Amerika

Sometimes the writings on this site are inspired by Bach, with elaborately balanced contextures creating an overall harmony, or even Bruckner, stormy intricate patterns of phrases conversing across time. And sometimes, they are inspired by DRI and aim to be short and punchy.

Civilizations decay because they do too much civilization-stuff. There is a sweet spot between a Wild West and an HOA that makes for a good civilization, and it is one in which citizens take care of themselves and government does the big stuff: military, courts, roads, firefighting.

However, over time these barebones civilizations create a proliferation of rules because no one got a career advancement or won a second term by saying “this is the best it gets, deal with it.” Novelty sells.

Through this process the orderly civilization inevitably decays to the third world model, which is individualism so profound that no one addresses shared institutions except as careers or sinecures that are properties which can be used to extract wealth from others.

Every third world civilization on Earth fits that model. So does all organized crime, all unions, and all Communism. These are not “new” ideas, but ancient forms of decay, since Plato chronicled them as ancient knowledge from his viewpoint 2400 years ago.

This means that “the road to Hell is paved with good intentions” as the old WASP homily stated.

Even worse, the road to Hell is paved with institutional overreach, and it starts with the law itself.

Consider a case where a young woman is raped and murdered in a hotel. The attacker came in through a back door that was left open by an employee having a smoke, then propped open by a homeless guy, after which point the rapist entered.

What does the law do? In the criminal case, it convicts the rapist. But in the civil case, the inevitable lawsuit, who do you sue?

Obviously, not the homeless guy. He has zero money. Similarly, you do not sue the employee, since he has two hundred bucks total to his name. No, you sue the hotel on the grounds that it had imperfect training of its employees regarding back door security.

In other words, you transfer costs to the party that can pay for them.

The family of the raped young woman gets paid by whoever has the money. The law, in this case, is indistinguishable from socialism.

This decision in turn creates a fear of liablity. Hotels everywhere have a total mandate to avoid liability. The only way to do that is through something like fascism, for example firing any employee who takes a smoke break outside, even if he was the best at his job.

Over time, the legal system adjusts to a new reality: anyone with money is subject to it being taken, and also must pay extra to prevent liability. All of these costs are as always passed on down to the consumer.

In effect, this creates a wealth transfer from the consumers to the victims.

And then in the end, we find out that the rapist killer was her ex-boyfriend who shared needles with her, and this situation was entirely anticipatable by the victim. Communism does not care. it merely wants (like all committees) to find a compromise that makes the bad optics go away.

Tags: communism, law, liability, wealth transfer