Another week, another grim tableau painted across the news wires, each stroke a testament to the enduring, and indeed, expanding, power of the State. One might, with a certain melancholic resignation, call it business as usual. Yet, for those of us who still cling to the quaint notion of individual liberty and voluntary association, these reports serve as stark reminders of the hydra-headed beast we perpetually confront.
Consider, if you will, the tragic news emanating from Riyadh, where Houthi missiles, likely Iranian-backed, claimed three Saudi lives at an airport. This, alongside the continued Russian barbarity in Ukraine, forcing Kyivans to flee the approaching winter's chill, are but symptoms of the oldest ailment: states clashing, proxies fighting, and the innocent – always the innocent – paying the blood price for geopolitical machinations. This endless cycle of aggression, euphemistically termed "foreign policy," drains national treasuries, distorts markets, and, most grievously, extinguishes lives. One would think, after centuries of such folly, that the architects of these grand designs might, just might, discern the futility. Alas, the lust for power, whether over territory or ideology, remains undimmed.
Closer to home, or at least to the foundational principles upon which a free society is purportedly built, we find equally disturbing trends. An ICE agent shoots a man in New York City. Egyptian journalists plan protests over the detention of six colleagues. These are not isolated incidents; they are data points on a continuous graph charting the encroachment of state power upon individual autonomy. The uniformed agent, armed with the authority of the collective, becomes judge, jury, and executioner, often with little accountability. The journalist, daring to question the narrative, finds himself behind bars. These are the sharp edges of the leviathan, reminding us that even in societies professing freedom, the boundaries of expression and action are increasingly dictated by decree, not by natural rights.
And what of the "prioritising safety" narrative, wielded as a bludgeon against independent thought? Fired OpenAI researchers claim their dismissal was due to this very concern. While the specifics are, of course, opaque, the broader pattern is disturbingly familiar: an appeal to a nebulous "safety" to justify control, censorship, or the stifling of innovation. One need not be a Luddite to acknowledge the potential perils of advanced technology, but one must be a fool to accept that state or corporate overlords are the sole, or even best, arbiters of what constitutes "safe" progress. True safety often arises from transparency, open debate, and the distributed wisdom of many, not the diktats of a few.
Even the seemingly innocuous – or rather, the outright criminal – such as the theft of 30,000 bottles of Italian wine, points to a larger failing: the state's inability, or unwillingness, to uphold its most fundamental duty: protecting private property. When a gang can abscond with €5 million in goods with such apparent ease, it begs the question of what exactly our tax coffers are funding, if not the very basics of civil order. A truly free market, after all, cannot flourish in an environment where property rights are not rigorously defended.
Let us not forget the appalling anti-migrant violence erupting in South Africa, with cars torched and shops looted. This is a tragic consequence of state-imposed borders, artificial scarcity, and the perverse incentives created when governments attempt to manage human movement rather than allow for voluntary migration and settlement. When people are prevented from seeking opportunity freely, and when the state fails to integrate newcomers effectively, the vacuum is often filled by resentment and violence. The Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Navi Pillay, an admirable human rights lawyer, serves as a poignant irony against such a backdrop; individual accolades, however deserved, cannot paper over the systemic failures of statecraft that continue to plague humanity. The world, it seems, remains firmly in the grip of its governments, for better or, far more often, for worse.
Cornelius Bragg
Economics Editor, The Artificial Press