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For decades, Libertarians have had a phrase, the "Cult of the Omnipotent State." Many of
us have been exposing the behavior of these cultists, as they use the same tactics as
creationists when their bogosity is challenged. Their defense of this usually goes something
like, "WAAAAH!!! Mommy! The bad man called me a creationist!"
No, we didn't; we pointed out that they use the same TACTICS as creationsits--because
that is exactly what they do.
In this video, I want to examine the idea that statism is a cult, and that the people
who mindlessly defend it are very much cultists, by looking at the five different things that
cults do in order to indoctrinate their members and set them against outsiders. We'll look
at them one by one, and unless you're already a fully-indoctrinated cult member, I think
you'll find that government--together with the news media--are guilty of these very same
brainwashing practices.
Steps in cult indoctrination:
1. People are convinced they have problems they cannot solve
Just think of how many problems we are faced with: unemployment, terrorism, global warming,
crime, health care that's too expensive, oil and energy crises, inflation, on and on and
on.
One tactic of the cult is to take problems people face and make them believe they cannot
solve them on their own: we can't solve the drug problem on our own, we can't create jobs
on our own, we can't afford health care on our own, and so on.
In fact, really think about it: are there any real problems in your life that you CAN
solve on your own, according to the government? It's hard to think of any, is it? But it's
not because there are no such problems--it's because you've already solved them! So government
likes to fill your head day in and day out with problems that you can't solve--or, at
least, problems it CLAIMS you can't solve.
And then it jumps right into step two:
2. Problems are reduced to one simple explanation, repeatedly emphasized
The cult, and government, both make sure to give a simplistic explanation for these problems,
usually placing the blame somewhere other than the government. You can't get a job because
of greedy capitalists, our expensive health care is a failure of the free market, we're
under threat of terrorism because Muslims hate us for our freedom and want to kill us
(when I was growing up, they said the same thing about Communists), crime happens because
of those horrible drugs that we need police to get off our street, every problem has a
simplistic explanation--and a nice boogeyman to point to.
Of course, most of our problems are much more complex than that--and many, perhaps even
most of them are caused by the very government who tries to ride in on a white steed and
save us. Unemployment, for the most part, has to do with government's fiscal and monetary
and regulatory policies, not greedy capitalists--wouldn't greedy capitalists want to hire you so that
you can help them make products for people to buy, thereby making a bigger profit? Health
care, as I've shown in other videos, was made expensive by government interference, and
in no way resembles a free market. Same with the banking industry; it wasn't lack of regulations
that caused the financial crisis because they were laden down with hundreds if not thousands
of new regulations every month!
Just a tiny amount of research--or even just a few moments of considered thought--is enough
to completely dismantle many of these claims. If crime happens because of drugs, then why
not because of alcohol or tobacco? And why DID it happen with alcohol in the 1920s? Because
the crime is a result of government prohibition, not the drugs themselves. Terrorism, as I've
explained before, operates in a complex web of cause and effect, tied in with our interventionist
foreign policy which creates hatred and a desire for vengeance.
In fact, with both cults and with government, it's so easy to expose these problems they
have to rely on the next method of cult indoctrination:
3. Entrapment
This is where information is controlled to the point that the cult's version of events
is reenforced, and any opposing voices, if allowed at all, are kept at bay by being belittled
and marginalized, drowned out by the version given repeatedly to the masses.
I think we all know this happens with government and the all-too-complicit news media. Any
view that isn't "mainstream"--in other words, isn't what they themselves espouse--is "fringe"
or even "kooky." Those who state such viewpoints are belittled, and everything is put into
place to poison the well against them and their ideas: if you want a Constitutional
government with a Federalist structure, you're a "neoconfederate." If you want free markets,
you're a "shill for the rich." If you want a sane monetary policy, you're "marginal"
(and really that's nothing more than an appeal to popularity).
If you want drugs to be legalized, then obviously you're a junkie who wants kids to buy crack
in vending machines. If you want to have our civil liberties respected at airports and
everywhere else, or if you want a sane and rational foreign policy, you're an anti-American
who wants the terrorists to win. If you want to ease regulations so small businesses can
flourish, then obviously you hate the poor and want the rich to have everything.
There is not a single bit of it that actually comprises an intellectual, factual, rational
response to the argument; strawman arguments and character assassination are employed regularly
to convince people that only a truly horrible person would even CONSIDER those alternative
viewpoints.
It's very effective. In fact, the only problem is that all this negativity leaves a vacuum
that needs to be filled, which is where the next tool of cult indoctrination comes in:
4. A charismatic, courageous leader pretends to care about them
Whether it's Barack Obama, or George W. Bush, or, well, pretty much every President ever,
he has come into power not because people are intellectually convinced that his proposals
are sound, but because he won the popularity contest by getting people to like him.
More than that, they convince people that they truly care. Barack Obama cares so much
about minorities, or the inequality of women, or of homosexuals. Recently, he's reversed
his long-standing opposition to gay marriage to say that, yes, gays should be allowed to
marry. He doesn't DO anything about it, of course, doesn't even propose anything, and
yet, his followers go all gaga, saying how brave and corageous he is to finally, after
almost 4 years, tell people what they want to hear. Because he cares, you know.
Of course, they've thought he cared all along when he was against gay marriage, but that
doesn't stop them. Many unthinking people are even claiming that this was his real position
all along, he was just in such a difficult position he couldn't actually say so. So where
was his courage then? And what about all the people who WERE speaking out in favor of it,
some of whom have been doing it for DECADES?
Likewise, George W. Bush was seen as a man of courage. He was "courageous" going into
Iraq, even though that's what he had been looking for an excuse to do ever since he
entered office. The evidence showed that the claim of Iraq having ties to terrorism and
having weapons of mass destruction were nothing but a pack of lies; and this evidence existed
even before Bush engaged in hostilities against Iraq. Still, it got no play in the news media
even as the Iraq War raged on. Video of Bush ducking a shoe that was thrown at him got
MUCH better coverage.
Politicians always play themselves up as people capable of solving our problems--problems
that, according to them, we ourselves are entirely helpless to solve. We can't do it
individually, and we just aren't able to form groups to do it, either. Yet government, which
is nothing more than a group of people, is able to solve all sorts of problems, from
economic problems like poverty and unemployment, to how to raise our kids, to how we should
travel around the country.
Think about it: Apple can't even properly decide how many new iPhones to send to different
stores. They always end up selling out in some places with a surplus in others. They
are leaders in this market, and this is their own product, yet they're unable to get good
information about this one very basic aspect of doing business. Yet, government claims
to know how to build the roads, how to run banks, how to make us safe at airports, on
and on and on. The information that the leaders in their own industry can't even get, is somehow
accessible to politicians in every industry in existence.
Again, government is nothing more than a group of people. But to say that one group of people
is capable of doing things that no other group can do--not even experts working in their
own field--is to say that this group has supernatural abilities--and they become saints, demigods,
as infallible as Catholics consider the Pope to be--even as they prove themselves year
after year to be incompetent failures.
But those failures, of course, are always someone else's fault, and if we'd just give
them more power and more of our tax money, and give up just a little more of our precious
liberties, they'll swoop in and solve the problem in no time.
The definition of "omniscient" is "having total knowledge," which is what government
must have to do all this. The definition of "omnipotent" is "all-powerful," which government
needs to be to achieve all of this. And in order to care about us to the extent of wanting
to help every single American, they have to be beneficent.
Hmmm...beneficent, omnipotent, and omniscient? Remind you of anyone?
5. Identity is based on the group
This is probably the best tool both the cult and the government have of getting us to go
along with them. I've referred to this as America's Political False Dichotomy. People
are shoehorned into one of two groups: liberal, left, or Democrat, and right, conservative,
or Republican. Almost the entirety of our political debate in this country is pitting
people in these groups against each other--even if there's no real difference at all between
them.
George W. Bush waged war, expanded the deficit, increased domestic spending such as education,
expanded health care coverage, restricted our civil liberties, and grew the size of
government. Barack Obama waged war, expanded the deficit, increased domestic spending such
as education, expanded health care coverage, restricted our civil liberties, and grew the
size of government.
And yet, to people entrenched in the cult, those two Presidents are as different as night
and day.
When George W. Bush violated the Constitution to wage war, Democrats said it was a war for
oil and we had no business being there. Oh, but they still voted for it. When Barack Obama
violated the Constitution to wage war in Libya, Republicans said it was reckless and irresponsible.
Probably because it wasn't THEIR war.
According to Democrats, George W. Bush ruined health care by denying government coverage--even
though he didn't do one thing to reduce government coverage and even expanded it by giving pharmaceutical
benefits to Medicare and Medicaid patients. According to Republicans, ObamaCare is a disaster,
incredibly expensive, and a hideous assault on our liberties--even though everything it
did was supported and advocated by the Republicans in the 1990s.
When George W. Bush signed the Patriot Act and formed the Department of Homeland Security
and the TSA, Democrats bemoaned the loss to our civil liberties--even as they themselves
voted for it. Then, with not only a Democratic President but Democratic majorities in the
House and Senate, these were expanded to be able to do more warrantless wiretapping and
even grope our junk at airports. The US government has even given itself the power to detain
US citizens indefinitely--which was passed by a Republican House and a Democratic Senate,
and signed by Barack Obama, who had previously promised to veto it!
George W. Bush's economic stimulus program was panned by President Obama (even though
Senator Obama voted for them). But all Obama had to do was change the name from "bailout"
to "stimulus" and suddenly taking wealth from the poor, the middle class, and small businesses
and giving it to big corporations and banks was just the right thing to do.
Of course, neither one did a damn thing to help the economy, but guess what? They STILL
worked! How? He stopped it from getting any worse! If only we had spent more, we'd be
out of this crisis. Yeah, and sure the patient failed to get better, but that's because we
didn't use enough leeches.
Get the idea? Both sides do exactly the same thing, they just put their own spin on it
and complain when the other side does the same thing. OUR wars are good, THEIR wars
are bad. When WE take your money to give to banks and big corporations it's good, but
when THEY do it it's bad. When WE infringe on your civil liberties it's necessary and
we have a damn good reason; when THEY do it it's because they're evil.
Of course, a lot of you are probably screaming at this video about the REAL differences between
Democrats and Republicans. Things like, gay marriage, or creationism, or religious freedom.
If that's the case, you really need to ask yourself two questions:
1) Are we any better or worse off with those subjects than we were, say, 20 years ago?
And the answer is, not really. Some states have banned gay marriage, others allow it.
Creationism wasn't allowed in schools then, and it still isn't now (although millions
of taxpayer dollars have been spent going to court to stop it).
2) How do those issues compare to the destruction of our basic liberties and the ruination of
our economy? If you HONESTLY think these issues are more important, then I'm sorry to say
it, but you are firmly entrenched in the Cult of the Omnipotent State. Mostly the only time
either side brings them up is during an election year, so they can pander and bristle up their
fur at each other, and hope they distract us enough to see that we STILL don't have
any significant job growth.
Those five things are universally recognized as the way cults indoctrinate people, to gain
their loyalty when they'd never be able to defend their bogosity rationally. As I've
shown very clearly, government and the people who defend it do exactly these five things,
to no less a degree than any given cult. When we say the Cult of the Omnipotent State, this
is EXACTLY what we're talking about. Government takes the place of God as a beneficent, omniscient,
and omnipresent entity, with politicians and bureaucrats as demigods and saints who know
more about how you should live your life than you do.
There's even a devil of sorts: not an evil entity, but certainly a separate entity that
needs to be dealt with: the economy. To the right, the economy is a Star Trek energy being,
ready to solve all our problems if we just stop poking at it, and say the right incantation.
To the left, the economy is this big machine with levers and knobs that they can manipulate,
and if they can just hit the right settings all will be well. The truth is, the economy
is you and me, and all other 300 million people in America, in the decisions we make and the
interactions we engage in throughout the day, every day. To manipulate it, or adjust it,
or steer it, is to interfere in voluntary interactions between free and peaceful people.
Every single economic intrusion by government is not only an abrogation of our liberty,
it makes us poorer as well. Every single one.
They also have their lesser demons, ready to blame for our problems and ready to lead
us in the fight against: terrorists, immigrants, gays, Muslims, the religious right...of course,
if they would just follow the Constitution and leave us the hell alone, none of these
would be a problem. We'd welcome immigrants to expand our workforce and make us even wealthier.
There would be no terrorists without our military butting in to other people's affairs. Gays
and Muslims and even the religious right would just be people living out their lives, without
any power to affect how anyone else lives out their life.
No one was ever made richer by joining a cult. In fact, they're made poorer, as the cult
leaders get more and more money. The cult leaders tell them who they can do business
with, who they can have sex with, and who the enemy is. Are you REALLY telling me you
don't see how government does these exact same things? And like the cult, we are all
made poorer by this government action.
The truth is, without government meddling we wouldn't even HAVE most of these problems--and
the ones we did have we could solve on our own. The only drug problem we have that isn't
a result of the War on Drugs is addiction, but we can absolutely manage that on our own.
Nicotine is the most addictive drug we know of, a statistical tie with ***, and yet
50% of addicts quit within 10 years. We can do a lot better by letting these people help
themselves than by throwing them in jail--or even mandating a treatment program.
The only education problem we would have without government meddling is, what's the best way
to educate children in a 21st-century society? And we can do that a lot better with schools
competing against each other, innovating and developing new teaching techniques, instead
of mandating an outdated 19th-century model on today's kids, boring them out of their
natural desire to learn.
And imagine what we could do on our own with trillions of dollars a year back in our pockets!
That would be more than enough to buy a job for everyone who can work and charity for
everyone who cannot. People in this country are good, kind, caring, and generous. We can
and will take care of each other--as long as government stops robbing us of the means
to do so.
But the Cult is dehumanizing. They want you to believe that people are selfish, evil,
and malevolent. So of course we need to take some of these selfish, evil, and malevolent
people and give them power over our lives. This makes sense, how?
The Cult of the Omnipotent State has caused far too much harm, and we just can't afford
it anymore. It's time to deprogram ourselves and each other, and to stop being drawn in
every time we hear its siren song. It's time we all became apostates, and called as much
attention as possible to the Cult and its ramifications. If enough of us start doing
this, maybe the next generation to grow up will be the freest, most prosperous one ever.