Message-ID: <004a01be5b5e$1dfe2180$faadfea9@jay98> Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 06:45:37 -1000 From: Jay Hanson <mailto:j@QMAIL.COM> Subject: A NEW MEANS OF CONTROL HAD TO BE FOUND To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
[ See the rest of the story at www.dieoff.com/page168.htm ]In 1997, the Chinese lobbyist Johnny Chung observed: "I see the White House is like a subway - you have to put in coins to open the gates." [3] Millions of Americans have made the same observation: American politics is based on money - one dollar, one vote. Why is American politics based on money? The surprising answer is because the Founding Fathers intended it that way.
America's government was designed to be corrupt because the moneyed class was thought to be more rational (calculating) than either elected officials or the general public! Free trade and free commerce was conceived as a means to keep governments and men "self-interested" (rational). Capital would flow towards governments and men who embraced Machiavellian "self-interest" (rational, calculating) and away from those who were "passionate" (irrational).
NEW MEANS OF CONTROL HAD TO BE FOUND A feeling arose in the Renaissance - and crystallized by the seventeenth century - that moralizing and preaching religious doctrine could no longer be trusted to restrain the destructive passions of men. [6] A new means of control had to be found.
The most obvious solution was repression and coercion. Repression had been the choice of St. Augustine as early as the fifth century and of Calvin in the sixteenth century. But the repressive solution was beset by a seemingly insurmountable problem: quis custodies ipsos custodes (who shall watch the watchers)? Suppose the sovereign turned out to be excessively lenient, cruel, or had some other failing? What then?
Bernard Mandeville (1670?-1733) rejected repression and suggested that a society based on the deadliest of the seven deadly sins [7] - "avarice" - would create common Machiavellian interests and suppress irrational passions. Mandeville's ideal society was one where the unwitting cooperation of individuals, each working for his or her own interest would result in the greatest benefit to society at large. Mandeville anticipated laissez-faire economic theory, which promoted self-interest, competition, and little government interference in the workings of the economy.
PSEUDO DEMOCRACY "Democracy" is defined as "government by the people". But our Founding Fathers never intended for "the people" to govern themselves - governance was reserved for the moneyed class. Two political theorists had great influence on the framers and creation of the Constitution. John Locke (1632-1704) made the greatest impact through his Second Treatise of Government. Locke pioneered the ideas of natural rights and private property, as well as the concept of "separation of powers" to keep any one segment of government from gaining too much power. The French writer Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755), the second major intellectual influence on the Constitution, further developed the concept of a separation of powers and taught that "invisible wealth which could be sent everywhere" would force governments to govern with greater "wisdom". In other words, here we find the political argument for free trade:
. and through this means commerce could elude violence, and maintain itself everywhere; for the richest trader had only invisible wealth which could be sent everywhere without leaving any trace . In this manner we owe.., to the avarice of rulers the establishment of a contrivance which somehow lifts commerce right out of their grip.
Since that time, the rulers have been compelled to govern with greater wisdom than they themselves might have intended; for, owing to these events, the great and sudden arbitrary actions of the sovereign (les grands coups d'autorité) have been proven to be ineffective and ... only good government brings prosperity [to the prince]. [8]
Adam Smith (1723-1790), like so many others in his time, believed that free trade and commerce led to good government and peace. In his Wealth of Nations, Smith established powerful economic arguments for laissez-faire, but the attentive reader can find the hidden political arguments here as well:
. commerce and manufactures gradually introduced order and good government, and with them, the liberty and security of individuals, among the inhabitants of the country, who had before lived in almost in a continual state of war with their neighbors, and of servile dependency upon their superiors. [9]
James Madison (1751-1836) - "the father of the U.S. Constitution" [10] - was born into a community of self-made Lockean Virginians to whom property rights were both natural and civil. Madison studied Smith carefully, hoping to discover "the true principles of political economy [which] are everywhere needed . more so in our young country than in some old ones." [11]
Madison's primary political concern centered on the maintenance of social stability by the political and social control of competing factions; control by government itself was a secondary consideration. The framers crafted an elaborate political system:
a.. Where "first object of government" (highest priority) was "the faculties" of acquiring property. [12]
b.. Where the struggle of classes and passions (e.g., religious conflict) was replaced with the struggle of interests in the economic sphere.
c.. Where the political system was extremely resistant to change.
d.. Where political power was reserved for a white male minority while projecting the illusion of self-government to the majority. Madison scholar Richard K. Matthews explains:
By consciously denying virtually all but a handful of citizens any role in a governmental structure that, by design, was to be run by an elite of superior ability (who nonetheless would have to check and balance each other), Madison left [economic struggle] as the prime avenue for humanity to search for meaning. [13]
Madison even went so far as to boast that "the true distinction" between ancient regimes and the proposed experiment in government "lies in the total exclusion of the people in their collective capacity." [14] Matthews continues:
These passages all too neatly anticipate Madison's conception of citizenship: do not give "the people" any power when they are assembled; allow some of the white males, acting in isolation, the fleeting participation of voting for their representatives and restrict the right for as long as politically possible to one branch of the legislature. Beyond this minimalist approach to politics, ask little else of the people, except under extraordinary conditions. [15]
That's the theory, here is how it works:
In 1884, one of the wealthiest men of his time, Henry B. Payne, wanted to become the next United States senator from Ohio. Payne's son Oliver, the treasurer of Standard Oil, did his best to help. Just before the election for Ohio's seat, son Oliver "sat at a desk in a Columbus hotel with a stack of bills in front of him, paying for the votes of the state legislators," who then elected U.S. senators. [16]
Sound familliar? There is a GOOD REASON America is politically corrupt. See the rest of the story at www.dieoff.com/page168.htm
Jay -- www.dieoff.com -------------------------------------
[1] http://dieoff.com/page24.htm [2] p. 8, Herbert I. Schiller, CULTURE INC; Oxford, 1989; http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0195067835 The rest are at www.dieoff.com/page168.htm