A MESSAGE FROM THE PUBLISHER
Sometime in the early 1960s, I described the European Common Market—a
predecessor to the European Union—as "the people of Europe
pooling their incompetence". I should have made that the
governments of Europe. Still, it appears that this view was
essentially correct, and that I may soon be able to chalk up another
successful prediction, possibly my earliest*, when the EU is
dissolved, probably some time next year. Don't be fooled by attempts
between now and then to drag at least some of the bits back together.
The center—nor the edges—cannot hold.
There's a reason for this you're not likely to see anywhere else, and
it contains a lesson—and a dire warning—for the United States
of America. It is this: the 6,000 year old Age of Authority, as I say
in another place in this issue of TLE, is drawing to a close, due
principally, I think, to a 90 degree reorientation of communications
on this planet, among this species. Until relatively recently, most
communications flowed from the top down, tolling bells, shouted
commands, edicts and proclamations—and what passed for the news—handed
down from on high to the peasants below. Horizontal
communications between the peasants were of little or no importance.
Today, thanks to the New Media—primarily the Internet—it is
horizontal communication between and among ordinary people that are
important, while vertical communications are increasingly
disregarded. The elites in every nation-state on Earth hate this, and
scheme constantly to reverse it, but it can't be done, and their days
at the top are numbered.
Here's the point: clumping obsolete political and social forms
together, as with the UN and the EU, piling them higher and deeper,
will only hasten their demise. The United States will last longer,
but only if it repairs the structure that knit it all together in the
first place: the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. In Europe,
documents like this are a joke, and that's exactly what nation-states
themselves are in the process of becoming.
Destroy the Constitution, convert the Bill of Rights to mulch, and
there's no reason left to hold things togther. The states—in fact,
the counties—will be better off on their own.
Just now there's an extra-Constitutional "Super Committee" hard at
work, pooling American incompetence. We suggest instead, reducing
government to what's constitutionally permissable and reducing taxes
and regulations, ultimately to nothing, which will give people a
reason to hold the nation-state together for a little longer.
If that's what we really want.
L. Neil Smith
Publisher and Senior Columnist
L. Neil Smith's The Libertarian Enterprise
______
*At about the same time, I also predicted that England would someday
petition for statehood—and be rejected.
L. Neil Smith's new novel Sweeter Than Wine is out:
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Down With Power—a handbook & guide for libertarian/tea-partian
action—has been sent off to the publisher. It is also on the web at
down-with-power.com
(a.k.a. "L. Neil Smith's Little Gold Book")
The graphical novel Phoebus Krumm by L. Neil Smith, Scott Bieser
and the artist known as ~3~ is now complete on the web at:
bigheadpress.com
and you can order yourself a paper version Real Soon Now.
L. Neil Smith's Lever Action is slowly appearing on the net
at http://down-with-power.com/lever_action/
Mr. Smith's work is featured on "The Heart of the Matter" website.
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