Gary D. Barnett
“Anarchists did not try to carry out genocide against the Armenians in Turkey; they did not deliberately starve millions of Ukrainians; they did not create a system of death camps to kill Jews, gypsies, and Slavs in Europe; they did not fire-bomb scores of large German and Japanese cities and drop nuclear bombs on two of them; they did not carry out a ‘Great Leap Forward’ that killed scores of millions of Chinese; they did not attempt to kill everybody with any appreciable education in Cambodia; they did not launch one aggressive war after another; they did not implement trade sanctions that killed perhaps 500,000 Iraqi children.
In debates between anarchists and statists, the burden of proof clearly should rest on those who place their trust in the state. Anarchy’s mayhem is wholly conjectural; the state’s mayhem is undeniably, factually horrendous.
Robert Higgs–Partial quote from “The State Is Too Dangerous to Tolerate”
Robert Higgs, as far as I know, is retired and living somewhere in Mexico after deciding some years ago to leave the U.S. in favor of a “freer country that does not threaten the world.” This distinction is very important, in that it is not that there is an existing utopia, or perfectly free country, but that there are other countries that have some or more freedoms, or at least have a government that does not have the means to totally dominate the people. The U.S. however, does have the means. It has extensive monetary control, the military might, the massive surveillance state, a seemingly unending number of government employees , bureaucracies, and enforcement units, and an unlimited ability to control large numbers of people, whether due to massive propaganda campaigns, economic fascism, media control, and brute force if deemed necessary. After all, the United States is the largest, most aggressive, most powerful, and most deadly of any empire that has ever existed on earth. This can only lead to an incredibly dangerous totalitarian end unless it could be somehow dismantled or vastly weakened. At this point, this seems a pipedream.
Professor Higgs spoke of this years ago from the U.S. military standpoint, explaining that the Pentagon has a term that it uses called “Full spectrum Dominance,” which means that the military are continuously researching and developing technology to control completely the air, land, sea, and space. In other words, the plot of total control; a one world government or total technocratic globalization, did not begin with the ‘covid’ fraud and scam, it began long ago. It seems more plausible today to think in terms of those who are the real world rulers; those fascists who control the banking, media, and corporate systems, partner with government, and therefore control the state as well. Regardless, this country has certainly done more harm than any other in history. It should be obvious by this time, that those in power observe no limits whatsoever, whether sympathetic, psychological, technological, or moral, and the evil that that they are capable of is boundless.
I do not know Robert Higgs personally, as I met him only one time at a “Restoring Freedom” conference in 2007 outside Washington D.C. I doubt that he would remember such a brief hello, but I well remember the talk he gave at that conference. That was my first exposure to Professor Higgs, and I was immediately impressed with his insight, his no holds barred approach, and his economic knowledge. It is my opinion that Professor Higgs’ positions only grew stronger over time, until he fully realized the depth and scope of the evil of this country’s ruling class and any entity called the state. His leaving this country was testament to his understanding of the problems we all would face in the future; problems that could not be solved within such a corrupt and heinous system as existed then and exists now; that system that is the state.
He spoke at the Mises Institute in July of 2013 in a talk titled: “The State Is too Dangerous to Tolerate.” This was such a dynamic, uninhibited, and hard-hitting talk, and his candid portrayal of this corrupt institution called the state, was an episode of truth-telling that all should hear. Concerning the description of state terror, Higgs said this:
“Defending the continued existence of the state, despite having absolute certainty of a corresponding continuation of its intrinsic engagement in extortion, robbery, willful destruction of wealth, assault, kidnapping, murder, and countless other crimes, requires that one imagine nonstate chaos, disorder and death on a scale that nonstate actors seem incapable of causing.”
One of the major reasons I appreciate and truly miss Dr. Higgs’ writings and speeches, is that honest clarity at his level is very difficult to find. He is a true man of freedom, and someone willing to expose the heinous and intolerable nature of the state at every level of its existence. He became more tenacious over time in his scathing criticism of all politics. This attitude is vitally necessary today, as reliance on the state, those who support the state, those who perpetuate the state and its wickedness by voting any politician into power, those who expect to gain favor of the state, and those who applaud the state, are all a force against freedom. To abhor the state is the natural inclination of any who have taken the time to understand the true nature of rule, but to defend such a dishonest, immoral, and murderous system as this is the epitome of ignorance, indifference, cowardice, or complicity in acts of political perversion and evil.
Robert Higgs while retired, has written and published a few articles and posts over the past few years, but not to any extent as in the past. He has certainly been missed. I cannot in this space even begin to outline his great works, or do justice to his drive to expose the state’s terror, so I will end this short acknowledgement of his honesty, strength, and hard-hitting analysis of our condition under state rule, with his own words.
“Voting, the be all and end all of modern democratic politicians, has become a farce, if indeed it was ever anything else. By voting, the people decide only which of the oligarchs preselected for them as viable candidates will wield the whip used to flog them and will command the legion of willing accomplices and anointed lickspittles who perpetrate the countless violations of the people’s natural rights. Meanwhile, the masters soothe the masses by assuring them night and day that they — the plundered and bullied multitudes who compose the electorate — are themselves the government.”
“In regard to the so-called social contract, I have often had occasion to protest that I haven’t even seen the contract, much less been asked to consent to it. A valid contract requires voluntary offer, acceptance, and consideration. I’ve never received an offer from my rulers, so I certainly have not accepted one; and rather than consideration, I have received nothing but contempt from the rulers, who, notwithstanding the absence of any agreement, have indubitably threatened me with grave harm in the event that I fail to comply with their edicts.”
“The state is the most destructive institution human beings have ever devised – a fire that, at best, can be controlled for only a short time before it o’erleaps it’s improvised confinements and spreads its flames far and wide.”
“Without proper fear, no government would endure more than twenty-four hours.”
Dr. Robert Higgs is one of the good guys. He is retired and lives in Mexico. He was a senior fellow in political economy for the Independent Institute and longtime editor of The Independent Review; he was also a senior fellow of the Mises Institute. He is the 2007 recipient of the Gary G. Schlarbaum Prize for Lifetime Achievement in the Cause of Liberty, and the 2015 Murray N. Rothbard Medal of Freedom.
Reference links and notes:
If men were angels–the State threatens all of mankind
America is Fascist–Nothing is outside the state
The intellectual journey of Robert Higgs
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Copyright © 2023 GaryDBarnett.com
Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given.