Embracing the New World Order: Libertarians and Terrorism
by Phil Jacobson
(to table of contents of archives) (to start of essay)
Introduction
1.0 Analysis
-1.1 Overview
-1.2 World Empire,
World Chaos, or what?
-1.3 War is broken
-1.4 Non-geographic
military realities
-1.5 The State hanging
by its fingernails
-1.6 Opportunities
2.0 Recommendations
-2.1 Motivated Legitimacy
is the key
-2.2 Political recommendations
--2.2.1 Arbitration
services: justice as a comodity
--2.2.2 Education
for Justice
--2.2.3 Propoganda
--- Ideological core
--- Good will generation
--- Propaganda agencies
--2.2.4 Anti-terrorist
militia training
--2.2.5 Positive
Corruption
--2.2.6 Diplomatic
realities
-2.3 Economic recomendations
--2.3.1 Freedom
of communication
--2.3.2 Financial
freedom
--2.3.3 Freedom
of transportation
-2.4 Virtual is Virtuous
3.0 Caveat
Notes
Introduction to an Author’s Context
This journal Formulations was established to explore, from a fairly academic standpoint, abstract issues about the possibilities for forming a libertarian nation. In this edition we are exploring an issue which is highly contemporary. Thus in some ways we are pursuing journalism, even punditry, rather than an academic endeavor. I wish to offer a justification. First, we seek to advise the would-be founders of real libertarian nations who may need to make decisions more quickly than writing at the traditional academic pace would allow. By the time an academic has had time for extensive "objective" study, the entrepreneurs we hope to inform with our writings will have had to do some real-world decision-making. Second, in my case, I have already formulated a lot of the analysis and recommendations which follow anyway. Regular readers of my material in Formulations will recognize my themes. The same is largely true of the other contributors. So we are not just reacting to current events. Beyond that, at least for my own analysis, I perceive a real turning point in history is at hand—one which should be taken into account by those who hope to found real libertarian nations. Those entrepreneurs will have to adopt a historical perspective, whether they realize it or not, very soon. I seek to give them my own as a viable alternative which they can grasp and use while they make some critical decisions about how they will proceed.
1.0 Analysis
1.1 Overview
We live in interesting times. We are asked by friends and foes alike to adjust our lives to a "New World Order"—an age when reactions to "terrorism" dominate all other concerns.
For once political opinion makers of all ranks and all ideological persuasions seem to agree with the public, at least at a certain level of abstraction. Generally the theme goes something like: "It’s a crisis of historic proportions. Unless something is done quickly, the whole world will be overwhelmed by xxx." At this point each pundit fills in xxx with a horror of their own choosing. For some it is the prospect of a world dictatorship run by "USA nationalists." For some it is the prospect of a world dictatorship run by "Muslim extremists." For others it is the prospect of "chaos." The particulars of xxx are a major point of disagreement. The undesirability of xxx is common to almost all commentators. They feel victimized by the traditional Chinese curse "may you live in interesting times." But the curse does not apply this time.
Yes, we do live in interesting times. But it is not an especially bad thing. We are not on the edge of perpetual war. Instead, we are witnessing the breakdown of the institution of war as civilized man has always known it. And as war becomes obsolete, so does the state. Libertarian institutions for social cooperation within an advanced division of labor economy will have the best opportunity they’ve ever had.
1.2 World Empire, World Chaos, or what?
What’s really new?
On 9/11/01 the world’s "only remaining superpower" was struck for the very first time on its own home territory. That very specific thing is new. But hijackings have occurred before. And buildings have been bombed before. Indeed the very targets of 9/11 had been targeted roughly a decade before, quite possibly by the same people. And the "terrorist" network thought responsible has conducted successful bombings on a worldwide basis for years.
The process of technological advance and cultural adaptation which is undercutting the state goes back even further. Advances in food production shifted the economy away from a predominantly agricultural basis in the 1800s. Advances in manufacturing and transportation based on the resulting new labor were seriously underway by the late 1800s. Advances in mass electronic communication rapidly penetrated the world in the 1900s. By the end of the 1900s no nation could thrive economically unless it gave serious freedoms to private entrepreneurs. Each of these advancements has taken its toll on the institution of war.
But a critical degree of change seems to have been reached only recently. With the collapse of the Soviet Union the last serious credibility for centrally planned economies—the "public" use of force to dictate private lives—was lost. Also lost was the related notion, that international relations would inherently be dominated by competition between huge military establishments. Further, the trade barriers fostered by that competition were dropped, opening the floodgates of international trade so wide that they cannot be closed again. Finally, a revolution in mass communications has addicted the major world economies to a worldwide web offering affordable conduits for massive streams of data between random individuals and institutions. Statists are floundering as they attempt to concoct excuses and strategies to roll back these changes.
1.3 War is broken.
As Randolph Bourne said in the early 20th Century, "War is the health of the state." For thousands of years of civilized history, war had been a means by which nations survived. Resources, especially food resources, periodically had become not only scarce but in too small a supply for all living persons to survive. In such emergencies a war, during which a high percentage of the population would die, had been the only means by which the balance of supply and demand could be reestablished. Often the fittest societies (in these terms) had been those which maintained their war skills through preemptive strikes on neighbors even in the absence of an emergency. Such preemptive strikes had also served to cull a potentially overpopulated region by direct or indirect means. In this setting the state, a permanent institution enabling at least remnants of a given society to engage in and survive war, emerged and thrived. (I will not elaborate my case for this interpretation of the origins of the state here, but I refer the reader to my article for Formulations on the subject1, written a few years ago.)
War, as it had functioned for civilized societies for thousands of years, "does not work" any more. As the Twentieth Century closed, the primary underpinnings of the institution of war were overcome by technology. Since then adequate food supplies always exist (from a worldwide perspective) to counter death by starvation. Adequate transportation resources, both for short-term emergencies and for longer-term subsidies are also always available. And adequate communication is available to alert the world to any serious food shortage and to inform it of any measures taken to relieve that shortage.
While famine is still possible, in every case it is a result of military opposition to the delivery of emergency supplies by relief agencies—and most persons have enough information to know this as a fact. So the gut-level fear of famine which called on everyone worldwide to find and give fealty to a military protector is also gone. The institution of war has become obsolete, as is its dependent child the state. This is not to say that combat between humans will eventually cease, nor that government—as a system of voluntary mutual defense between persons—is obsolete. But the motivational basis for collectivized combat on a massive scale is gone, and thus the involuntary system of conscripting resources usually called a "state" has lost its ecological niche. As an institution, war is broken.
1.4 Non-Geographic Military Realities
The same technology which can deliver food so fast that famine is obsolete can deliver bombs so fast that combat has been warped beyond recognition. On one side of this equation, it has become possible for one super-rich super-power to defeat any traditional standing army. Quickly mobilized, the super-power’s forces can quickly crush any opposing army which dares to adopt the conventional statist military posture. Traditionally a state relates to all other states by putting troops in a line all along its border, then concentrating some of them at strategic points along (or within reach of) that border where it is in contact with a rival state. Contests between states are then resolved at such key points, the winner being determined by which side can punch through the other side’s border with a concentration of troops aimed at the enemy’s heartland. Given the likelihood of confrontation between a mass of attacking troops and a mass of defenders along the border, each side dresses in distinctive uniforms, allowing troops to easily target an enemy or assist fellow countrymen during a clash. Today, with air power, a super-power can avoid ground contact with an enemy and simply bomb any troop concentrations the enemy begins to gather. Air superiority is all that counts in any conventional war with the superpower, as long as the super-power does not wish to occupy the territory of the defeated enemy.
But on the other side of the equation, technology allows non-conventional soldiers the opportunity to totally bypass the defensive perimeter of any nation, including a super-power. Traditional statist military tactics assume that a state has the most to fear from an organized block of enemy soldiers massed to penetrate the defensive perimeter of the home state. Alert border outposts watch for signs of such an organized expedition, ready to signal the home defense high command to send out a counter-force to repel the invasion. But modern technology allows effective destructive power to be delivered by small groups of individuals. Powerful bombs can be made of easily obtained materials and delivered with easily obtained civilian transportation. If the soldiers are willing to conduct suicide raids and are well trained, some of them will always be able to reach important targets. Only a few soldiers are needed to conduct such operations. Uniforms are counter-productive since the attackers can easily recognize each other but will want to pose as civilians when crossing or moving within the enemy’s border.
Ironically, even a statist superpower is under considerable pressure to operate a relatively free economy. The healthier its economy, the more wealth it can skim towards the goal of dominating the rest of the world, so competition between world-class states has tended to be resolved in favor of the one with the most free economy. In addition, one of the sources of any super-power’s strength in a modern economy will be its foreign trade. Extensive trade routes with economically essential heavy traffic in both manpower and materials will easily provide foreign soldiers with opportunities to smuggle themselves into the super-power’s territory. Once inside the super-power, foreign soldiers can quickly find jobs because the super-power’s economy is ever hungry for cheap foreign labor. It can quickly find materials because of the super-power’s highly advanced retail markets. It can easily send communications because the super-power’s own economy requires a quick and relatively uncensored communication grid capable of delivering huge quantities of accurate messages between random points both within and outside its borders. Thus, as a practical matter, the super-power has no effective defense against such attacks save one—it can, indeed it must for its own survival, demotivate any would-be attacker.
Motivation can occur for positive or negative reasons. The enemy of the superpower can be lured into "better" behavior or frightened into it—in theory. But statism is an essentially negative philosophy; the foundation of its power (as discussed above) is negative. Thus statist leaders have avoided demotivating "terrorist" enemies with overtures of friendship, trying instead to find ways to use the tool of fear. And so long as the majority of the citizens of a statist regime are still receptive to statist arguments, the leaders will tend to prefer to try to fight one form of terrorism with another. The real question then, as we try to predict how long statism can maintain itself as the world’s dominant ideology, is how long will the citizens of the super-power accept this strategy?
1.5 The State is hanging by its fingernails.
Tradition is a strong force in the human species. While humans can adapt culturally to a lost niche far faster than other species can adapt to such losses genetically, the process still proceeds relatively slowly by the standard of a single human lifetime. The speed of culture change is an order of magnitude slower than the speed with which a single human can learn. Some of us will learn (and can profit from) the fact that the state is obsolete far sooner than this notion is given general acceptance in any major industrial community.
The traditional appeal of the state is re-enforced in most civilized nations by the emphasis most public schools give to sporting events, wherein the average citizen is trained to give blind loyalty to a team which is assigned to the citizen purely on the basis of residence. As years pass, active participation on such teams is seriously discouraged as the most effective players are isolated and the rest assigned roles as spectators. The spectator role is easily transferred to support for national armed forces in time of war. Evidence that this tactic is wearing thin can be found in the increased market for personal fitness products and services, whereby those culled well before the varsity teams were picked can invest time and energy in their own physical condition instead of limiting themselves to rooting for athletes on TV. A similar breakdown in the appeal of traditional sporting events can be seen in the serious competition to them offered by "professional wrestling," a "sport" which is really a dramatic caricature of actual physical confrontation.
Blind loyalty given from citizens to warmongers will take a while to fade, maybe a generation or two (and it may persist in a few small pockets for a while longer). During this time the state’s beneficiaries—soldiers, diplomats and various other functionaries—will try to find ways to maintain their dominance. They will try to rekindle in citizens the sense that an unquestioned loyalty to a state is still necessary for their survival. To do so, the state will need those citizens to see enemies. In the absence of a natural need for men to fight each other for survival, the state needs to generate such hostility artificially.
The post-Cold War policies of the USA, which have preceded and promoted the current conflict with Muslim extremists, are an attempt to provide such an artificial conflict. Various acts of terrorism inflicted upon Muslim civilians by US forces and US allies, generally given little coverage by mainstream US news sources, have generated an enemy. A fairly small number of Muslim extremists have responded with violent attacks on US targets. Finally the US has a direct self-defense interest which ordinary citizens can perceive. This has allowed the leaders of the last major imperial state on Earth (allied to varying degrees, at least officially, with most of the other states on the planet) to call for a "war on terrorism." They openly declare that no one will know when the crisis is over—they now have a permanent justification for an endless war.
But, ultimately, this call for war is based on false premises and is doomed to fail. I do not mean to say that "terrorism" will "win." The terrorists follow the same obsolete goal as the USA imperialists, to establish a statist army capable of repelling "foreign" attack. Instead I predict a growing awareness of the lack of practical justification for statist armies, guerrilla or otherwise, anywhere in the world. Ironically, the call to war has kindled an interest in foreign policy for US citizens—who have typically been well trained by public school civics classes to consider the topic a dreadful bore. Modern media, with oceans of air time and bandwidth to fill and a mandate to "cover the war," are forced to include an unprecedented range of viewpoints and sources. Even "alternative" media, while still a small percentage of the whole, are actually fairly extensive and well received—by Cold War standards. "Third World" media are being forced to broaden their coverage as well. Inevitably, the public’s level of understanding is rising. The "terrorists" will prove to be less of a threat than they are portrayed to be. The clumsy "retaliation" efforts by US military forces will be shown to be no cure but rather a fuel to "terrorism." A new generation will be educated to ignore both forms of statism (imperial and terrorist) and will simply withhold its support. On both sides, the "sanction of the victim" will be lost.
Yes, traditional appeals for "patriotic revenge" or "jihad" will attract a following for a while. Various skirmishes will continue. But eventually most persons will lose any real feeling that it really must be "them or us." Rather, it will become increasingly clear that "the problem" comes from only a few of "them," working in a twisted symbiosis with a few of "us."
1.6 Opportunities
Lacking a natural reason to wage war against their neighbors, former citizens of states will seek other social arrangements with those neighbors. The tendency of most of our species to engage in predominantly involuntary relationships (via statist organization) is, in terms of natural history, fairly recent and it has been fairly brief. It’s less than 10,000 years old, out of the more than 100,000 thousand years that anatomically modern humans have been around. And while we have the ability to evolve cultures which are based on negative-sum, involuntary principles, this is in no way especially "natural" for us. By contrast, humans evolved with and are more generally adapted to social relations which are very modular and very open to voluntary rearrangement, established by decisions made by individuals. In short, we are much more "naturally" suited to libertarianism than to statism.
So what is coming is an opportunity for individuals around the world to discover their natural tendency to be libertarian. And for those individuals who have already done so, but who wish to form new libertarian communities, the ecology is actually getting better. The "New World Order", when it finally resolves (some years from now), will be a libertarian one. The "war on terrorism" is actually hastening the process. Those social institutions which are truly needed and which will be most functional as replacements for war will be libertarian institutions. Those libertarians who seek to plan and establish libertarian nations should embrace the New World Order as their own. They—we—should begin to plan how best to develop the new niche which is emerging.
Of course the biggest opportunities are still largely unavailable. A transition period needs to be negotiated. The leviathan state is still flopping around, like a great white shark out of water. It should be respected for the still dangerous, though dying, creature it is. Innocent blood will yet be spilled before the beast expires. So part of the task of the libertarian nation will be to find ways to stand back while watching the death throes.
2.0 Recommendations
2.1 Motivated legitimacy is the key.
The New World Order can make libertarianism a growth industry. But more than little libertarian discussion groups will be required to build a libertarian nation. People across the world will be looking for tangible replacements for the state. Some will be doing so overtly, but most will simply have a vague dissatisfaction as long as they do not have an organizing principle to replace statism in their lives. Meanwhile, at least for a time, real statist organizations will exist and be seeking to rebuild statist ascendancy. Libertarian communities need to build their own credibility and strength, while avoiding being the targets of both old-style state armies and new-style state terrorists.
The key to the success of a libertarian nation in a world of transition will be in the behavior of those non-libertarians who come in contact with it. The libertarian nation can survive and thrive, while it is small and getting itself established, only if its non-libertarian neighbors allow it to do so. In other words the neighbors must, at least with respect to relations with the libertarians, adopt a libertarian policy of live-and-let-live. Again, the key to the behavior of the non-libertarian neighbors is their motivation.
By "neighbors" I mean not only people who have geographical residences or workplaces near the libertarians, but any people who might come to notice the libertarians and be in a position to interact with them. Such neighbors may include persons who are philosophically opposed to libertarianism, who are fairly neutral, and who have some degree of good feeling towards the libertarians. I discussed the topic of relations between a libertarian community and its neighbors in an earlier essay for Formulations2, and do not wish to repeat that analysis here. I do, however, wish to put it in the context of the New World Order.
My basic premise here addresses the motivational challenge presented by non-libertarian neighbors during the transitional phase we have now entered, between the human era of statist civilization and the libertarian era of New World Order:
Libertarians can fill the statist vacuum with positive enterprises which will earn them legitimacy with their neighbors. Such legitimacy will be a libertarian nation’s best defense and best marketing tool.
The rest of my essay is a laundry list of tactics which I believe should be included in the tool kit of libertarian nation builders who believe as I do, that the New World Order should be embraced, not avoided. Other libertarians may form nations along the model of isolationist religious sects who shun communication with an evil world. They have my best wishes, for I am sure they will harm no one with their strategy. But for libertarians who wish to live free and make the most of opportunities I offer the following advice.
2.2 Political Recommendations
2.2.1 Arbitration Services: Justice as a Commodity
As the Roman Empire weakened in the West, it became increasingly corrupt. Roman justice had been one of the strongest elements of the Roman system. As Roman justice lost credibility, the bishops of the early Christian church began to offer their services in resolving disputes between citizens. At first only Christians trusted the bishops, but eventually most citizens who had access to this arbitration service—even non-Christians—gave it credibility. The strength of the Church during the Middle Ages and the success of Christianity in Western Europe stem directly from that credibility, a resource which depended on the consistent moral perspective of the Christian bishops rather than on any military force at their disposal.
On a world scale, there is a similar crisis today regarding a lack of justice. And while the super-power which hopes to become a world empire makes claims about serving "infinite justice," it has little world-class credibility in this area. Libertarian arbitration services, which could be based on a strong ethical principle—non-initiation of force or fraud—might develop and find markets. Like the early Christians, libertarians could cultivate a tradition where specific individuals within their communities were revered as excellent judges. If this tradition worked well for the libertarians, others might use the libertarian services as well. This would serve several purposes. Of course, the service could become a business, thus strengthening the economy of the libertarian community. But it would also serve to build ties between the libertarian community and its neighbors. And it would enhance the image of the libertarian community. Last but not least, it would inevitably serve to convert some persons to libertarianism.
I believe that a system of libertarian arbitration services, not one monopoly for all libertarians, should be the cornerstone of the entire outreach strategy for a libertarian nation. The arbitration services would need to have good relations with one another. They might form a loose confederation for that purpose. Even without formal relationships governing all services, some network would inevitably develop to handle relations between services.
This same network could be used by non-libertarians and would, in the absence of a state, become a form of "government" (as the term is used by Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence) and the primary diplomatic mechanism for the libertarian nation. Within the network individual arbitration enterprises would exist and would need to solicit business. But in addition, a tradition should be cultivated by the libertarian nation’s media through which all citizens within the libertarian nation would actively evangelize non-libertarians, encouraging them to become familiar with and to use libertarian arbitration services. Other economic interactions with the libertarians would develop out of the positive interactions with the arbitration services. Good will would accrue to the libertarians. The problem of non-libertarian motivation would be solved. (Yes, the libertarians would still have enemies—see Caveat, below.)
2.2.2 Education for Justice
If you want Peace, Work for Justice
If you want Justice, Work for Peace
In an earlier essay for Formulations, I discussed education in a libertarian nation3. What I said there still applies. But a special educational emphasis on the topic of justice will be necessary during the transition from world statism to the New World Order.
Citizens of the libertarian nation should be aware of the many forms which terrorism can take, and the many motivations which can cause persons to become terrorists. For the most part, successful terrorist organizations (those that can sustain themselves as sizable, dangerous organizations or networks across significant periods of time) have an ideology through which they portray themselves as victims of injustice. True, some terrorists are congenitally insane. But "terrorist" organizations do not thrive because they can recruit crazy people nor simply because they try to justify violence. They thrive because they can recruit highly frustrated but sane victims of injustice. In most cases, during the "lifetime" of a terrorist organization, even a fully "successful liberation movement," most of its members can envision getting justice for their cause and taking up peaceful lives. And in almost all cases, there is eventually an end to any given terrorist organization’s violent period, whereby many of its members do in fact take up peaceful lives, whether or not they perceive justice to have been served. The crazies that remain active are caught, killed or driven back into the woodwork by their now peaceful former comrades who help the "authorities."
So the motivation of terrorists to be violent is very open to preemption via efforts to provide them with justice. A libertarian nation can make use of this fact to create a very powerful tool for defense against terrorism. Serious efforts to research and publicize cases of injustice which are fueling the motivations of terrorists should be made by citizens of the libertarian nation. The militias of the libertarian nation should not only teach martial arts, but they should teach justice arts. "Military" exercises should be paralleled with various educational campaigns and other "justice" exercises, both internal and external to the libertarian community, designed to demonstrate support for victims of injustice. Militiamen should be trained to conduct any field operations with respect for basic human rights, so as not to cause more problems than they solve.
The terrorists, to the extent they believe themselves to be victims of injustice, will avoid harming "peace and justice" activists—even when terrorists are willing to threaten or assault "innocent" victims. This is no cure-all, but it is especially true when the activists are well known for their work in this area. Ironically, "anti-terrorist" forces also have some degree of reluctance to attack peace and justice activists (as long as their activities are purely educational).
The libertarian nation should be internationally known as a place where citizens do not approve of initiated force and where citizens actively support, at least verbally, the right to justice of victims of initiated force. Am I saying that each citizen of the libertarian nation should feel a moral obligation to be an activist who works for the rights of non-citizens? Absolutely not. While I do applaud such activity as virtuous, I do not criticize those who refrain from it on moral or any other grounds. Indeed I respect the right of any individual to invoke the "mind your own business" clause, and simply refrain from doing harm. But as a practical matter, I see that a distinct and significant contribution to physical safety would be achieved, if a significant percentage of any libertarian community did things which caused it to be seen as having a culture which actively called for the right to justice of all victims of initiated force.
2.2.3 Propaganda
Ideological Core
Basic explanations of why libertarian philosophy is a good thing should be readily available to all citizens of the free nation. More than one perspective should be offered, even from the "insider" point of view. (e.g., "natural law" arguments, "theistic" arguments, "pragmatist" arguments.) In addition, special "diplomatic" ideological tracts should be written and made available to citizens which explain how a libertarian community can have positive-sum relations with each of the various ideologies held by non-citizens who are likely to interact with or be affected by the libertarian nation; e.g, "Libertarianism and Christianity," "Libertarianism and Voluntary Socialism," "Libertarianism and Islam," etc.
Good Will Generation
Active efforts to make positive contact with most of the media of the world should exist. A low-key version of "why libertarians are good guys" is presented to the various opinion-makers and trend setters in all forms of media. It should become second nature for international journalists to think that, while they may not be libertarians themselves, a libertarian community is a good thing to have in the world.
Propaganda Agencies
In some manner, it would be highly desirable if the libertarian community developed a tradition of libertarian evangelism which was recognized as virtuous by the vast majority of citizens. As with other jobs within the libertarian community, no one should be forced to pay for this function, nor to conduct or to endure evangelist lectures. It would be philosophically difficult for this function to stem in any direct way from the activities of a security or arbitration service. There should not be a conflict of interest between the physical security forces (or arbitration services) whereby the propaganda agencies were "in house" and thus received better treatment than other customers. Nor should security officers or arbiters be encouraged to give evangelistic lectures as part of their duties.
Instead, advertising agencies (probably not called such overtly) might form which functioned as evangelists for the libertarian movement. They would probably have to be financed mostly by charitable donations, or subscriptions along the lines of a chamber of commerce. It is possible that most citizens of the libertarian nation would choose to support such agencies.
2.2.4 Anti-Terrorist Militia Training
The most heroic participants of the 9/11 event were the passengers of United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania. This is not to make light of the fire and police forces who entered the World Trade Center only to die in an attempt to save lives, or any of the many other honorable efforts to react to the tragedy. The firemen at the WTC knowingly faced real life-threatening danger to be sure, and as it turned out many of them did die. But the passengers of that plane were not professional police. Yet they risked their lives (indeed they all died) in order to physically prevent the hijackers from using their plane as a bomb. That bomb, if the hijackers had been able to deploy it as planned, would certainly have killed everyone on the plane, but could easily have killed many times that number of innocent persons on the ground as well. The passengers formed a spontaneous militia which successfully saved those additional innocent lives.
In the New World Order, the citizens of a libertarian nation should have the skills to form such an anti-terrorist militia spontaneously and efficiently. Overt, well-publicized training of citizens on how to resist would-be terrorist kidnappers should be available to all citizens. Such training should include both martial arts and hostage negotiation skills. The training should include simulations of a wide range of possible conflicts with terrorists, ranging from one-to-one encounters, through group encounters between small groups of citizens and a "motorcycle gang" sized group of terrorists, through more traditional "military" and or "diplomatic" operations of the sort Bosnian citizens found themselves conducting in the late 20th Century when faced by Serbian militia. Citizens should be able to visualize what they would do if they were assaulted, possibly over a significant period of time, possibly without adequate weapons or any outside support.
2.2.5 Positive Corruption
For decades, prior to the fall of the Soviet Union, hundreds of the best KGB agents were stationed overseas at any one time, along with the diplomats at Soviet embassies. Over time both diplomats and spies were rotated back to assignments at home and others took their places. Later many of these top agents, who had been exposed to western capitalism firsthand, were promoted to leadership positions. By the time of the fall of the Soviet system, many if not most of the leaders of their system knew first-hand that almost everyone in the West faired better economically than all but the highest paid Soviet bureaucrats and party leaders. This was one reason, perhaps a major reason, why the Soviet system fell.
As a libertarian nation considers its posture relative to Imperial foreign agents, or even with regard to "terrorists," the Soviet pattern should be remembered. Foreign nationals, some of whom will have come to spy on the libertarian nation, should be embraced whenever possible, so as to show them the advantages that the libertarian system has to offer to individuals. Some of these people may defect to the libertarian system overtly, and change their citizenship. Others, hopefully, will go back home, become successful leaders in their homeland, and corrupt it in a libertarian direction.
2.2.6 Diplomatic Realities
Given the nature of states, that they are based on involuntary human relations, most states will at least experiment with the idea of motivating their enemies with threats. The demand "you’re either with us or against us" has been heard a lot. This is a cry for help, uttered in desperation. It is never to be taken seriously by citizens of a libertarian nation. Libertarians should actively avoid an alliance with anyone who utters it. Obviously the enemy of my enemy is not always my enemy. Nor is neutrality a hostile act. If, say, [given world dynamics as I write this] both Pakistan and India, two nuclear powers, make this claim of the USA, the USA cannot invoke "you’re either with us or against us," without fear of being forced to choose sides in the Kashmir conflict. Are the Muslim rebels in Indian-held Kashmir freedom fighters, or terrorists, or both?
So too, the libertarian sovereignty when asked, "you’re either with us or against us, which is it?" must refuse to make an all-or-none commitment to any other sovereignty. Not even another libertarian sovereignty has a right to demand such a choice. The New World Order will indeed be quite orderly once it is fully established, but that order will not be based on commands given and received in fear. It will be based on mutual self-interested alliances between individuals and groups. These alliances will in some cases be very stable and long lasting. In other cases they will be very transient. Probably no more or no less "order" will be achieved than was the case in past societies. After all, black market forces were always very important, even critical, to civilization. But both the order and the disorder which is achieved (yes, disorder can be an achievement—a good thing) will be much more voluntary. And far less energy will need to be spent by entrepreneurs and consumers in hiding their choices from one another or from "security" interests.
2.3 Economic Recommendations
There is no need for me to discuss the need for economic freedom in a libertarian society per se, since this topic has been developed in detail as a part of the existing literature of the libertarian movement. Hopefully the reader will be very familiar with the notion that economic freedoms will enhance the economic fortunes of the citizens of a libertarian nation. However I would like to emphasize that economic freedoms will also add to the security of the libertarian nation in the New World Order.
By the term "freedom" I mean more than the lack of legal restriction often referred to as "civil liberties." I also mean wide and inexpensive access to various forms of economic activity. In this sense the notion of "freedom" is not a "right" which can be granted or recognized politically, but rather an economic flexibility. Such freedoms would not stem in any direct way from the activities of a security service or arbitration service. To the extent they were a result of a coordinated effort within the libertarian community, beyond the efforts of the entrepreneurs who directly provided these "freedoms," that effort would be made by such groups as a chamber of commerce, or the even vaguer "coordination" which might be found amongst various other trade networks, or even "propaganda agencies" (mentioned above) within the libertarian community. So it is to the trade associations and propaganda agencies that I direct the following advice. My advice to them is to develop and encourage the notion I elaborate below, that these "freedoms" are important components of the libertarian nation’s defense system.
2.3.1 Freedom of Communication
The physical ability to communicate is an economic good (more properly, it is typically provided as a service). The political value to a libertarian community of widespread, cheap and convenient communication systems is immense. The more libertarians can communicate with one another, the more they can coordinate political objectives. These objectives may be diplomatic, military, or other concerns. Additionally, there should be a great deal of "freedom" for citizens to communicate with persons outside the libertarian nation. Sometimes this will be communication with libertarian friends, allies or non-resident citizens of the libertarian nation who are working on the same projects as citizens inside the libertarian nation. Other times, citizens will be communicating with "foreigners." Still other times, resident non-citizens will be communicating with their fellows in foreign lands. The more people communicate, the better the "market" for ideas will function. Truth is best served by this "market" being healthy and active. In this way the facts about the libertarian nation will be made known to more and more persons worldwide. It will be increasingly clear that the libertarian nation is not organized as a state, nor is it fostering a climate of fear and/or initiated force. In short, it is not the sort of social force which fosters terrorism or statism—not the sort of threat which states were invented to defend against. So it will be hard for either terrorist leaders or state leaders to try to mobilize a following to attack the libertarian nation.
2.3.2 Financial Freedom
One way for an attack on a libertarian nation to occur would be for its enemies to try to block or disrupt financial transactions. Such an attack could come from either "anti-terrorist" forces or "terrorists." Financial "freedom" is a defense against such attacks. By financial "freedom" I mean that alternative currencies and banking systems should be available to the libertarian community.
Ironically the "war on terrorism" is stimulating the market for trace-proof banking and for alternative currencies. Thus the technology of free banking will probably be advanced even faster than it otherwise would have been. Yet despite the many illegal and immoral uses such vehicles can be put to, there are always legitimate reasons why honest people want and need privacy. The libertarian nation’s citizens should be able to enter this market on a low-key basis, blend in, and thrive.
It would be best if there were many banks and multiple currencies in use within the libertarian nation itself. It would also be best that there be at least one currency and one banking system commonly used which is not dependent on any one physical location, or is based at a physical location outside the borders of the libertarian nation. I predict that a free market will tend to provide this structure anyway. But that market should be encouraged and well defended by ethical and propaganda systems which point to its value both in economic terms and in defense terms.
2.3.3 Freedom of Transportation
"Freedom" of transportation, by which I mean widespread, cheap and convenient transportation systems, would provide the libertarian nation with similar defense value to the defense provided by "freedom" of communication. This is partly because transportation enhances opportunities for communication. But other advantages exist. If no one feels trapped in the libertarian nation, there would be less likelihood that an enemy would seek to corner them there. If goods and services could be sent and received easily, more trade would ensue and the good will of the libertarian nation would be enhanced.
2.4 Virtual is virtuous.
I have argued before that a libertarian nation does not need to be located in some single province—that it could be an alliance of persons who reside in scattered locations, who are not neighbors in the geographic sense. Such an arrangement could exist as a "virtual nation."
To some extent this form of organization is vital to any human organization. Informal associations form the core of all formal organizations. They are essential to the enforcement of any formal law or contract. But they can exist without any formal association to back them up.
Effective alliances of this sort have existed throughout humanity. International corporations function this way today. In the Middle Ages, in Europe, the system of the Law Merchant was organized to provide a justice which transcended national boundaries—based solely on ostracism as a sanction. Greek and Phoenician merchant networks explored and settled the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts. Before them, traders developed regular working relations with each other along the shores of the Indian Ocean and the Pacific. It is hard to tell how formal the associations of ancient traders were. Anthropological studies of preliterate peoples from the islands off Southeast Asia can suggest various systems which might have been used. But clearly they respected each other’s property rights enough to engage in regular trade. And just as clearly no imperial navies existed to police the oceans. Yet trade relations were maintained across hundreds of miles of sea routes. They were dependent on predictable voluntary mutual respect based on mutual self-interest. And this is a form of government (again in the Jeffersonian tradition), a virtual government.
Such voluntary trade relationships will become more common and more overt in the New World Order. Most readers will be thinking by now that successful "terrorist" organizations operate well without a territorial base. Many criminal syndicates have operated this way for years. So do the social networks patronized by the rich and powerful—even when these persons are not engaged in criminal activity. But while the rich and powerful have continued to use "good old boy" networks, fraternal associations, and other virtual organizational tools, they have backed public policies which encouraged most citizens to avoid these tools (as I discussed in an earlier issue of Formulations4). Part of the process of liberation which will cultivate the New World Order is the rediscovery, by the average citizens of industrial societies, of the value of virtual government. Libertarians, both in and out of a new libertarian nation, need to be at the forefront of this rediscovery.
3.0 Caveat
Still not a utopia—never said it would be.
As I said earlier, even with the best of plans, the libertarian entrepreneur must still contend with the fact that a dying leviathan is flopping around dangerously with its last strength. And beyond that there are still truly crazy people who can and will harm innocent persons who happen to be near them. But at least some random danger has always been a problem for humans—and will very probably continue to be a concern, no matter how libertarian human societies become. This is not just a byproduct of the human condition. It is a fact of life. The interesting times we live in will generate strange and exotic dangers as do all major changes in culture or ecology. And whatever stable state emerges—no matter how stable it actually is—will contain random danger as well. So I do not advise libertarians to assume that unprecedented new opportunities for libertarians equates with an end to life’s inherently risky nature.
Given that, it’s still a great time to be a libertarian entrepreneur. This fact will not be in the headlines of the mainstream media. But then the best new opportunities never are until they’ve already been partially developed by insightful entrepreneurs. Go for it. D
Notes
1. "Food
Wars and the Origin of the State", Formulations, Vol. 5, No. 1.
2. "Respect
from One's Neighbors", Formulations, Issue #29
3. "Political
Curriculum: Education Essential to Keep a Free Society", Formulations,
Vol.3, No. 3.
4. Discussion of the role of "politics"
in "Sacred Choice: Myths for a Free Nation", Formulations, Vol.
6, No. 3
Phil Jacobson has been an activist and student of liberty in North Carolina since the early 1970s. For a living he sells used books, used CDs, and used video games
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