Both the State and its favored handmaidens are crumbling from within. By handmaidens, I mean those institutions so heavily influenced by the State, that they are naturally incentivized to propagandize for State legitimacy.
First, the State
The language and tone of politicians toward each other has escalated in viciousness. Politicians are eating themselves (a particularly efficient way to go extinct). This pattern started well before Trump. But in a real sense he accelerated that trend by “giving permission” to dial up the vitriol. And there is no reason to expect this trend to change. To gain the attention of dwindling media audiences, they must out-do each other attacking their rivals.
But this is only one example of this defining characteristic of modern political behavior: desperation. Think of a sinking lifeboat, then observe the similarity to the behavior and edicts of politicians and bureaucrats. Whether the subject is the military, the economy, health, the environment, etc., their actions seem rash and risky; they are clearly making things up as they go. More than ever, they appear ill prepared; they blame; they act belligerent; they give hollow and transparent excuses. Even when they appear calm, they lie and mislead.
Consider this: if the State had genuine legitimacy - if it was confident in its moral and rational foundations - it would have no need to show these increasing signs of desperation.
The COVID experience illustrates this with particular clarity. COVID was a social health issue, which made it a scientific issue. In every meaningful respect, the existence and concerns over a new virus should have been fully handled by the rationality of science. The decentralized nature of scientific inquiry would have been the expected way to deal with the complexity of such a health concern.
Instead, politics governed the COVID response from the start. As with all matters infected by the influence of the State, it was handled badly. The human and monetary costs will never be fully known.
The State thereby created this White Pill all on its own: a significant loss of public belief in its legitimacy. This is not to say a stateless society is around the corner. But it does mean that by failing so utterly in its COVID response, the State helped self-detonate its legitimacy in the minds of many more people than would have otherwise occurred.
The State’s handmaidens
The institutions that are heavily influenced by the State and culturally support its legitimacy include traditional news media, higher academia and the public school system at all levels, major social media platforms, and banking. Each, in its own way, is being rocked to its foundations. To the extent they give support to the State, their decline in influence is a major White Pill.
The media
The traditional media outlets are fading in influence, and they are aware of this. The trend toward decentralized content is causing them to scramble for a shrinking audience (not only due to competing content providers, but also because their audience tends to be the older generations). Keep in mind that the majority of their content is political, and the public clearly senses they propagandize in favor of the State. However, the alternate media providers’ content is not as completely dominated by politics. So we see two dynamics at work: public trust and consumption of major media declines, and with it, a growing sense that the State is irrelevant.
Academia and public schooling
One would think the educational establishment would represent society’s safeguard of rational thought and reason. But the State is utterly enmeshed with academia. It is no surprise academia has proved a failure at both maintaining cultural rationality, and producing productive and independent graduates.
The value of academic degrees is in decline. No one seriously equates a high school diploma with knowledge or skills. Even a four-year college degree is an afterthought to most employers. But this is no surprise. The private labor market prizes skill and productivity, which are notably absent from most public curricula.
The public school system has produced great disillusionment among parents. It fails in its fundamental task of education, even as its funding increases. And especially since COVID, parents have learned that schools are little more than indoctrination centers. Untold numbers of parents are discovering that their young children are subjected to theories and cultural thought that run contrary to the values they hold.
Home schooling enrollment has thereby increased and there is every reason to suspect this trend will continue. Private educational choices necessarily must stay competitive, innovative and cost-effective. None of these are attributes of public schooling. Favored treatment by government can only postpone its demise for so long. This is an important White Pill, because it portends more and more children emerging from their formative years without the mind-numbing belief in the legitimacy of the State.
Major social media
The major social media platforms had little to do with the State until the last decade. But in the pursuit of favorable treatment by government, they adopted censorship policies commonly referred to as “cancel culture”. Their willingness to adopt these measures benefits the State by confining the allowable scope of discussion.
As private companies, the media platforms are free to engage in these practices. But like any business decision, if it is not conducive to customer satisfaction, then in the long run it tends to turn away business. We are not yet at the stage where the major platforms are in obvious decline. But their decline is all but inevitable.
More than any other of the State’s handmaidens, the capital foundation of media platforms is technological and virtual. These attributes are far easier to develop than physically engineered capital investments. Competitors to social media giants have already emerged and this trend will continue. And the major platforms will only hasten their own decline because their competitors will have the advantage of imposing less censorship over content.
Banking
Government-regulated banking, and in particular central banks such as the Federal Reserve, are the State’s financial handmaidens. They provide the fuel that permit the State to fund itself in the first place.
But their foundations are being challenged by the emergence of private cryptocurrencies. Alternatives such as Bitcoin are rapidly gaining mainstream adoption. This process is rapidly evolving; the forces of government regulation are racing against cryptocurrency innovations. This path will continue to be painful and unsteady, but the outcome is almost inevitable: innovation will win.
As private decentralized currency replaces government money, the current banking industry will go extinct like dinosaurs.
As the State loses this handmaiden, a stateless society will be genuinely within reach.
Large corporations deserve special mention
Many, if not most, large companies have accepted modern progressive doctrines. It is difficult to gauge whether their managers believe in these ideas, or adopt them to avoid bad press. Either way, the results are internal policies untethered from sound business practices. To employees, the work environment becomes more about personally intrusive rules, rather than productivity and customer satisfaction. The employees who can function in this environment tend to be more compliant. Thus, independent minded workers will inevitably drift away from large corporations, making these companies less competitive.
Moreover, those companies that enjoy direct government benefits will be the first to lose them, as the State’s fiscal decline results in jettisoning relationships with private firms.
Conclusion
All of the above-mentioned major institutions have relevance only insofar as they bring genuine value to people. In general, the public values media providers most when their content is reliable, true and unbiased. They value education most when it helps ready their children to survive and flourish as adults in the real world. They value social media when they feel free to consume the content they wish, and express themselves as they wish. They value sound money. And to the extent they value employment with large companies, they prefer a workplace free of politics and social pressure.
Instead, these institutions are in competitive decline, all while they profess the institutionally popular opinions of the moment.
The State, and its favored handmaidens, are unsustainable.