From the White-PillBox: Part 11

The State – A Weak Adversary

This installment dispenses a significant White Pill based on one of my previous essays (aptly titled The State is a Weak Adversary).

As we internalize the Red Pill that the State is illegitimate, most of us experience a great sense of discouragement. We regard the State as a permanent institutional force. We despair the minority status of fellow anarchists in a world that accepts the State without question.

It is understandable the State is perceived as unstoppable. It has existed through recorded history; its legitimacy is accepted by the overwhelming majority; its accumulated power dwarfs that of any individual, church, corporation or any other private group.

And all this makes it easy to assume the nature and evolution of the State arose from conscious intent.

But this is not true.

The State is nothing more, and nothing less, than an old and bad idea, kept alive by inertia.

There is no master at a control panel pushing levers. There is no Bond villain masterfully manipulating society. There are no hidden cabals at the highest levels conspiring towards world domination.

There is only this bad idea: men may govern and rule other men. And there is the inertia of that idea, as a historical tradition.

Because it is (and always was) a bad idea, the State deserves no respect as an institution; no respect based on tradition. It has no honor or dignity. It is not a safeguard of life, liberty, or property.

But as powerful as the institution of the State appears to be, at the root it is weak. Unfortunately, this can be difficult to see.

Notice how those State agencies with which we are unfamiliar, are often idealized. We imagine the inner-workings of these fields as highly efficient, staffed with intelligent, skilled, single-minded experts dedicated to honor, justice and the betterment of man. Our lack of familiarity, combined with their perceived social importance, endows them with expertise that is “beyond us”.

This is a common assumption for many State functions: the military; court prosecutors or judges; congressional bodies; FDA or CDC facilities; environmental agencies; housing or educational agencies.

In our minds they are different flavors of the “West Wing”.

Yet, for those agencies of the State with which we are familiar, we are not awestruck. Those areas are more mundane to us; those who work in these fields are simply people just like us: perhaps skilled, but with all the idiosyncrasies and flaws shared by all.

We have this more realistic view because we have direct experience with them, for example, the Post Office, a DMV or an unemployment office. We do not cower in awe at their efficiency; we do not see honor and glory. Indeed, we are rarely impressed and often disappointed.

Similarly, once we experience (or learn from others about) the day to day reality of the “elite” levels of the State, we find they are all merely different flavors of the Post Office or DMV. It is eye-opening, once realized: agencies of government that one might imagine are elite and efficient, are petty and bureaucratic.

Learning that all of government is this way, is a major Red Pill.

Which leads to this White Pill: if the State is petty and bureaucratic, through and through, then it is weak, through and through.

But we can ponder this further.

We understand that those in politics, to a person, are simply humans. Their role confers no magical skills or wisdom. But this does not mean they are exactly like people outside of politics.

This is because they are part of an unnatural system.

A healthy society leaves individuals free to exercise ownership over their own lives. Each person makes choices, can learn from mistakes, and can grow with experience. Imperfect as it may be, the individual is in the best position to govern their life.

An unhealthy society permits a State: an unnatural institution with a monopoly of legal control over men. This is a power inappropriate to humans. To rule another undermines their autonomy, leaving them less capable of navigating the world.

No one can know what is best for others, let alone what is best for everyone. By definition, the State is inept at the task.

The State acts ineptly in every action it takes.

This is yet another reason the State is a weak adversary. By its very nature, it is persistently and permanently incompetent.

Of course, it is undeniable that the sum total of the State’s inept actions can (and almost always is) destructive. But this is unlike the danger of a thinking adversary. Instead, it is the danger of a runaway train: horrifying in motion, but irrelevant when it runs out of inertia.

These weaknesses are enmeshed within the very foundation of the State. And that White Pill should make us less fearful of this weak adversary.