Crisis and Leviathan

by Will Wilkinson on January 15, 2010

My new column for The Week, “Let the Next Crisis Go to Waste,” argues that the theme of the Aughts is the exploitation of crisis for political ends, and that the damn decade isn’t over yet (but not for pedantic math reasons).

Here’s one Robert Higgs (Mr. Crisis and Leviathan himself, I presume, or a passable spiritual medium) in the comments:

The Bush and Obama administrations have both been raging successes. Just look at how much the government’s powers and its budget have grown. The ruling elites have got exactly what they seek. Rather than calling them fools, we might rather call the rest of us fools, for supposing that these people give a damn about us and for putting up with them hell, in all too many instances, actually supporting them.

Indeed, it is the pantswetting public’s “Do something! Anything!” attitude to which we owe our political ill fortune.

sam

"Indeed, it is the pantswetting public’s “Do something! Anything!” attitude to which we owe our political ill fortune."

Uh, Will, there's not a little pantswetting in that, don't you think, really?

MichaelDrew

Such a typical libertarian lament: 'The status quo is simply insufferable! And made all the worse by the fact that a majority of my countrymen don't see it that way!'

James K

Its the lament of anyone who is dissatisfied with the status quo. Such people are naturally a minority, since situations where the majority are dissatisfied tend to be unstable.

Up until the 18th century (and for some time after in most places) most people were perfectly satisfied with slavery, established religion and the Divine Right of Kings. Conflating popularity and rectitude is a classic logical fallacy.

MichaelDrew

Any time and place in which most people are satisfied with the divine right of kings is certainly not a democracy, so the political problems of the age can't be unambiguously traced back to failings of the people themselves. In any case, I made no claim about rectitude: my point, which certainly does apply to early abolitionists as well as modern libertarians, is that in a democracy to lament a policy regime and simultaneously to acknowledge broad support of it is nothing more than a admission of one's own side's failure at persuasion (though I daresay modern libertarians have advantages in communication technology -- not to mention universal suffrage -- that give them far less excuse for such failure than abolitionists had).

James K

my point, which certainly does apply to early abolitionists as well as modern libertarians, is that in a democracy to lament a policy regime and simultaneously to acknowledge broad support of it is nothing more than a admission of one's own side's failure at persuasion

That, I can agree with.

lhhunt

I suppose, if this really is a democracy, then almost by definition any major flaws in the system must be the fault of the voters.

Josh W.

It's not surprising that people expect politicians to have a magic wand to fix the economy. Especially considering Obama ran under a campaign of undefined change and hope. Now that he's in, people aren't happy with the status quo (no one ever is) and they want action!

mfarmer

Yes, asking politicians to "Do something! Anything!" is like asking an alcoholic to pour the drinks at a party. (I started to say like asking a pedophile to babysit your kids, but thought that might be too rough.)