[PHIL] Enforcability, Majority Rule and Oligarchy

My thoughts on this came from a recent graphic that outlined the differences between the Libertarian, Democratic and Republican parties and listed that the Democratic party was an Oligarchy. This rather confused me, so I asked for some clarification. The clarification was interesting but essentially boiled down to a minority making decisions for the majority. My reply, "Short of Genetic Engineering it is now my observation that this will always be the case, the question is which minority and what is their relationship with the majority?" might have been misconstrued since the person who made the original post unfriended me as a result. I meant no offense, but sometimes people looking for it can take offense no matter what you do. I will, however, attempt to explain in greater detail what I meant below.

Enforcability

First though I feel the need to talk about the concept of enforcability. The actual enforcibility of a law has three important points that are to me self evident.

1) The rule of law is, at a practical level, essentially the rule of the largest mob of people or at least the ability of the state to enforce force but, in an attempt to provide the illusion and/or best attempt at fairness, divests the powers and decision making capacities of that mob into abstract concepts, enduring social contracts in the form of laws, and institutional mechanisms to ensure that those abstract concepts are applied as they are written, rather than as they are interpreted by people at any particular time.

2) Since this Rule of Law is an illusion in that, unless the power of the state is essentially godlike, it requires the belief and participation of the concept in the minds of the component members of that society, faith in the institutions that create and execute these laws must be maintained. What then, can reduce faith in this concept more then, than the crafting of a law which cannot be enforced and that the majority do not want to accept? If the vast majority of society abhors murder, then the state can, with relatively little resources and ease (comparatively) track the guilty and enact the penalty of law upon the culprit. Whereas, if the law in question is say...a speed limit, and the vast majority of the population believes that it should be 10 miles per hour higher than the signs posted, but despondent parents and well endowed insurance companies are able to set it at a specific level, then you end up with a mixed result in which the speed limit is largely ignored by the populace unless there happens to be a law enforcement official present, and even then, since it might go to a jury trial, a law enforcement official is more likely to simply look for the most egregious offenders rather than someone who violates the law just a little bit. The more arbitrary the police or other law enforcement agencies, the less likely people are to respect the law and thus endanger to some degree the concept of rule of law itself.

3) So long as there is a government, there will be tax, of one kind or another, in any society that attempts it. That is if there is any kind of Rule of Law. Abstract anarchist societies that believe in self governance are essentially under Rule of the Mob but it just happens to be a well disciplined and very polite mob. Rule by Robot/AI might also not require tax, but Rule of Law definitely requires the efforts of people because abstract concepts only exist when people who believe in them choose to manifest those concepts into the physical universe in a meaningful way by action or, when applicable, lack of action.

Where there is tax, there must be an allocation of resources. Until such time as there is a lack of scarcity of resources, a prioritization must be made on which laws are to be enforced since the observable trend of humanity is that a significant portion of the population will desire more services from their government than the government can provide, and if this is the case, then the laws that can actually be ENFORCED are the ones that come to the fore under wise rule. Popular demand has often demanded unenforcable laws be enforced, but the consequences are dire and the waste of resources are more often than not, rather severe.

Majority Rule

In any conceivable society hitherto now or in the near future that has Rule of Law, the consent of the governed requires the consent of the majority (even if that consent is simply an unwillingness to live rather than remain a part of that society). At such time as the majority of a society wish to change it (by vote, by violence, or by self removal) then it is changed. Thus, Rule of Law or even Rule of Status Quo requires majority consent.

However, it is also my observation that the majority is generally more than inclined to accept the status quo if their perceived basic needs are met. This means that great change requires great energy to perform, whereas small change does not require as much energy but can change the inertia of a society over time. This has some severe consequences, primarily in that those who expend the most energy tend to be able to make the most changes. Or in other words, "the squeaky wheel gets oiled". This is doubly true in more flexible societies (IE Democratic Republics).

The practical means of which is that basically, a minority willing to engage substantial time, effort and will are able to enforce their will upon the majority of the members of society. Merchants, who are able to use power by proxy in the form of capital goods, can hire lobbiests and other champions to whisper in the ear of lawmakers indefinitely. The religious, who literally believe that their God demands the law be interpreted a certain way, can form organizations whose sole purpose is to bend the law in their directions. occasionally purely secular organizations are also able to do this, such as the National Rifle Association, but let us be clear...such influence will always exist even if Religions, Capitalism or Private associations were banned. Even the most tyrannical oligarchy (as defined by the dictionary as compared to libertarians) will still have factions within it. The military will want funding that the intelligence services want to go to them, whereas the propaganda department will want funds or the civic works department etc.

Thus, in any society with a passive and disinterested populace (ie...human beings as they currently exist or have existed for all known and recorded history or are likely to exist for the foreseeable future) defacto cedes its power to the minority most determined to enact its will, through protracted campaigns at influence of law makers, or a willingness to use lethal force (such as a one party state or a merchant class willing to bribe law enforcement to bust up peaceful protests etc).

Minorities will always rule. The question is HOW they rule and what might be their relationship is to the majority.

There are many questions to be asked about a minimalist or maximalist government or even the concept of Natural Rights vs Expected rights, but those are topics for another time and post.

[Phil] Dispersed vs Concentrated Power or...the Cognitive Dissonance of Conservatives and Libertarians

Common sense indicates from any serious student of human nature and history that, while a benevolent dictator is the most efficient of government, it's really only efficient for whom the dictator is benevolent to and, most importantly, transition of power is a nightmare.

I've covered that in previous posts, but what I want to point out is yet another example of cognitive dissonance in any American libertarian and conservative philosophies...

Libcon Posit:

1) Federalism is good.

2) Local Control keeps too much power from the central government.

3) Defense and other key critical areas by the central government is good and allows for defense against other large alliances.

Guess what? I agree.

I also like small governments. The government which governs least, governs best.

Where we radically disagree is on the fundamental nature of the state and of human nature.

Honest Libcons (As compared to greedy people who just want more), basically ascribe to the theory of Natural Rights. The problem with this, isn't the actual idea, but basically the same problem with the Communist Manifesto in that the Communist Manifesto was largely a reaction to the excesses of industry and as such goes on and on about class. Wheras Natural Rights was a reaction to Monarchy and so goes on and out about about rights as endowed by the creator and puts heavy emphasis on the individual.

Side Note -

This video is very popular among Libertarians because it highlights their mighty struggle against the State or the uncaring collective will of the we.

So instead of moderate clap trap, which simply seeks the middle of everything, I'm going to reaxiom the reaxiomation
libcons love to pull so much and simply call this radical idea "Rejectionism."

It rejects the idea that we need to reduce the world to this tiny little struggle between the individualism and capitalism or any ism of any kind whilst at the same time avoiding Anarchy.

I might build up on this, but I think the central tenet of Rejectionism is the rejection of Isms including the absense of the necessity of political philosophy.

Or in other words Posit 1) Don't go fucking nuts in any particular political direction.

Which must be followed by posit 2

2) Lack of a political direction is worse than no direction at all.

We've seen that from moderates and being Chaff just makes you a road hazard.

This might seem like a distraction but by defining and establishing political shorthand, it lets us reference it later.

-End Side Note

Specifically, I think with Rejectionism, another point has to be that there are a finite number of ways to do things. Which means that as awesome as the idea of keeping power in the form of the government in check by dispersing it among local governments, why in the name of all that is holy would you not do the same with individuals?

This obsession on the individual vs the collective makes libcons blind to the very facet of human nature that seeks to enslave them in government. There are greedy people in the world. Smart greedy people understand this and agree that government can hold other greedy people in check so everyone can profit, and dumb greedy people just want to be in charge or just want the government to get the hell out of the way so they can do whatever they want.

But the assumption of natural rights that the individual comes first and interferance should be as minimal as possible (and I agree with this) ignores the fact that since there will be as many opinions of what 'minimum as possible' is as there are people, then the PRACTICAL reality of what that means is that the rule of the majority should ultimately apply, if you accept that a sentient being capable of participating in society has equal value on a base level to all others.

That's a tough question...after all, the weak, children, the impaired, the insane etc, should be afforded protection by the majority, but are they truly citizens? They have rights in advanced society...so if you define citizenship as 'having rights' then yes, but if you define citizenship as 'the ability to participate at the base level of power' then 'er...maybe' applies because CHILDREN DON'T VOTE.

My point in this is, natural rights as a concept were fine but we've moved on since then and we're going to move a lot farther as our concepts of what it means to be human chance as we unlock the mind and link it to technology and unlock the genome and splinter as a species....

These are questions we would be wise to answer ahead of time and my answer is that any being capable of communicating with other beings and recognizing its worth and their worth and establish and negotiate terms for mutual benefice between the two should constitute a participating empowered citizen. The base line upon which the majority is constituted.

But the point is...if a balance between centralized and localized power in institutions is needed, then in no society should it ever be acceptable for power to accrue in that of individuals vs the majority such that the majority cannot check it.

In practical terms, that means that power is power and to separate government power from economic power is ludicrous. You do not need communism or even socialism to have societal mechanisms in place to prevent the accrual of wealth too high from the baseline, because since money is time and power and the abstraction thereof, possession of too much by such indivduals should be intolerable to society.

Because too much power in the hands of one unless in a situation with unlimited space and unlimited resources, inherirently will result in reduced power for the many.

Because the MANY is comprised of INDIVIDUALS. The 'collective' of collectivists ARE ALSO INDIVIDUALS thus making the entirity of the libertarian position ludicrous on its head. The very individuals they seek to break against are individuals themselve and they are imposing a tyranny of the minority and a tyranny of inaction due to their concept of natural rights, acting as if natural rights as a concept has abrigated since the foundation of the species, which it has not.

Its silly, and it has to stop.