Governments from Wuhan to Winnipeg are flexing the great and awesome powers they possess right now in the effort to fight back the spread of COVID-19..In China, the power of the state has expanded from veiled light-totalitarianism, to a naked iron-fisted totalitarianism. We shrug our shoulders, because if a government is going to control everything, it may as well do so in the name of some greater good, than in the name of some murderous ideology..Across the Western world, the power of the state threatens to expand from the light-authoritarianism of its social-democratic semi-consensus, into something closer to where China started from in January..Democratic governments – even those without greater ambitions – feel they have little choice but to enforce quarantines, border shutdowns, and economic restrictions in the face of what is shaping up to be a genuine pandemic. Even most of us with a deep suspicion of the state understand that controlling the spread of a pandemic is a time when our liberties are necessarily curbed..The real threat – greater than the pandemic itself – will come when the crisis has passed..Shut-downs of places of business have caused overnight-mass unemployment. Travel restrictions and border shutdowns will quickly strangle trade. To combat this, central banks in the U.S., Europe, and in Canada are flooding the markets with yet more fake, printed money. In the short term, they will provide liquidity and available credit, but they will quickly continue the debasement the currency..Governments are already announcing massive “stimulus” spending initiatives paid for with entirely borrowed money. Most Western countries have not been responsible with their finances, and have been running deficits for a decade or more. By running large deficits in good times – let alone paying down debt – they now leave themselves exposed in borrowing during bad times..Both Canada’s federal government and Alberta’s provincial government have been running large-to-massive deficits for a decade already. The U.S., for 20 years. Now, they will run record deficits and force generations to come to pay for it, because they did not act with responsibility in better times..But the greatest threat once this crisis passes is not in the hangovers of monetary or fiscal “stimulus”, but in the great temptations to retain the new, awesome interventions of the state in the name of other “crises”..The Toronto’s Star’s resident authoritarian cheerleader, Heather Mallick says it out loud..“COVID-19 is something of a test run for worse news, which is climate change…total COVID-19 deaths may increase day by day but that’s not where the terror lies. The true terror is mass death.”.The climate apocalyptists genuinely believe that the world will end in a Mad Max hellscape without massive government intervention to bend everyone to their will. For them, COVID-19 isn’t a crisis, so much as an opportunity..The main bulwark against the apocalyptists is clear evidence that wherever their plans are put into place, economic and fiscal ruin soon follows. But – as Mallick points out – COVID-19 has seen people willing to jettison economic well-being for a greater good; now we just need people to accept economic contraction in the name of stopping the climate apocalypse..“Our lives will be different from now on. The hope is that we will live more intelligently, thinking more about our future on the planet rather than the blithe destruction we indulged in for 50 years.”.The opportunity in today’s crisis contains the answer for tomorrow’s, so it seems. And the temptation for governments to hang onto its expanded role after this crisis will be great; and for the doomers, a good thing..As Milton Friedman said: “Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program.”.It’s highly unlikely that most governments will wish to retain any kind of the explicitly authoritarian powers contained in the likes of Canada’s Emergencies Act (formerly called the War Measures Act), but many will wish to retain their greater controls over the economy..Greater spending, borrowing, and printing of money will be the easiest to justify in the name of preventing the climate apocalypse..Even limited travel and trade restrictions in the name of reducing carbon emissions could be justified, although it is doubtful to ever be applied to the politicians and celebrities attending oversees climate conferences..Leftists have all of a sudden discovered a newfound love of borders. But while conservatives (and some libertarians) like borders to keep some people out, socialists (and some liberals) like borders to keep some people in..We won’t see the likes of a Berlin Wall, but it’s entirely feasible that doomer-governments may ration international travel, the way they de-facto already do domesticly with carbon taxes..As 9/11 was used by neo-conservatives to expand the power of the state in the name of the War on Terror, the international left is chomping at the bit to use Global Warming to expand the power of the state in the name of saving the world itself..Both world wars saw Western governments expand state power over the economy and extend their security-surveillance apparatuses. In most cases, these powers were only modestly scaled back after the wars were over..As we allow governments to claim greater powers right now, we should heed the warning of Benjamin Franklin..“Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”.Derek Fildebrandt is Publisher & CEO of the Western Standard.dfildebrandt@westernstandardonline.com.,.Twitter: @dfildebrandt
Governments from Wuhan to Winnipeg are flexing the great and awesome powers they possess right now in the effort to fight back the spread of COVID-19..In China, the power of the state has expanded from veiled light-totalitarianism, to a naked iron-fisted totalitarianism. We shrug our shoulders, because if a government is going to control everything, it may as well do so in the name of some greater good, than in the name of some murderous ideology..Across the Western world, the power of the state threatens to expand from the light-authoritarianism of its social-democratic semi-consensus, into something closer to where China started from in January..Democratic governments – even those without greater ambitions – feel they have little choice but to enforce quarantines, border shutdowns, and economic restrictions in the face of what is shaping up to be a genuine pandemic. Even most of us with a deep suspicion of the state understand that controlling the spread of a pandemic is a time when our liberties are necessarily curbed..The real threat – greater than the pandemic itself – will come when the crisis has passed..Shut-downs of places of business have caused overnight-mass unemployment. Travel restrictions and border shutdowns will quickly strangle trade. To combat this, central banks in the U.S., Europe, and in Canada are flooding the markets with yet more fake, printed money. In the short term, they will provide liquidity and available credit, but they will quickly continue the debasement the currency..Governments are already announcing massive “stimulus” spending initiatives paid for with entirely borrowed money. Most Western countries have not been responsible with their finances, and have been running deficits for a decade or more. By running large deficits in good times – let alone paying down debt – they now leave themselves exposed in borrowing during bad times..Both Canada’s federal government and Alberta’s provincial government have been running large-to-massive deficits for a decade already. The U.S., for 20 years. Now, they will run record deficits and force generations to come to pay for it, because they did not act with responsibility in better times..But the greatest threat once this crisis passes is not in the hangovers of monetary or fiscal “stimulus”, but in the great temptations to retain the new, awesome interventions of the state in the name of other “crises”..The Toronto’s Star’s resident authoritarian cheerleader, Heather Mallick says it out loud..“COVID-19 is something of a test run for worse news, which is climate change…total COVID-19 deaths may increase day by day but that’s not where the terror lies. The true terror is mass death.”.The climate apocalyptists genuinely believe that the world will end in a Mad Max hellscape without massive government intervention to bend everyone to their will. For them, COVID-19 isn’t a crisis, so much as an opportunity..The main bulwark against the apocalyptists is clear evidence that wherever their plans are put into place, economic and fiscal ruin soon follows. But – as Mallick points out – COVID-19 has seen people willing to jettison economic well-being for a greater good; now we just need people to accept economic contraction in the name of stopping the climate apocalypse..“Our lives will be different from now on. The hope is that we will live more intelligently, thinking more about our future on the planet rather than the blithe destruction we indulged in for 50 years.”.The opportunity in today’s crisis contains the answer for tomorrow’s, so it seems. And the temptation for governments to hang onto its expanded role after this crisis will be great; and for the doomers, a good thing..As Milton Friedman said: “Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program.”.It’s highly unlikely that most governments will wish to retain any kind of the explicitly authoritarian powers contained in the likes of Canada’s Emergencies Act (formerly called the War Measures Act), but many will wish to retain their greater controls over the economy..Greater spending, borrowing, and printing of money will be the easiest to justify in the name of preventing the climate apocalypse..Even limited travel and trade restrictions in the name of reducing carbon emissions could be justified, although it is doubtful to ever be applied to the politicians and celebrities attending oversees climate conferences..Leftists have all of a sudden discovered a newfound love of borders. But while conservatives (and some libertarians) like borders to keep some people out, socialists (and some liberals) like borders to keep some people in..We won’t see the likes of a Berlin Wall, but it’s entirely feasible that doomer-governments may ration international travel, the way they de-facto already do domesticly with carbon taxes..As 9/11 was used by neo-conservatives to expand the power of the state in the name of the War on Terror, the international left is chomping at the bit to use Global Warming to expand the power of the state in the name of saving the world itself..Both world wars saw Western governments expand state power over the economy and extend their security-surveillance apparatuses. In most cases, these powers were only modestly scaled back after the wars were over..As we allow governments to claim greater powers right now, we should heed the warning of Benjamin Franklin..“Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”.Derek Fildebrandt is Publisher & CEO of the Western Standard.dfildebrandt@westernstandardonline.com.,.Twitter: @dfildebrandt
