Tag: Patrick MacFarlane

In one of the most seething criticisms of government, “Anatomy of the State” exposes government for what it is: a mafia shakedown racket with a virtual monopoly on institutionalized violence.

In its natural, parasitic form, the State seeks only to leech more and more resources from productive members of society using what esteemed German sociologist Franz Oppenheimer called: the political means of acquiring wealth. That is, coercion through asset seizure and taxation, or legalized theft.

In order to see these concepts illustrated, one need only look to the realm of video games.

I have been a long-time fan of the “Total War” series published by SEGA and The Creative Assembly. Inherent in these games (as their title would suggest) is the idea that war is the modus operandi of the State. For anyone who has played “Total War,” or games like them, it is clear that war is the only path to accumulate real wealth–that is, the enslavement of new tax livestock.

These concepts may also be seen in games such as Cities: Skylines, in which a player may create, control, and manage an entire city with godlike dominion over zoning, private property, and taxes. Once you think about the implications of the game, the overall concept is quite alarming, because it is a simplified version of the truth.

Sure, in real life, city planners have political processes and various other hoops to jump through before violating property rights, but in the end, the process gets done and “the will of the people” is carried out. In the game, the process can be as simple as clicking the bulldozer icon and deleting someone’s home or business.

Once the veil is lifted and government’s true purpose is exposed, it is very easy to see through the illusion of government. While it is true that a video game cannot entirely capture its real-life intricacies, Rothbard’s concept of what the State inherently is, is conceptually communicated even at these very basic levels.

That being said, the popularity of these games may partially be derived from the fact that, for once, one of us little guys can get in the control seat and orchestrate some of humanity’s longest running criminal syndicates.

Once again, thanks for reading, and try not to knock yourself out cold from all the facepalms associated with social media and the 4th of July today!

 

Source: Liberty Weekly

Shhhh—–can you hear it?

It’s the grinding mechanization of perpetual warfare. It’s the cacophony of societal collapse. It’s the wail of air raid sirens in the dark. It’s the crawling consolidation of shadow government. It’s the fleshy crunch of a boot stamping on a human face–forever.

Perhaps I am being a tad dramatic, but there currently seems to be a national sense of unease–as if the entire country can sense that we are on the precipice of a societal paradigm shift. Perhaps it emanates from an openly laughable presidential election, or the weariness that Americans feel after eight years of an economic “recovery” that has seen more people deeper in debt and without savings.

It may still be unconscious, but Americans can feel the country teetering on the edge of economic abyss–a Lovecraftian Vale of Pnath where fiat currencies go to eternally lie.

What better way to celebrate our imminent descent into authoritarianism than by listening to Immolation’s 2013 effort Kingdom of Conspiracy?

Whether or not you are a fan of death metal, this album perfectly captures the Orwellian tone of the country. In fact, if you are not a fan of this style of music, you may find the album particularly more abrasive and frightening than you otherwise would.

From the album’s uncanny, lurching rhythm patterns, to its lyrical subject matter, Immolation breathes unholy life into the shadow government. To me, vocalist Ross Dolan’s muddy growl specifically personifies our conspiratorial overlords–like a real-life embodiment of the monster from Jekyll Island.

As a whole, Kingdom of Conspiracy is a concept album inspired by George Orwell’s influential novel, 1984.  The lyrical content, while at times a little clunky, tackles the hallmarks of totalitarianism: thought control, perpetual war, suppression of speech, and government indoctrination. All things that are becoming more and more prevalent in our daily experience.

For instance, check out the lyric video for my favorite track, Indoctrinate:

http://www.youtube.com/embed/2j8nwPTaDrg?version=3&rel=1&fs=1&autohide=2&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&wmode=transparent

As we sit an watch the world collapse, we might as well have some killer theme tunes. You could do much worse than listening to Immolation’s 2013 masterpiece (that’s right) Kingdom of Conspiracy.

Check out a full track list with lyrics here.

Once again, thanks for reading and if you like what you hear, be sure to get their CD through my Amazon affiliate link:

Immolation: Kingdom of Conspiracy [2013]

 

Source: Liberty Weekly

In the first installment of this series, we discussed what money is. In Part II, we analyzed why historically, gold and silver make the most stable forms of money. In this installment, we will begin to discuss how governments ruin money.

Currency Debasement

Throughout the history of civilization, governments have sought control over their civilization’s money supply. In practically every case that they have achieved this monopoly, catastrophe has followed.

In the days before fiat currency and central banking, governments primarily used a process called currency debasement in order to raise money for their state projects–usually warfare. In this process, the king/emperor/czar (pick your poison) called for a re-coinage of all the kingdom’s money supply.

Throughout the process of reissuing the currency, the state reduced the precious metal content of the coins and added it to the treasury. They then gave the same amount of debased coins back to the populace with a new stamp on them. Theoretically, everyone received the same amount of coins as they initially had given. The king then used the gold he stole to mint extra coins for his own use. Through spending this coin, he essentially increased the overall supply of money.

Because the king was the entity that first introduced the new coins into the money supply, he was able to enjoy low pre-inflation prices. Once he spent his stolen loot however, the effects of this increase in the supply of money then drove prices up for everyone to the tune of whatever percentage that he stole from the populace during the debasement process. As you may imagine, this process affected the middle class and the poor most of all because they were the last to get their hands on the new money.

As the money inflated, the lower classes continued to become destitute. The value of their money (or savings, if they had any) depreciated because the number value of their holdings did not increase in accordance with the increase in the money supply. Rinse and repeat this process ad nauseam  and people began to lose faith in the value of the kingdoms money. Pretty soon no one would accept the money and the kingdom would collapse from internal or external means.

Thankfully, the process of currency debasement was a relatively inefficient way to steal from the public. The process was long and tedious and therefore only performed once or twice in a generation. Unfortunately, governments have wised up since then.

In this installment of our series, we discussed the process of currency debasement. In our next issue, we will begin to tackle the horrific evils of central banking.

As always, thanks again for reading and check out the source material through my Amazon affiliate link:

The Mystery of Banking; Murray Rothbard                                          Chapters I-IV

Source: Liberty Weekly