Thomas Sowell Catches On

From Thomas Sowell:

“When I see the worsening degeneracy in our politicians, our media, our educators, and our intelligentsia, I can’t help wondering if the day may yet come when the only thing that can save this country is a military coup.”

This is followed by a few less important but insightful statements:

“In his book Income and Wealth, economist Alan Reynolds says that people often form ‘strong opinions’ based on ‘weak statistics.’ Unfortunately, that is also true of a wide range of other issues, from ‘global warming’ to ‘gender bias.’

I am so old that I can remember a Democrat, at his inauguration as president, say of our enemies: ‘We dare not tempt them with weakness.”

However, what’s important, is the early recognition that we’re beyond the boundaries of recovering our government. And despite the fact that it’s a tired analogy, we are similarly departing republican Rome and coming close to imperial Rome.

What is not understood is the argument I always press: that civilizations create governments based upon who possesses the money in the society, since that money is the ability to compel others. Governments represent pressure by those who have the ability to finance that pressure. In history, most states go through an evolutionary process: The first phase of control is the nobility which must protect the property and provide safety, next it is the merchants who take advantage of the protection, next is the manufacturers, and next the laborers, and finally the slaves/plebes/unemployed/(moms)/ or whatever group is forcing the pressure of government by virtue of the percentage of the economy they influence. So, as a civilization becomes wealthier the political influence, and therefore control, moves down the economic chain, until those who lack the common values that embrace the protection of property, trade, manufacture, or craftsmanship use their influence to consume resources at a sufficient rate that they make common the value of consumption or hedonism rather than conservation and production.

The only way to counter this economic and political force is with physical force.