Sunday, October 2, 2011

Bastiatian Thought Experiment No. 2

Imagine a protection racket that successfuly utilizes economies of scale, up to the point where all it requires of certain parts of its extensive clientele is that they offer it unswerving moral support and a promise not to join any effort to rebel against its actions in exchange for a meagre, but constant share of its loot.

Imagine further that this protection racket, in conjunction with other, similar protection rackets, set up an immense apparatus of propaganda, so vast that it is difficult to find a professional sophist who has nothing to do with it and an area of everyday life not suffused with its indoctrinating influence.

In fact, imagine that this apparatus of propaganda becomes so prodigiously successful that the necessity of obedience to the protection rackets that control it attains the popular status of one of the most incontestable and self-evident propositions.

How likely do you think the above scenario is? And, more importantly, how plausible do you think it is to get out of it?

No comments:

Post a Comment