I have often written about the hegemonic grip that free market politics and economics has on our national consciousness. As a result, it is a taken from granted that the state is a bad thing in our modern Anglo-Saxon societies, and this is never challenged, not even by so-called socialists. They appear to have absorbed and accepted Karl Popper's thesis that the state is a necessary evil that must not be allowed to grow greater than is absolutely necessary. This is of course rubbish. The state is not a thing. It is a manifestation of human political, social and economic life. It is a human artefact and is a reflection of the people who are charged with its functions. The state can be bad, it can be evil, but it can also be a force for good, it is simply a reflection of the policies of the people who control it. The great paradox of modern life is that those same free marketeers who so demonise the state and demand its minimalisation, are the same people who utilise its powers ferociously and ruthlessly in pursuit of their own agenda. In the UK for example, it has been the Tories, under the direction first highlighted by the Blessed Margaret, who have relentlessly centralised power in a manner Lenin would have approved of. As a matter of interest, Thatcher, the enemy of the state and of public provision, who actively attempted to destroy the concept of council housing, as Prime Minister lived rent and tax free in a council house, 10 Downing Street. The Queen and the rest of her family are all social housing occupants and live off public welfare. The Prime Minister in Britain is the ultimate public sector employee and the Royal Family are the ultimate benefit scroungers. You couldn't invent these people's hypocrisy. So, where would Tory Prime Ministers and the Royal Family be were it not for the state?
What never seems to have occurred to the free marketer is that their present capitalist system could never have been realised without a strong and active state. The principal driver of an efficient capitalist system is communications. Roads, railways, air transport, docks, waterways etc. are all crucial to an effective economy. In the modern world we depend on broadband, telecommunications the internet etc. which in turn all depend on massive state investment. In addition an effective economy needs a healthy and educated workforce. None of these essential characteristics can be left to market forces and the private sector, Adam Smith recognised that 250 years ago. Stripped to its essentials, free market ideology is stupid and unworkable, a catalogue of contradictions and wishful thinking. As I have written before, it is characterised by a quite ridiculous concept of the individual, and simply does not even begin to understand the nature of the state.
It is the great proponents of the free market who love war and invading other countries. This could not happen without the state and its armed forces. In their never-ending search for new weapons and technology they are dependent on state sponsored investment and research. In the United States their space programmes were state sponsored. I could go on and on, but hope that you have the message, capitalism could not survive without a powerful and proactive state. More and more people are beginning to question the dominance of the free market and particularly its militant manifestation of neoliberalism. Why, because it has demonstrably failed and has caused serious damage at all levels of society. You heard it here first, you have been warned.
Your Servant
Doktor Kommirat
No comments:
Post a Comment