15A041 Knots, Unraveled by Jim Davies, 6/29/2015    

Last week fairly took the breath away. The Supreme Court did what it was always intended to do as I showed in 1789, and "determined what the law is" - so breaking two deadlocks.

First came Obamacare, which caused great rejoicing on the Left but left the Right sore; it is likely now to stay in place. Then came same-sex marriage throughout the land, just as it did a month ago in Eire, amid much rejoicing here too. On top of all that, it seems that a mere 150 years after its surrender, governments in the former Confederacy will remove their flag from staffs outside their buildings.

All three developments are tying the nation up in knots. They solve nothing; opinion and passions remain opposed. The only difference is that a new gang is in charge. A very large minority resents Obamacare in one way or another, a very large minority resents the use of the term "marriage" with respect to lesbians and homosexuals, and a very large minority wants to keep the Confederate symbol in place. To compound it all, these three large minorities may overlap, but are not identical. America is deeply divided.

That's exactly what government always produces - and exactly what governments like, because any conflict among the ruled prolongs the miserable existence of the rulers; it's the well-proven principle of "divide and rule." By having a single rule to compel everyone, some are dissatisfied. Humans are not identical; one size does not fit all. There is no fix for this, while government survives. When majorities win, minorities lose. That's why governed societies are Utopian; they are unstable. People are permanently displeased.

When all government has evaporated, however, such conflicts will vanish with them.

Take that flag, first. It's what CSA soldiers fought under, risking their lives to preserve a claimed independence from the USA. That's what it symbolizes: secession. Not slavery or even white supremacy, but the right not to be ruled against one's will. As such, it's a good symbol, as far as it goes. The 1861-65 war was about that, not about slavery, and we can be sure of that because while a wish to preserve slavery formed part of the reason Southerners wanted to secede, their main reason was to get out from under the punitive tariffs the North was imposing on imported goods, which was bleeding the South economically. So they seceded, but Lincoln's North wouldn't let them.

Had the casus belli been merely a Northern demand to end slavery, the means was easy; the Northerners could have repealed the Fugitive Slave Acts and granted all blacks access to their courts. Southern slavery would then have collapsed, unenforcible. But they didn't - nor did they even issue an ultimatum, of the form "End slavery, or we'll invade and do it for you." No, the War was to preserve power in Washington - period. The flag symbolized resistance.

In recent years, however, I think its symbolism has changed; it has become something of a nasty expression of superiority, of white over black. Dylann Roof made that very clear, and while not all flyers of the flag use it that way, it seems fair to say it now has a racist flavor. (Though, stop press: an opposing view is expressed here; the KKK is shown using only Union flags.) Sadly, that attitude will remain, as long as government exists as a means for one group to gain advantage over another.

In the coming zero government society, however, that will disappear. No such flag will fly outside public buildings, because there won't be any public buildings. Anyone will be free to associate with anyone else, or not; to serve them in his store, or not - but they will carry the consequences. A business employing whites only will help depress wage rates for blacks, who will be hired by a rival. Those lower costs will help that rival undercut the prices necessarily charged by the bigoted party, so ultimately putting it out of business. Thus, the iron discipline of the free market will motivate bigots to drop their bigotry. After a while, the conflict will dissolve; the knot will be untied.

The marriage problem, too, will be swept away with government. The ZGBlog Eire Goes Gay? discussed this; governments began to regulate marriage (which obviously existed for about 40,000 years before governments did) and therefore can "justify" imposing rules about who can and can not marry, and get goodies and tax exemptions.

When it has gone, people will join together in whatever unions they wish, male, female or both, for whatever durations they wish and without reference to any party not involved in the contract(s). They will not need any permission from government, for government will not be there to offer any. As a prediction, I expect that the traditional 1M - 1F lifelong union will be by far the most popular choice, but all manner of colorful alternatives will no doubt be found, in the wilds of Utah and San Francisco. There will be no point to demonstrations for or against same-sex marriages, except as advisories and expressions of opinion; there will be no lawmakers to lobby. The knot will be unraveled.

As for Health Care, when government has gone it will be dramatically improved. A free market in medical services has not existed here for over 100 years, and my Health STRticle describes the kind of shape it will take after the meddlers have been removed. Insurance will continue to be offered, but for ordinary doctor visits I doubt if there will be any takers - it will make no sense. Prices will drop like rocks, for the massive overhead of administration that government regulation requires will have vanished, and genuine competition will have reappeared.

The indigent - to the extent that any indigent remain, after government hindrances to employment have vanished - will be cared for by charities as they always were, before socialists persuaded voters that some were entitled to the fruits of other people's labor.

The endless squabbles about who is entitled to what and at whose expense will therefore disappear, for the mechanism to impose costs on someone else will no longer exist. That knot too will have been untied.

Freedom works, and as is demonstrated every day in every way, government doesn't. When simple market processes have replaced it, these three major conflicts in society will melt away. What today seems irreconcilable and insoluble will easily solve itself. Even the old conflict about abortion will vanish, for a market solution stands ready.

If you're not yet helping bring about this freedom, please begin - here and now.