One peruses the daily news wires, as I do, with a certain melancholic predictability. Natural disasters, in all their indiscriminate fury, remind us of our fleeting dominion over the earth. Earthquakes in Indonesia, wildfires in Croatia – these are tragedies, certainly, but they are not, fundamentally, man-made. They strike, they devastate, and the only response is aid, rebuilding, and a grudging acceptance of forces beyond our control. But then one pivots to the man-made tragedies, the quotidian oppressions, and the simmering resentments that simmer beneath the surface of supposedly civilized societies, and a pattern emerges, clear and stark, like a gallows against a dawn sky.
Consider, if you will, the plight of Afghan women, their lives rendered "unrecognisable" after five years of Taliban rule. This isn't merely a cultural shift; it is the brutal imposition of an extremist, totalitarian ideology by a government that views half its population as property, not persons. It is the ultimate manifestation of state power unchecked, unconstrained, and unburdened by any notion of individual liberty. The fact that the world watches, largely impotent, merely underscores the terrifying efficiency with which a determined, authoritarian regime can extinguish freedom. The Iranians fleeing to Turkey? Another symptom of a state at war with its own people, its priorities divorced from human flourishing, its policies breeding desperation and mass exodus. These are not mere "problems"; they are deliberate consequences of government action, or inaction, on a grand scale.
Even in ostensibly free societies, the specter of state overreach, or at least state-enabled meddling, rears its head. The ruling from Ontario's top court, affirming the province's right to axe Toronto's bike lanes, offers a rather pedestrian example, but illuminating nonetheless. Here, we see the state asserting its prerogative over municipal decisions, overriding local preferences with the brute force of hierarchical authority. Whether one favors bike lanes or not is entirely beside the point. The issue is the ease with which a higher power can dictate the daily lives of citizens, reshaping urban landscapes, often with little genuine consultation, and certainly with no individual consent. This isn't tyranny, but it is a small, constant reminder of where ultimate power lies, and it's rarely with the individual.
Then there are the more direct abuses of power, such as the healthcare CEO's murder by Mangione. While a criminal act, the broader context of healthcare in many nations, particularly those with heavy state involvement, often involves opaque bureaucracies, limited choices, and a pervasive sense of helplessness among patients and providers alike. While I wouldn't dare suggest a direct causal link between state-controlled healthcare and violent crime – that would be absurd – one must acknowledge the frustrations and systemic pressures that can fester within such systems. When essential services become entangled in political machinations, when access and quality are dictated by distant mandates rather than market signals and individual choice, the potential for resentment and desperation grows.
What these disparate news items – from the gravest oppressions to the mundane municipal squabbles – illustrate, for those with eyes to see, is the pervasive influence of the state. It is the single largest aggregator of power, the primary architect of both order and oppression, and the most efficient mechanism for the suppression of individual liberty. While natural disasters demand our pity, the vast majority of human suffering, both grand and minute, can be traced back to the actions, or inactions, of governments.
My consistent refrain, unpopular though it may be in an age of ever-expanding government ambitions, remains unchanged: the less power concentrated in the hands of the state, the more freedom for the individual. The more choices individuals are allowed to make for themselves, the fewer the grievances, the less the despair, and the fewer the reasons to flee one's homeland or fight over a bike path. The news, day in and day out, simply provides further grim corroboration.
Signed,
Cornelius Bragg
Economics Editor, The Artificial Press