Whenever two irreconcilable agents are forced together something has to give.
In the twentieth century with the advent of Roosevelt and the new Deal America has tried to create a politico-economic system that attempted to force together irreconcilable elements. Whereas free market capitalism was the American ideal, with the passing of the New Deal legislation we tried to combine command and control socialism elements with our existing free market. Similarly, in the political realm with the New Deal, an intensification of the motif of centralization in the State was injected into a system that had originally been premised upon the idea of decentralized and diffused governmental authority. If we were to speak in macro terms our system was premised on maximum individual freedom, but in the 20th century we sought to combine the polar opposite of government guaranteed security that was itself premised upon a statist collectivism.
Because of the combination of these irreconcilable agents contradictions were created in our politico-economic system that had to resolve themselves in one consistent direction or the other. In other words a tension was placed into our system that couldn’t be maintained over the long term.
As the years of the twentieth century unraveled the anti-thesis’ involved in our system increasingly unwound themselves away from free market economics, decentralized and diffused governmental authority, and maximum individual freedom and increasingly embraced command and control economics, centralized governmental authority, and collectivized governmental provided security. With every lunge away from the former set and towards the latter set the contradictions of the system have worked themselves out towards a consistency that any system demands.
I think now we are nearing a point where the contradictions will be completely eliminated. We are nearing a time when the final vestiges of our old system will be finally washed clean. Maximum individual freedom will be fully replaced by collectivized government security. Free market capitalism will be fully replaced by command and control socialism. Decentralized and diffused governmental authority will be fully replaced by the centralized state.
The evidence that we are moving to an explicit command and control socialist economy is seen in today’s report that the Government is considering taking ownership stakes in certain U.S. banks as an option for dealing with a severe global credit crisis. Now, this would make explicit was has been implicit for some time but it would officially mark the end of free market banking. John McCain would move us away from free markets by having the State become owners of American homes, thus eliminating the free market mortgage industry.
It hardly seems to be the case that we need any more evidence that we have moved to an explicitly centralized Government system or that maximum individual freedom has become obsolete in the face of collectivized security as provided by the State. Even now, the State is taking it upon itself to make secure the unwise investments of countless Americans by a collectivized arrangement whereby the taxpayers bail out certain segments of the investment losers.
What we can look for in the near future, if God doesn’t grant Reformation and Renewal, is increasingly more statist collectivization that provides security at the cost of individual freedom, even more socialist command and control economics at the cost of free markets, and even more centralization at the cost of decentralized and diffused governments.
