(1) Who do these people—that is, the state’s kingpins, Praetorian guards, bootlickers, and key private-sector supporters—think they are to treat us as they do?
(2) Why do nearly all of us put up with the state’s outrageous treatment?
…As for why we submit to the state’s outrages, the most persuasive answers have to do with fear of the state (and nowadays, for many, fear of self-responsibility as well), with apprehension about sticking one’s neck out when other victims may fail to join forces with those who resist first and, probably most important, with the ideological “hypnosis” (as Leo Tolstoy characterized it) that keeps most people from being able to imagine life without the state or to understand why the state’s claim to intrinsic immunity from the morality that binds all other human beings is the purest bunk.
Pointer from Don Boudreaux.
I believe that the answer is what I call FOOL–Fear Of Others’ Liberty. That is, we tolerate restrictions on our liberty because we want to live in a world where others’ liberty is restricted.
Elsewhere, Matt Mitchell quotes Higgs.
I believe crony capitalism—the alliance between business and government—is the biggest problem of our age. And the reason is that it is robust. As alternatives to free-market capitalism, communism and old-fashioned fascism are thankfully dead. And genuine socialism has no real constituency in America. But crony capitalism, unfortunately, has a very active, organized, well-funded, and vocal constituency. It is the greatest threat to our prosperity and our freedom.
These days, there are many people, not just big-time capitalist cronies, who benefit from government economic restrictions. People in licensed occupations, for example, will have Fear of Others’ Liberty.
I agree with the FOOL explanation, or “freedom for me, but not for thee”. How else do we account for the fact that most of those 4/20 legalization activists support other forms of coercion, or all those artists who support selective censorship?
That’s only part of it. The more chilling explanation that you see in many people is that they just adore displays of power. The more policy issues get framed as partisan knife-fights, the more they support seeing their side heavily armed.
The regulatory system that allows bypass of political processes seems like a force for entrenched interests.
What has been the human experience of the absence of a state? Does it suggest a less cynical explanation?
According to a recent WaPo editorial, Libya’s government currently “has no army and no way of establishing its authority….” Must be great.
Well how about keeping Government limited to suppression of violence and fraud?
People put up with it because they believe they cannot change it, and they comply because they are afraid. There’s no mystery here.