The Sovereign Letter

                    ... a current editorial commentary!

 

The following commentary is an editorial opinion on a

specific issue or event written by the author of the book:

 

"BEYOND OUR CONSENT"

                                                                    Albert Jay Nock, 1870-1945

                                                                                    OUR ENEMY, THE STATE

 

THE PARASITIC TYRANNY OF THE "STATE"

 

by

 

Robert Harris Brevig

 

The average American citizen is staggering under the burden of well over two-million laws which govern all of his daily activities.   This figure comes from a statistical study done in 1935 and more recent studies indicate that since that time, an average of seventeen thousand new laws, codes, statutes, executive orders, etc., have been added each subsequent year.

 

In an environment of so many laws it is hardly possible to conceive of any acts of behavior or conduct that might escape the influence of one or more of these laws.  Thus, the area of human conduct that is controlled by law so far encroaches the realm of choice and free-will that it is no longer scarcely an issue in this great land of professed liberty.

 

We might ask ourselves what happens to individual self-responsibility and to personal self-reliance in such a situation as this?   Life in America, without our realizing it, is becoming more and more like serving in the Army with as much as ninety percent of human conduct and activity being dictated by ordinance, and the remaining ten percent by espirit de corps, with the consequence that the opportunity for exercising free-will and choice is practically abolished.

 

Who or what is responsible for the creation, persistence and enforcement of such a phenomenal amount of invasive and coercive legislation?  The answer, of course, is the "State".  The next question which logically arises is: Who, or what, is the "State"?  When we have acquired a fundamental grasp of identifying it, it may then behoove us to ask why and for whom it truly exists?

 

Relative particularly to the American experience, we shall examine briefly the introduction, development and imperishable nature of the "State".  In such an examination it will become understood in whose interests the institution of the "State" was conceived, why and how it was in the interest of those who conceived it, and why and how it continues to function in the same manner today as it did then in spite of changing appearances.

 

We may wish to ponder the statement: "The more things change, the more they remain the same."

 

To understand the theory of the "State", we must first understand the theory of "classes", or, "the class system".  The essence of class theory and subsequent systems that evolved from it, result from the fact that essentially there are only two methods of obtaining wealth.  One is by enterprise and production and the other is by force and plunder.  The latter, once it has become institutionalized, is of a feudal nature and militaristic.  It ultimately becomes productively languorous and descends into tyranny.  The former type is super abundant and free and tends toward contentment and prosperity - an industrial society.

 

Corresponding to these two ways of achieving wealth are the two fundamental social classes, the producer class of laborers and business people who create wealth by productive enterprise and voluntary exchange (value for value).  Secondly, there is the exploiting class made up of those people who plunder the others.  They will invariably be found to be integrally embraced by the "State", or are protected by "State" privileges and sanctions.

 

The "State", as the institutionalization of force, however subtle, is the source, or means, of all exploitation, either directly by conquest and confiscation, or indirectly by tariffs and duties (taxation).  However one chooses to perceive it, the "State" always ends up inhibiting free-will and choice.  This is a given.

 

As such, the "State" by its own necessary function, is an anti-social institution which is, necessarily, administered in an anti-social manner. Let us be clear about this from the start, for if we make the mistake of believing that the "State" is a social institution that is simply being administered anti-socially, we shall completely misunderstand its true function and purpose.  Having said this, it will become clearer as to why, with a bit further explanation.

 

When we examine the history of Western Civilization we begin to recognize
that the only real progress that is measurable is in direct relation to how effectively the producer class has been able to rid itself of the plundering class.  By implication this infers that the ultimate goal of society is to eventually abolish the "State" and all forms of "State" privilege entirely.

 

All that mankind has accomplished thus far, however, is to have traded off the church-controlled "State" for the feudally-controlled "State" in Sixteenth Century Europe.  He then eventually traded off the feudally-controlled "State" for the mercantile, or merchant-controlled "State" in Eighteenth Century America.  This trade-off had its roots in the British and Dutch East India Companies and gave birth to the great wealth producing monopoly mercantile economy which is the flagship of the American "State" to this very day.  Even our flag, the "Stars and Stripes", is only a slightly modified version of the traditional banner of the old British East India Company.  Our popular history textbooks, however, conveniently neglect to inform us of such historical "irrelevancies".

 

Why does it matter?  Let us examine a bit further and see.

 

It becomes clearer then that in order to establish the validity of the premise upon which our nation was supposedly founded, that is, the premise of "natural rights and popular sovereignty", we must first establish an understanding of the true purpose and function of the "State".   For it is the "State" which supposedly exists for the sole purpose of preserving this premise.  In order to establish such an understanding we must first draw some comparisons.

 

To begin with, it should already be clear that there exists a rather large and compelling contingent of people within our society who find it more to their advantage to simply exploit the enterprising endeavors of those who produce the goods and services required by that society.  Thus, it quite obviously follows that the "State" is the most effective instrument of exploitation available to them, and they do not hesitate to avail themselves of the unique powers it bestows upon them in achieving this.  Be advised, however, that this "unique" purpose and function is cunningly disguised in such a manner as to make it seem more palatable, even inevitable, to those being exploited.  These poor creatures, as they always have, remain ignorant of the plundering process to which they are subject and rarely, if ever, question the imposition this places upon them.  They are made to believe it is their privilege and their duty to be so imposed upon by these crafty parasites.

 

The German Sociologist and sociological historian, Franz Oppenheimer, made the now well established distinction between the only possible methods of gaining wealth.  The first of which, as previously stated, was by means of production and the other of which was by means of plunder.  He defines the two means so clearly as to make their mutual exclusivity apparent to all.

 

Oppenheimer defines the free production and voluntary exchange of goods and services as the economic means of gaining wealth.  He then defines the plundering or confiscation method of acquiring a portion or all of the freely produced goods and services, or the fruits thereof, as the political means of gaining wealth.

 

He writes: "There are two fundamentally opposed means, whereby man,
requiring sustenance is impelled to obtain the necessary means for satisfying his desires.   They are work and robbery, one's own labor and the forcible appropriation of the labour of others...I propose...to call one's own labour and the equivalent exchange of one's own labour for the labour of others, the 'economic means' for the satisfaction of needs, while the unrequited appropriation of the labour of others will be called the 'political means'.

 

"There is logically no middle ground; wealth is acquired by either one method or the other.  Oppenheimer then continues on to define the "State" as the systematization, or the rationalization, or the institutionalization of the "political means" of acquiring wealth.

 

The "State" then, is invariably representative of pillage and plunder; and whether cunningly disguised, or brutally obvious, its basic premise remains unchanging.  What this class theory - the exploited vs.  the exploiters - indicates to us then is that in virtually every application of the "political means" there will manifest the anti-social phenomena of plunder, class struggle, and eventually, a "ruling class".

 

"States" seldom resort to harsh confiscatory measures, such as those employed by the American Internal Revenue Service, unless a heavy-handed tyrant is in charge of directing the operation, or should those who are being exploited become less compliant in their exploitability. Only when those in power become unbalanced, or when the unwitting people who are being exploited begin catching on to the true nature of this systematic plunder and actually begin resisting or challenging this phenomenal "confidence game" does the "State" resort to brutal coercion in collecting that which it determines it is due.

 

We then discover that as soon as the "State", as an institutionalized predatory force, begins to encroach upon legitimate voluntary social and economic intercourse (commerce), a class of exploited and a class of exploiters comes into being.  Once in place, these two political-economic "classes" tend to aggravate and perpetuate their respective distinctions.

 

Under the heavy demands of the "State", varying factions representing the mercantile will engage in vying for advantage and control.  Eventually, over the course of time, one faction will inevitably become the more powerful and begin to accumulate the bulk of wealth plundered by using the "unique powers" of the "State" as it's leverage.

 

We have shown that our present institution of the "State" is controlled by the mercantile interests, hence, we have a "Merchant State", or what is currently, if disparagingly, referred to as "USA, Inc.", or if you prefer, "Corporate America".

 

Its power in the world today is virtually without limits and it rests in the hands of a relatively few men.  This "Power Elite" promotes ever-increasing techno-dependency, legal restrictions and progressive taxation; it controls the transportation and distribution of the world's food, energy and natural resources, and it encourages unbridled consumerism, licentious debt/deficit producing issuance of banking credit, and the gradual moral breakdown of society.   All of these factors add up to making the unaware masses into a class of victims who are subsidizing their own descent into economic enslavement.

 

As the entrenchment of said factors becomes increasingly secure, and the plunder, which extends from the power of taxation (including usurious interest rates in the private federally controlled banking sector) and the granting of privilege, begins to shift more "systematically" and "institutionally" from the exploited class to the entrenched exploiting class, it becomes logically obvious that the exploiting class, the mercantile conglomerates, monopolies, and the "State", which they control, become the "ruling class".

 

How does this ultimately differ from the tyranny of prior regimes of the "Church State", or the "Feudal State"?   The truth, upon careful scrutiny, is that it does not.  All that has changed are the methods, the labels and the titles of the players.  The purpose and function of the "State" remain the same...it is an instrument of plunder used by those who mercilessly exploit the wealth of society.

 

It is the organization of the "political means", or organized plunder, and it is obvious that as long as the "State" remains, there will continue to be class-exploitation, class-conflict and class-struggle over control of the "State's" apparatus.  There will also continue to be intermittent and periodically contrived class-struggle hostilities which will turn into upheavals of social revolution (Kosevo, Northern Ireland, East Timor, etc.).

 

If people understood why these conflicts were really caused and how they are being manipulated for the political and economic advantage of the "few" (slaughter for profit), they might then properly direct their energies and conceivably begin to rid the world of "State" inspired class-warfare, exploitation and plunder.

 

Instead, however, such class conflict only serves to further entrench and advantage the "State" and its controllers, who profit immensely at the expense of the seemingly limitless ignorance of the citizens over whom they "rule".  One could say that the system feeds on fight.

 

We have had a brief look at the primary differences between "State Power" and "Social Power" and how, as early as the signing of our U.S. Constitution, the mercantile "powers that be" ensured the re-creation of the "State" and all of its subsequent powers.  This would eventually usurp the provisions of that inspired document, The Declaration of Independence, which stands alone upon it's own God-given merit, (as should we, the American people). The Constitution gave them the power to gradually regain the "political means" and to reinstate the British colonial type of "Merchant State" over the newly declared independent
American citizens.

 

So, Mr. and Mrs. America, where do you presently find yourselves in the midst of all this political chicanery?  Many of you will perhaps, believe that none of this could be having any effect upon you or your lives.   So be it!  I shall leave each of you to be the judge of that.  For those few of you who DO see these forces "playing" with your lives, I would suggest that you continue to increase your awareness of such things, discuss them openly with your neighbors and "resist not evil", for the "State" carries within it the seeds of its own demise.  Its end is nearing!

 

I would add only one thing to what the great minds and students of the "free spirit" of man, (Thomas Jefferson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau and many, many others) have reiterated down through history, "If there is any greater power than truth itself, it could only lie in the AWARENESS of truth.  For only then can the truth set you free."

 

                                                                                    RHB - Sept. 1999

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All Written Materials Copyright, 1997,1998,1999  Robert H. Brevig
All Rights Are Reserved, Without Prejudice.
U.C.C. 1-207.4 U.C.C. 1-103.6,.7