered in our weekly feedback feature. Send any questions you may have to tdv@dollarvigilante.com. This week: A Yucatan plan, sailing away, and art and capitalism in Canada.
SATURDAY, November 2
The Weekend Vigilante — November 2, 2013
In his weekly address to TDVers, Jeff Berwick checks in from Galt’s Gulch Chile.
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