[An Article from Free Life]

Quite a lot has happened since the United Kingdom officially left the European Union on January 31st 2020. Barely two months had passed before we were subjected – with the mere stroke of a pen – to mass house arrest, compulsory mask wearing, absurd distancing rules and a general shutdown of the economy before being threatened with the possibility of mandatory or coerced vaccinations. While, touchwood, the COVID panic seems to have subsided for now, today the West is fighting a proxy war with Russia in Ukraine, the global economy is in tatters, inflation is rising, and food and energy security have become a top priority in the rich world. The infliction of impoverishment and destitution in order to fulfil globalist, technocratic agendas has met the response of widespread protests on the continent (and even more notably in Sri Lanka, which has ousted its President).

Moreover, all of this has taken place against the backdrop of an accelerating culture war. Real and imagined divisions or fault lines based on gender, race, sexual orientation and religion have been exploited and exaggerated; Western values are denigrated as “imperialist” and “supremacist”; today, the definition of a “woman” seems to be a major political talking point, and yet even only five years ago it would have been laughed off the agenda.

In light of these cataclysmic developments, it is not unusual to see one or two commentators on the right stating that the now distant memory of Brexit no longer has much importance. Frequent among these is journalist James Delingpole, who has tweeted words to this effect on more than one occasion. In terms of magnitude, it is true that any victory achieved by Brexit seems dwarfed by these later events, together with the growth of state power they have enabled. Nevertheless, I think such a view is short-sighted, and at least the spirit, if not the act of Brexit, remains crucial to resisting the onslaught of tyranny.

It’s important to realise that none of the events described has occurred in isolation. Rather, Brexit was the first battle in what is likely to prove a long war against the consolidation and centralisation of power and decision making authority into an ever dwindling handful of supranational institutions. Such global governance is operated at the behest of elites and technocrats whose radical visions for the social and economic order are scarcely within the interests of the populations they rule.

Prior to 2016, it is likely that the political establishment believed that they could coast along to around the year 2050 (or farther), implementing their series of transformative visions in a piecemeal fashion without encountering any serious opposition. After all, any major ideological differences – such as that between “capitalism” and “socialism” – seem to have been killed off after the demise of Soviet Communism, subsumed by a liberal democratic consensus. It was difficult not to believe that we were destined for a “rules-based” world order of open borders, neo-liberal economic policies, managed trade, “decarbonised” industry, and a global monoculture based on openness and tolerance of all lifestyles, religions, and choices under the banner of “human rights”.

Brexit, and the election of Donald Trump on his “America First” platform shortly after, were the first indications that this cosy vision of the near future was, to put it politely, inaccurate. To anyone who bothered to peer outside of the M25 or the Washington beltway, neither of these two events was a tremendous surprise. But for those living in the bubble we just described – a cadre largely insulated from the negative economic and social consequences of the policies they championed – these elections were an earthquake. Such shock wasn’t manifest solely in what seemed to be the mere unlikelihood of the outcomes; rather, it was the apparent absurdity that bowled them over. How could any right thinking person possibly want to extract a tiny island from one of the world’s largest trading blocs to “go it alone”? How could anyone in their right mind want to hand the potty mouthed, oafish orange man the keys to the Oval Office? After seventy years of progress in the name of global peace and co-operation (under the West’s terms, of course), weren’t we now retrogressing to the dark days of the 1930s – back to fascism, nationalism, racism and war?

Political Unionism after Roe v. Wade

[Originally Published on Free Life]

When asked to account for the inspiration behind his voluminous output, Murray N Rothbard is supposed to have replied “hatred is my muse”. In other words, he could not bear to let the scores of fallacies etched into some statist screed stand unanswered.

I myself receive few visits from this particular muse. In fact, to become riled by the predictably ignorant emissions of mainstream authors, journalists and pundits would probably be detrimental to one’s own sanity – more so today than in Rothbard’s lifetime. (Either way, it goes without saying that I am unlikely to come close to matching the great man’s extraordinary contributions). However, I do experience more than a passing encounter with some combination of wrath and despair in one, particular situation: when confronted by some piece of errant nonsense penned by a libertarian (or fellow traveller) who is in the position to know better.

Those following the political situation in the United States may have heard that the Supreme Court in Washington, DC has recently delivered several, broadly favourable judgments in US constitutional law, including: one striking down a New York gun control law, and, on June 24th, another reversing the landmark decision on abortion, Roe v. Wade.[1] While the effect of the latter is limited to declaring that abortion should be a matter regulated by the states – most blue states will inevitably continue to allow terminations – abortion, with Roe as its centrepiece, has become part and parcel of the US culture war. As such, rather than being regarded as a simple reversal of Federal overreach, it is arguable that the overruling of Roe has symbolised the struggle for the control of America.[2] Indeed, shortly after the decision, conservative commentator Matt Walsh tweeted:

Thus, amidst the jubilation of conservatives, traditionalists, states’ rights advocates and their allies, the US Libertarian Party – which has recently come under the control of the Rothbardian/Paulian “Mises Caucus” – was much less enthusiastic:

To counter what seems, to me, to be a reasonably sensible take, another user decided to tweet the following:

This comment fails to grasp in every way the reasons why libertarians should support the decentralisation of state power.

Continue Reading at Free Life