November 13, 2007
by Clay Barham
Those armed with all the facts, all the knowledge, all the reasoning intelligence, must certainly be able to control the world. Who, then, could possess all that information? It would appear that whoever seeks to run the world has a knowledge problem. Perhaps this is why those who have attempted the job have frozen time to the moment of conquest, as if all that there are no more discoveries to be had, all that could be invented and all that could be imagined have already been done.
Dictatorships rule what people already created and experienced, not that which does not yet exist. This is the reason why the single, creative genius is the worst enemy of the state. He or she might just create some new idea or thing that challenges the accepted and well-established conditions and shake things up. That would undermine the dictator's ability to manage.
If we get up in the morning and find all the relevant information are at hand, our situational preferences in synch with everyone else's, the means of doing what needs doing readily available, all we need is a traffic cop. In short, government rules as a traffic cop, making sure we are on the proper path each day and doing the same thing.
That assumes the man or woman who becomes the superior traffic cop has mastered all the innumerable possibilities of production, distribution and consumption sufficient to keep everyone functioning at the same level of speed and energy. Of course, knowing how life differs, this is not possible. Each human is at a different level of growth and adjustment. Each grows in a different environment, since there is no consistency in where we live as well as how we live.
It would be so easy, so egalitarian, if everyone lived in the same kind of space, with the same furniture. There would be no private property. If all wore the same clothing, traveled to and remained in their same workstations as long as they were able to work. Then, when old and infirm, they march off to the Kevorkian assisted suicide chambers. There would be no mixing males and females, except as rewards for good behavior.
All children born would grow in the children's barracks. Life under these conditions would be so predictable. Of course, this would apply only to the masses, as the elite managers and rulers would have to live a more interesting social life if expected to spend their lives guiding and maintaining the community.
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Anything short of this kind of regimentation means the work of ruling the world becomes very stressful and full of conflicts. Individuals think and feel. They have differing tastes and appetites, interests, talents and skills. The way they are made is distressing to the rulers, because enough of them with similar desires may group together and challenge the ruler's power to rule.
The ruler's intervention into life and the freedom to exchange, between otherwise free people, leads to many unforeseen and unintended consequences. Those in the ruler's cadre will find opportunities for personal profit. Hoarding as if some property is private will occur, and conflict will raise its ugly head when some discover other have more than they do. If the profits are great enough, some may combine as a palace coup and displace the ruler, putting another in charge.
A well-trained palace guard may have to be formed to protect the new cabal from being displaced, leading to a military take-over by those with the weapons. As changes take place at the top, the level of information and knowledge once acquired may be lost, and the human community machine having been ruled by one will have to make undesirable changes for the other. This disturbs the functioning of community and may lead to rebellion, which, if successful, will turn the whole operation upside down.
It is apparent that no single person or group can have all the facts and knowledge, with which to guide and rule the multitude. Why even attempt it? Just let everyone do their own thing, as long as they do not harm another. If everyone would live within the laws everyone agrees to live by, there would be no need of human managers.
For thousands of years, men have tried and failed to establish benevolent dictatorships where the most people could be happy, and it has never lasted. One would think, by now, men would finally give up and say, "Let the people be free." However, they cannot do that. There is always a new face with a new plan that promises to do what others before could not do.
Only in America, in just under 400 years, has the idea of a free people running their own lives, free of dictatorship and rule of the many by the few, been tried. Its success is a matter of record, though some would change that record to promote the benefits of top-down rule. Wouldn't it be nice if those who want to rule the many would just leave us alone and practice their black arts in the Old World, where they belong?
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Clay Barham [send him email] has been a candidate for the California legislature and a stand-in talk show host for ABC. He was educated in physical and behavioral sciences, with a Ph.D. in sociology. He is the author of five books, with his latest being Foundations of Modern American Conservatism and Liberalism: The Roots of Freedom and Tyranny. Visit his website at http://www.claysamerica.com.
