Mises Wire |
- Living in the Age of Covid: “The Power of the Powerless”
- Pandemics, Infection, and Libertarianism
- Two Percent Inflation Is a Lot Worse Than You Think
- The Crime of '71: When Nixon Ended the Dollar's Last Connection to Gold
| Living in the Age of Covid: “The Power of the Powerless” Posted: 18 Aug 2021 12:00 PM PDT A specter is haunting the world: the increasing prospect of a new totalitarianism under the extended covid response. Unlike the specter of communism, or the specter of "dissent" to communist dictatorship that Václav Havel ironically identified in his groundbreaking essay "The Power of the Powerless,"1 this specter originates from those in power and not from the revolutionary or the powerless.2 And rather than haunting only Europe or Eastern Europe, this specter casts its long shadow across the future of all humanity, such that one wonders how one might plan, if at all, for this future. Mixed into this spectral fear are grave doubts promoted by some about the intentions of world leaders and a medical and technocratic elite apparently bent on new lockdowns, masking, and mandatory mass vaccinations. Heterodoxies burgeon in the shadows. The mere mention of these heterodoxies will rank one among the heterodox. Nevertheless, I venture to name them. They include the belief that a mass eugenics program is underway and that the vaccination regime amounts to the greatest crime against humanity in world history. They include the belief that the entirety of the covid response has been nothing if not a means for increasing the power and control of the elite over the world population. And they include the more modest claim that "the science" being peddled by "the experts" has been hastily and erroneously construed and represents a grave series of errors, yet merely errors after all. Another claim is that the covid crisis, while real, has been opportunistically used by the ruling elite to further a preexisting agenda for resetting the world economic system and forever changing the shape of the social order (the Great Reset). These claims are not necessarily mutually exclusive and two or three may either be held simultaneously or all four juggled. That these and other heterodoxies are being rigorously suppressed, and that their messengers are either cancelled or vilified, or both, only lends them subterraneous force and adds to the overall anxiety, whether spoken or not. While I will not adjudicate all these claims, it is enough to say that their existence is part of the terror campaign that is the covid regime itself. It is as if the mendacity of the regime spontaneously generated them. You may wonder why I suggest that the extended covid response poses the gravest threat to humanity, rather than believing that the real threat is covid-19 and its variants. I will address this question below. But the question underscores the fact that clear precedents for this situation are nonexistent. The world has never seen anything like it and could not have—before the age of digital communications, modern virology and epidemiology, and pharmacological technology.3 What makes the covid regime different from other totalitarian prospects is the fact that "disease" is now the stated basis for its establishment. The ideology is thus infused with the dominant narrative of protecting the population from a pestilence, rather than delivering a future worker's paradise, for example. This claim by the authorities makes any opposition to their diktats forever fraught with having to refute "the science," variously and inconsistently delivered by "the experts," while demonstrating the incommensurability of the response to the perceived threat. The question of freedom becomes embroiled in the question of what freedom means in the face of a possible death sentence, for oneself and others. And yet there is the possibility that the efforts at mitigation themselves amount to a death sentence. In seeking comparable scenarios to the covid regime, I thought it time to look to Eastern bloc exemplars of resistance. As such, my search led me to the essay that forms part of my title. However distinct the two scenarios, parallels may be drawn between what Havel called the "post-totalitarianism" of Soviet bloc Czechoslovakia and the system developing out of the covid crisis. The issue at stake is pursuing "the aims of life"4 in the face of ongoing terror. It should not matter what side of the fence you are on if pursuing the aims of life is your agenda. Post-totalitarianismBy post-totalitarianism, Havel did not mean a state or condition after totalitarianism. He meant a new form of bureaucratic rule, a totalizing system in which power does not simply originate from a singular dictator and flow downward, but rather one that involves the entire society and conscripts the population into its very structure. "In the post-totalitarian system," Havel suggested, "this line [of power] runs de facto through each person, for everyone in his or her own way is both a victim and a supporter of the system."5 Everyone is forced to "live within the lie," and all subjects become "agents of its automatism"—automatic receivers, messengers, and executors of the post-totalitarian logic.6 Havel provides an example of one such subject: a typical greengrocer. The greengrocer routinely puts a sign in his storefront window that reads, "Workers of the World Unite!" He does so, not necessarily because he believes in the semantic content of the slogan, although he may. But he puts the sign in his window because he would become conspicuous by the sign's absence if he did not. By posting the sign, he consciously or unconsciously seeks to stay out of the crosshairs of severe repression. The greengrocer's sign is ideological because its semantic content is "noble" while its semiotic function works in an opposite direction. Its function is to ensure conformity to a system that has nothing to do with the welfare of "the workers." (Under communism, it is the Marxist true believers who live in "false consciousness.") The sign is just that—a semiotic syntagm that signals compliance and complicity. And the sign feeds into a wider "panorama" of compliance and complicity while compelling others to do the same. The greengrocer's plastering of the sign is a piece within a system that enrolls its subjects in its own administration, subjects who by their participation ensure the participation of others and who together help to constitute post-totalitarianism at large:
Not everyone can live the lie of ideological conformity under post-totalitarianism, however. Havel points to those who begin to "live within the truth." They no longer feign belief and thus cease to be complicit with the system. But those who do so are promptly cancelled:
Thus, the noncompliant is marked by his lack of signaling. He is isolated and demonized. He becomes a pariah and is exiled from the community. He loses his status and faces hardship, or worse. Sound familiar? Yet such persons as the greengrocer may eventually join with others to constitute a "hidden sphere," a counterpublic that by its very adherence to living within the truth challenges the post-totalitarian system at its core. That's because the system is constructed from a tissue of lies and the mere existence of people who defy the lies poses a threat to this construction. They betray the mendacity of the system and may shake others' belief in it as well. And what is meant by living within the truth? The pursuit of the aims of life in defiance of the diktats of the ruling establishment and their agents among the population. The Real ResistanceHavel makes clear that this hidden sphere is not a political movement per se, but rather a prepolitical formation that has no program and posits no alternative system in its place. It is not a political opposition as such. Although it may develop "parallel structures" and a "parallel polis," its prepolitical character is necessary for its effectiveness—because of the impossibility of real political opposition under a single party system; because alternative political paradigms are utopian within the post-totalitarian context; because, given an expected cynicism, no one believes in alternative political paradigms anyway; and primarily because the hidden sphere develops organically and constitutes a concrete way of living rather than an abstract model for another world. Dissidence derives from a background of people's attempts to live within the truth. It is not a matter of formal structures and will not emerge from, or necessarily as, political parties or institutions:
The appeal is to "the aims of life" and not to any strictly political means and ends. Yet Havel's efforts and the efforts of his compatriots eventually did assume a political significance and managed to create another world. But only, he would argue, by having remained true to their original, prepolitical character. That is, they arose from the ad hoc efforts of communities to defy the lies in concrete efforts to live their lives with dignity and in the truth:
Havel believed that something positive and previously impossible could emerge from post-totalitarianism. Post-totalitarianism was the crucible within which this something could be forged and from which it could usher forth. This something was a more genuine way of living, which post-totalitarianism made possible and necessary. Finally, Havel suggested that the incipient world always existed within the present one:
Covid Post-totalitarianismIt should be clear from the foregoing discussion that the covid regime resembles, in many respects, the post-totalitarian system described by Havel. Regardless of "the science," or rather because of it, the covid regime is post-totalitarian. "The science" has proven itself to be ideological. Although continually discredited—by the exaggeration of the virus's lethality, by the suppression of known cures so as to usher in a state of emergency and the mRNA vaccines, by the underreporting of vaccine deaths and injuries, by the institution and reinstitution of failed and unscientific lockdown and masking mandates, and more—"the science" is wielded by authorities as if a matter of fact and a matter of course, just as Marxist ideology was wielded by Soviet communists. And, as under communism, even those who know the truth are compelled to live within the lie. Just as the greengrocer was compelled to display signs of his loyalty under Soviet bloc communism, signs transmitting semantic content to which he was indifferent, so the covid citizen is compelled to display signs of compliance and complicity under the covid regime. The signs have included donning the mask and, increasingly, displaying the vaccine passport—to take part in society. And, as under communism, these displays are compulsory rituals. What function do they serve? Let us take note: if the covid citizen were compelled to wear a sign that said, "I am afraid, therefore unquestionably obedient," he would not be nearly as indifferent to its semantics, even though the statement would reflect the truth. The covid citizen would be embarrassed and ashamed to don such an unequivocal statement of his own degradation, and quite naturally so, for he is a human being and thus has a sense of his own dignity. To overcome this complication, his expression of fidelity must take the form of a sign which, at least on its surface, indicates a level of credulousness in the covid regime. It must allow the covid citizen to say, "What's wrong with the vaccine passport? The experts say that the vaccine is necessary, for my health and that of others." Thus, the vaccine passport helps the covid citizen to conceal from himself the low foundations of his obedience, while at the same time concealing the low foundations of power. The vaccine passport hides them both behind the façade of something high. And that something is ideology.12 The italicized text above is my revision of a passage from Havel's essay—with "the covid citizen" and "vaccine passport" of the covid regime replacing the greengrocer and the greengrocer's sign of the Soviet regime. The point is to show, mutatis mutandis, the substitutability of terms. Although the vaccines have shown some efficacy at mitigating the effects of the virus, they neither protect their recipients from infection and disease nor prevent them from spreading it. And the dangers of the vaccines are not all known, although many short-term side effects, including death, have been documented. The vaccines may also be driving antibody-dependent enhancement, and, with the selective pressure they put on the virus, the production of mutations (variants). The vaccines are, after all, "state of emergency" measures, rushed into use before the necessary scientific testing to gauge their efficacy or ensure their safety could be done. Thus, they are anything but "science"—if by "science" we mean unhampered and open inquiry using the scientific method. The vaccine passport thus serves an ideological function, just like the greengrocer's sign. But just as in the Soviet bloc, some covid citizens are living within the truth. They know that masks, lockdowns, and mandated vaccines have by no means been sufficiently scientifically validated. These dissidents constitute a not-so-hidden sphere, a counterpublic. They have begun to create parallel structures and a parallel polis to resist the covid regime. As in Soviet bloc Czechoslovakia, they are not aligned with any political program and hold to no utopian idealism. Although in the United States the majority are Republicans and lowercase libertarians, many are not. They represent a prepolitical formation. Rather than needing a pollical program, these dissidents seek community in "the continuing and cruel tension between the complex demands of that [covid] system and the aims of life, that is, the elementary need of human beings to live, to a certain extent at least, in harmony with themselves, that is, to live in a bearable way … " Yet their efforts may eventually assume a political character and may manage to create another world, and covid post-totalitarianism may be the crucible in which this other world is forged. They may be developing a more genuine way of living. And they may find that the "brighter future" is not that distant after all. It was there all along, and only blindness and weakness had prevented it from being seen and developed.
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| Pandemics, Infection, and Libertarianism Posted: 18 Aug 2021 11:00 AM PDT When we think in terms of the foundational law of property, it's clear that broad charges of aggression through infection are spurious at best. Original Article: "Pandemics, Infection, and Libertarianism" This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.  | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Two Percent Inflation Is a Lot Worse Than You Think Posted: 18 Aug 2021 09:00 AM PDT With June 2021 CPI growth being at a thirteen-year high, inflation has been on a lot of people's minds lately. You can't blame them, seeing as over 23 percent of all dollars in existence were created in 2020 alone. Although future inflation is certainly an important concern, in this article I instead focus on the chronic inflation this country has faced for over a century. Under normal circumstances, when most people think about inflation, they likely think of a gradual rise in prices averaging out to 2 percent per year. Most people think nothing of this inflation and simply consider it a part of life, or a necessary part of a growing economy. I am here to argue that not only is this 2 percent inflation number a lie, but also that a more harmful aspect of inflation is often ignored: the price deflation that never comes to be. For the past few decades, the Fed has historically sought to achieve a 2 percent yearly inflation target. They measure this target through the Consumer Price Index (CPI), a weighted basket of consumer goods used to estimate overall price levels for the "average" consumer. There are several problems with using CPI as a metric. First, the items composing CPI are by nature subjective and arbitrary, as there is no objective way to measure a single value of money, since money is necessarily expressed in terms of other goods. Additionally, the components of CPI comprise consumer goods people can afford, so if a good becomes too expensive for consumers to purchase, it will no longer be included in the CPI. This is called substitution bias. When the price of a good rises, people will find substitutes, meaning it is likely this good will be phased out of the CPI basket. This means the goods that are increasing in price at a substantial rate (and would indicate a higher inflation rate) are taken out of the weighting. Additionally, monetary expansion often leads to shrinkflation in goods, whereby the quantity or quality of a good is reduced in lieu of a price increase, rather than outright price increases. It is much harder for CPI to incorporate discrete changes in quality or quantity of a good compared with simply an increase in price. Even if you were to ignore these issues and take CPI numbers at face value, it is still illuminating to look at the differences in price change in the different industries comprising CPI. The following are a graph and table measuring percent price change by industry from 1997 to 2017. Overall CPI increased by approximately 43 percent over this period, but industries such as education, childcare, and medical care increased by far more, and industries such as software and TV decreased in nominal price over this period. 
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).Although yearly CPI growth averaged 2.1 percent over this twenty-year period, college tuition increased at over four times this rate, at 8.5 percent per year. Prices in industries such as childcare and medical care also increased far faster than overall CPI. What is interesting to note about the industries that saw decreased prices is that they are sectors where either increases in technology have caused huge growth in productivity or where the US has outsourced production to other countries such as China. Not only is inflation decreasing our overall purchasing power in a chronic fashion, but this overall CPI increase exists even despite the issue of substitution bias and the massive price deflation in certain industries. If CPI did not include these massively deflationary industries, we would better see the true harm from inflation. The industries with large price increases are precisely the industries that have seen less growth in productivity, so they give better insight into the effects of monetary inflation. Education, childcare, and medical care are all well established, labor-intensive industries, meaning that an increase in capital and technology generally has less of a deflationary effect on the prices of their products. Compare these industries to the relatively new TV industry, where improvements in production are occurring at a rapid pace. The question then arises: If CPI does not do an adequate job of measuring inflation, how should we measure it? The original meaning of inflation, and the one that Ludwig von Mises used, was defined as an increase in the supply of money. This leads to a decrease in the purchasing power of money (PPM), but this decrease in PPM is a result of inflation, not inflation itself. In Austrian theory we know that the purchasing power of money is determined by 1) the total demand for money to be held as cash balances and 2) the stock of money in existence. Based on this knowledge, measuring the change in the money supply can give us important insight into one of the two factors that determine PPM. In this case, M2 is used, which includes cash, checking deposits, and highly liquid money substitutes such as saving deposits and money market securities. Using BLS data we find that the M2 money supply grew from $3.83 trillion in 1997 to $13.22 trillion in 2017, for an average yearly increase of 12.25 percent. This 12.25 percent is far higher than the 2 percent inflation we are repeatedly told to believe is occurring. The large disparity between M2 growth and CPI inflation can be partially accounted for based on the increased productivity that comes about from an increase in capital per person and the existence of new technologies. These factors contribute to an increase in quality of life for all people in a progressing economy in the form of lower prices, but current monetary expansion not only stifles these positive deflationary forces, but also brings about nominal price inflation. Additionally, since money is not neutral, new money entering the economy will not raise prices or wages uniformly. The recipients of new money creation benefit, while everyone else tends to lag behind. Empirical data support this conclusion, seeing as real wage rates of nonmanagement private sector workers have been practically stagnant since the 70s, even with large increases in productivity. Regardless, the Cantillon effect tells us that the first to receive and spend newly created money benefit at the expense of the rest of society, since they get to buy goods at their original prices and by the time this new money is received by others, the prices of goods have already increased. ConclusionIn addition to causing distortion in the economic structure and setting off the boom-bust cycle, monetary expansion causes a tangible negative effect in the lives of all consumers. It harms saving, eliminates the increase in the purchasing power of money that would come from economic growth, and siphons resources away from the private sector. The deflationary effects of increased productivity can obscure the negative effects of monetary expansion, but inflation becomes much more visible when looking at relatively more scarce goods such as real estate, education, and equities. These are all things that are pivotal in our lives but severely underrepresented in CPI and becoming progressively harder for middle-class workers to obtain. We should avoid the misconception that inflation has largely been "mild" for the past several decades and realize the full consequences that central bank policy has in our everyday lives.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Crime of '71: When Nixon Ended the Dollar's Last Connection to Gold Posted: 18 Aug 2021 08:00 AM PDT Nixon's decision to end the gold redeemability of the greenback was probably the most comprehensive act of monetary expropriation of modern times. Original Article: "The Crime of '71: When Nixon Ended the Dollar's Last Connection to Gold" This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.  | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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