From the White-PillBox: Part 26
There is a powerful White Pill in one of the State’s most fundamental flaws. Namely, that it is unnatural.
The State is an artificial and unnatural institution. And it breeds systems and social conditions that are themselves unnatural. As destructive as this may be, there is hope in the fact that the unnatural is self-defeating.
To best appreciate the significance of this, we should start by considering the importance of the condition most natural to man: consent.
Consent
The social situations to which we consent 1 give us the best chance to better ourselves (and to learn from mistakes). A particular choice we make is selected (by consent) over others. We do this precisely because we hope it leads to a better condition, compared to not making that choice.
Conversely, when consent is violated, we are robbed of the ability to influence our progress. Our outcomes are worse because we are manipulated or coerced…against what we would choose by consent.
This means the most natural conditions among humans are consensual interactions. And conditions of non-consent are thereby unnatural 2.
How unnatural the State is
The State is coercive by design. The violation of consent literally defines it. This means it is unnatural at its core.
But the State encompasses more than raw coercion. It manipulates through indoctrination, patriotism, guilt and hate. It instigates bullying by leveraging large interest groups against the unconnected. It foments hatred of group against group. It acts for its own short-term benefit, disregarding its tangential effects: human suffering, death, social discord, financial loss, environmental damage, etc.
Again, we see outcomes that are unnatural.
The State: a hatchery of the perverted
As we know, the State persists and grows over time. It is an institutionalized breeding ground for even more unnatural outcomes; conditions inappropriate for man.
This essay will provide examples of perverted and destructive human dynamics, all inevitable outgrowths of the State. These dynamics are possible only because the State enjoys a free-pass to violate consent 3.
So, given how depressing these examples are (especially for anarchists), it is important to mention the White Pill first.
The White Pill
Each example emphasizes conditions inappropriate to humans, that is, unnatural conditions.
The White Pill is, quite simply, that the unnatural is unsustainable.
The normal, natural conditions of man are peaceful, cooperative, consensual and voluntary. These conditions arise more easily, are more stable, and yield more happiness. They are conditions to which we tend to gravitate.
The natural attracts natural support.
On the other hand, the unnatural always fights an uphill battle. An unnatural situation produces intolerable outcomes. People tend to avoid such outcomes, so the unnatural cannot rely on consistent and enthusiastic support. And it must work ceaselessly to deal with the public image of its bad outcomes. It must hide and obfuscate them, finding others to blame. This work is endless.
Like building a house of cards, the more unnatural the situation, the more unstable it becomes and the more likely it is to fall.
And this means in the long run, the State is unsustainable 4.
Keep this White Pill in mind as we examine the horrors of the State’s unnatural progeny…
A parade of the unnatural
Police
Police are given authority and responsibilities inappropriate to human beings. When the State gives guns to its enforcers, the sole purpose is for use against human beings, in situations of tension and violence. They are expected to make those decisions in the pressure of the moment.
The State drills into them the idea that they are the guardians of social order…the line between chaos and civilization. It gives them symbols of authority over others by having them wear intimidating uniforms adorned with metal badges. In their interactions with the public, the State teaches them paranoia…that anyone may be an adversary. In many cases the public is disarmed - and the police know this. They are made to witness time and again the worst behaviors in humans: how brutal people can act toward each other; how they can victimize the weak and helpless (including the smallest of children) 5.
The presumption of “innocent until proven guilty” gets turned on its head. In almost all interactions between the police and an average person, the presumption of innocence is overwhelmingly in favor of the police, and the presumption of guilt weighs against the person with whom they interact. These are the default assumptions at work based on the unbalanced scales of power.
This is power not meant for man. We should not have the ongoing power of a gun over others; we should not see ourselves as morally and legally superior to others; we should not be relentlessly subjected to the worst of human behavior.
These are unnatural conditions; the sense of self and of others is distorted and damaged because government police dynamics are so utterly abnormal.
Military
In a similar way, the role of the military is unnatural. But those in the armed services can be subjected to even more extreme conditions than police.
They are taught that extreme human regimentation is normal; that the lowly among them are cogs…tools to be used at the will of those who are superior to them.
They are taught to not question, which means, to circumvent their natural reasoning and judgement.
They are taken to foreign places, disconnecting and distancing them from their homes and communities. In these places they feel as an outsider, and are looked upon by the local communities as such. And their view of the locals is likewise distorted: not only some, but all of them can be enemy combatants. The entire culture itself may be seen as evil and a threat.
And not only do they feel threatened; they are trained to believe this enemy is a threat to their families and neighborhoods - indeed to their very way of life.
When exposed to conditions of war, they are trained to disregard nuance. The enemy must be killed, else they will be killed 6.
To blind them to the realities of the role, they are heavily indoctrinated in the vague concepts of country, homeland, history, honor, etc.
Their status is glorified, literally 7. They are thanked endlessly. Benefits are heaped upon them. From this they often develop a powerful sense of superiority and entitlement.
And conversely, when they leave, they feel forgotten and abandoned.
Once again we see highly unnatural conditions, inappropriate for a healthy psychology. Unsurprisingly, these perverse dynamics lead to abuse, suicide, mental damage, homelessness, etc.
Politicians and other State workers
The phrase “power corrupts” is highly accurate. But State workers are not merely more likely to engage in corrupt practices. Power corrupts their character.
Think of our normal human interactions, where we recognize clear and reasonable boundaries. For example, we generally know with whom we are interacting (people, businesses, etc.). We know what our interactions cost in terms of our time, money and other resources. We have a decent idea of the benefits we expect from the interactions.
None of this is complex or surprising. It is the natural way we interact with others consensually.
But it is different for members of the State (politicians, judges, bureaucrats, etc.).
They perceive the public with broad and ill-defined boundaries. We are a generalized impersonal body of people, to which they cannot feel a human connection.
From our point of view, the scope of their specific duties is vague and poorly understood. How much money they spend is unclear, as is exactly what the money is spent on. We cannot clearly and specifically articulate the benefits we get from them. Indeed, we often do not even know who they are.
In consensual relationships both parties sense a relative equality with the other: they appreciate the relationship, knowing the other can end it if dissatisfied. Instead, members of the State know full well they have the public at their mercy. The public cannot shop around; they cannot withdraw from the relationship; they cannot alter the financial terms and indeed must pay whatever price the State declares.
This unnatural condition twists the psychology of members of the State. Similar to police and the military, they see themselves as special and above the rest 8.
Worst of all, their decisions carry little or no consequences.
No consequences: besides twisting their morality and creating countless innocent victims, what could go wrong?
Prisons
This is the most explicitly unnatural dynamic that the State produces. For the person deprived of their freedom, the prison experience is uncertain, degrading, psychologically damaging, threatening, and often physically harmful. Conditions can be brutal almost beyond imagination.
But the damage extends beyond them.
The authorities who govern jails and prisons are given direct control over most aspects of a prisoner’s life, backed up by guns and other tools of force. They perceive as adversaries and threats all those who are incarcerated (regardless of their actual innocence or guilt). The relationship is far closer to master and slave than peer to peer 9.
This is unnatural to the core.
Public School
Take a minute to ponder the unspeakable conditions of prisoners, as indicated above.
Now put your child in there.
This is the State’s school system, not in degree, but in kind.
Children are regimented from start to finish; they must get permission to speak; to move; to use the bathroom. They are told when to eat; where to go; what to do; what they must learn (and not learn). Bells and buzzers delineate their day. They are not individuals, but part of a class.
And that’s just the structural part. The environment fosters even more unnatural cruelty. Children experience intimidation and extreme peer pressure. They are told not to question but obey. They are indoctrinated all day, every day, during all their years there.
In some ways, prisoners have it better.
All of this is particularly unnatural for a growing young mind. And indeed many of them come to hate learning as such (unsurprisingly).
The general public
Voting
The general public has no meaningful power to influence the State. Of course this includes voting.
But those who vote must convince themselves that their participation does have meaning. Even if they understand their individual vote does not influence politics, most nonetheless believe their vote represents the collective “voice of the people”. They feel they are part of something important.
This is, of course, a self-delusion.
But imagining they have power affects their psychology. They come to believe their opinions extend beyond themselves; that it is not enough they feel a certain way, but that others should as well.
It is the very ability to vote that sets the stage for this self-deception.
Through this unnatural influence, average people are thus more likely to express themselves harshly; more likely to want others compelled to conform to their opinions. They dislike, or even hate, people who vote differently or even think differently.
These are not mindsets they would have in a stateless environment, where there would be no reason they would imagine a right to compel others.
Deference to authority
As we know the State does all it can to sustain the public’s beliefs in its legitimacy and the need to be ruled. Its primary tool is indoctrination. This helps insure blind obedience, in exactly the way cult indoctrination works.
A perfect example of how this unnatural condition twists men’s judgement was the COVID hysteria. The public is often condemned by anarchists because of their near-total compliance. Across the world they gave in to a mass hysteria. But for this to happen, the State needed to push the public’s psychology to its limits with a false threat of a world-consuming plague. It had to place them into an unnatural state of mind.
Conclusion
The phrase is particular appropriate here: before things can get better, they have to get worse. We see exactly this principle playing out in the areas mentioned above.
The police are showing more brutality in their interactions with the public; they are permitting crimes to occur, sometimes before their very eyes; the courts prosecute people who defend themselves; State agents enforce the mindless COVID mandates.
The military’s situation is worsening. Personnel are more quickly become disillusioned in our age of rapid information flow and decentralized news. Endless and pointless wars are still a fresh lesson. In the modern woke culture, there is a growing sense of entitlement among the ranks. Those with a measure of morality and common sense see this, and are more likely to quit in frustration, accelerating the decay of the military.
Politicians are eating themselves as they scramble for the shrinking pie of mainstream media attention. Each election cycle grows worse, at once more hateful yet more embarrassing for them. As the economy suffers with the return of inflation, government budgets are sure to be tighter. This will accelerate the desperation of state agencies across the board.
The public schools are quickly losing legitimacy. Parents are waking up to the realities of state education as the woke and critical race cultures continue to plant their roots there. Meantime, home schooling is on an exciting upswing. And with a struggling economy, public school budgets will suffer in kind and this will hopefully accelerate the decline.
Anarchists and other liberty-advocates can take little credit for the decline of these institutions. Instead, we are seeing nature take its course.
The unnatural is self-defeating. This means the State itself is inherently self-defeating.
The term “consent” is made clearer by defining its scope (i.e., the boundaries of one’s consent). The anarcho-capitalist view is that a person, firstly, should have full consent over the use of their person (physical body). Secondly, they should have consent over the use of their property (real world objects acquired through original appropriation or title transfer).
For exactly this reason we judge crime as morally wrong. We know that it places victims in an unnatural condition…a condition not of their choosing, and therefore inappropriate for their happiness.
We know the non-consensual interaction with a street thug is unnatural. This is infinitely compounded with government, for the same reason: consent is violated. But the State raises non-consent to the level of a formal institution with perceived moral legitimacy.
This is not the State’s only major weakness. In fact the State has many fundamental flaws, and is indeed a weak adversary.
A high percentage of these situations are drug related, and thus a direct cause of the State itself.
It is true, they voluntarily join. But not one in a thousand has an inkling of what is to come, especially at their naive age. The expectations that a recruiter provides are likely to emphasize the benefits, and underplay or disregard the harsh realities.
Keep in mind how the meaning of glory implies the sublime and heavenly. The military are taught to practically see themselves as agents of the celestial good…above mere human goodness, and defending spiritual goodness.
A great indicator that police, military and State roles are unnatural is found in the term “servant”. Police “serve the community”. The military “serve their country”. All State workers are “civil servants”.
Somehow we don’t think of our friends as our servants; nor do we think of our business associates that way. There is no need to.
Yet the term is useful - indeed necessary for the State - and for good reason. It is a psychological mask. Their relationship to us is involuntary…non-consensual. To hide this from the light of day, the near-opposite label of “servant” must be given to members the State. This ploy distracts us from the truth.
The general public is also affected, specifically, by their loss of empathy. No more than a cursory examination of the realities of prison conditions reveals brutal injustices that would challenge any normal person’s sense of fairness and morality. Most of us have only a glimmer of understanding of this reality. But rather than fully ponder it, we inoculate ourselves from these thoughts by keeping them at arm’s length in our minds.