The Mindcrime Liberty Show with Dobson and Patton

Ep. 60: What was Mediaeval Christendom with Matteo Salonia

The Mindcrime liberty show is joined by Matteo Salonia to discuss medieval Christendom and its various legal, political, social and economic phenomena. The modern period heralds the end of the mediaeval Catholic Christendom and beginning of the modern nation state. What changed to achieve this and how were these ideas transmitted?  What was the key ideas and institutions themselves? What changed with the reformation and early modernity? 

Ep.59: Are Children overrated? Are children sentimentalized by the left and many conservatives?

The Mindcrime liberty show discusses whether children are overrated with respect to different political groups and outlooks.  Why do so many political/social  movements across the spectrum seem to be about defending or doing things "for the children."  Are they really doing it for the children or their own power?  What are the downsides of the sentimentalization of children  and using them as political props?  

Are children closer to animals or are children undeveloped  humans. When does a child become an adult and are teenagers a "new" category?    Do adults want to become "children."  Are children innocent with respect to Christianity? How ought the law treat children?  

Ep. 58 In defense of Child Labor. Is it any worse then schooling?

The Mindcrime libertyshow discusses child labor both historically and in the future.  Swithun starts by discussing a mises institute article which chronicles how some of the worst aspects of child labor in England described by Charles Dickens had to do with functionally state mandates not "free market" capitalism.   

 

"Thus, in advocating the regulation of child labor, social reformers asked government to remedy abuses for which it was largely responsible. Once more, government was "a disease masquerading as its own cure." To their credit, some reformers realized that regulations to help the poor did precisely the opposite. "

https://mises.org/library/legal-child-abuse

 

We continue our discussion with pointing out that scarcity is a historic fact which few people other then right libertarians will acknowledge.   Its only recently that society has been rich enough to have significant portion of the population doing "useless" work.  That useless work is known as mass schooling which for many people is quite alienating work involving tests and papers which they don't care to take and the teacher doesn't care to administer.  Is this any better than many current jobs? At least with a job you get paid and something productive is produced.  It is true that if one wants a high paying job and one isn't an innovator the only real way is to get a good education for a skill.  Funnily enough mass schooling tends to fail many of the people it claims to help and is a kind of jail anyways for disgruntled non academic persons in particular young men of all races and many backgrounds.  Would these people be any better off working?   How would that effect the immigration debate if one had an increase in effective working hours?  

Ep 57: Keith Preston on what should be done about Israel and why liberal democracy won't fix it.

The Mindcrime liberty show interviews Keith Preston about Israel.  We discuss the past and future of Israel and how this conflict emerged and if any "solution" actually exists.  We begin the discussion by pointing out why a one state liberal democracy in the western European context, which is the de facto solution many of the western left such as Chomsky, Glen Greenwald and Cornel West give, will probably fail and lead to a civil war almost immediately.  We also discuss issues of immigration and homesteading and why the left hates Israeli as well as why the American left has failed to make any impact in favor of the Palestinians. We finally end with a discussion of the future of American-Israeli relations.  Has  American influence restrained Israel? Would Israel going alone be more aggressive? Who exactly controls whom in this relationship?  Does Israel have America wrapped its thumb or is it a more symbiotic relationship. 

 

Keith Preston is the author of many books including Thinkers against Modernity and runs the great website www.attackthesystem.com 

Ep 56: Is murder wrong? What is murder? What is "justified" killing? What is harm?

The mind crime liberty show discusses the very relevant question of whether murder is wrong and if murder is wrong what makes it wrong.  Murders apparent wrongness tends to be more or less assumed and we investigate this assumption.  If one digs deeper "murder" is a key concept in almost all areas of philosophy, theology, history, war and ethics which is mostly just assumed as a starting point. If one removes this starting point (ie murder is wrong)  what then is the big deal about wars, genocides and abortions?  Why is it the case that certain organizations, namely the state, is allowed to "justly" murder someone.  What is the difference between murder and justified killing (ie an executioner or say a soldier).  Is there actually a distinction? 

What are the best and most persuasive arguments in favor of not killing/murdering others.  Why is it the case that its so weakly argued considering its alleged importance to all facets of life.  What do golden rule or Kantian type arguments miss? How do these ethical theories deal with outliers or exceptions? Is Divine command theory or natural law a more effective and persuasive argument?  

 

 

Ep 55 Is wage "slavery" (ie working at McDonald's) a form of slavery that ought to be abolished?

The Mindcrime libertyshow discusses whether wage "slavery," such as working for McDonald's, Amazon or Walmart at a low wage, ought to be abolished?  Would low wage jobs in large firms exist in a free society?  Would anyone choose to work at these kinds of jobs if better options existed and why do these jobs exist?  What exactly defines slavery? What is the difference between working for amazon as a picker, serfdom and classic chattel slavery?  Does dignity and autonomy matter?  What exactly is a dignified job and would paying them more make them less "slave" like. Why aren't interns, adjunct professors and TA's considered wage slaves even though at times they can make as much money if one does a full hourly accounting?  What does Marx, Hoppe, Nozick and Walter Block agree on and disagree on when it comes to technical economics related to free labor under capitalism and slavery? Are people as free and creative as many of the left libertarians claim people are?  If barriers to entry were removed would there be more small business owners and self employed people?  

Ep 54 Crypto currency skepticism or crytpo to the moon? #Bitcoin #Eth #Doge

The Mindcrime libertyshow is joined by Duncan Whitmore of Mises UK who wrote an essay entitled Crypto Skepticism to discuss both his essay and crypto currency in general.  Does crypto currency ranging from the very well established Bitcoin and Ethereum to the plethora of startup alt coins and even meme coins like dogecoin have any future?  Is crypto currency merely a ponzi scheme for lunatics, a Chinese weapon against the FED as Peter Thiel has described it or is it a fascinating technology which can wrestle away the states control of the money supply?  Why is money needed anyways (why not just barter?) and can money exist without the state controlling it?  Why not go back to gold and silver?  What are the strengths and weakness of crypto currency?  We discuss all of this in this episode. 

 

A link to Duncan Whitmore's excellent essay.

https://misesuk.org/2021/03/12/crypto-scepticism/

Ep 53: Is Moldbug (Yarvin) or Mises right about banking and finance?

The Mindcrime liberty show discusses whether Curtis Yarvin (ie Moldbug) is right about banking and finance based on two old posts from his blog Unqualified Reservations entitled The Misean Explanation of the Bank Crisis and Maturity Transformation Considered.  Yarvin describes the financial system fairly effectively noting that Maturity transformation which the most common form is known as fractional reserve banking is the dominant feature.   Yarvin, like Mises and most Austrian economists, note how unstable this system is and describes why it blows up every so often. To quote yarvin himself this poorly engineered system  "coats the entire area with radioactive material" in his excellent analogy. Why is fractional reserve banking so unstable?  Could fractional reserve banking work without the state as a lender of last resort. What would banking look like in a stateless society, ancapistan or a freed market?  Would there be any fractional reserve banks? Why is the state so interested in controlling the money supply? How did this current system come about?  How does Moldbug's solution of nationalizing the banks compares to other solutions in particular various Austrian economists solutions?  

 

https://www.unqualified-reservations.org/2008/10/misesian-explanation-of-bank-crisis/ 

https://www.unqualified-reservations.org/2008/09/maturity-transformation-considered/

Ep 52 Why Hoppe is right and Kant is wrong about perpetual peace and democracy.

The Mindcrime liberty show discusses Kant's democratic peace theory with  regard to Hans Hoppe private law society theory.  Kant and most modern day liberals including Mises thought that the key to perpetual peace was to democratize all societies internally along with  mutual trade and a federation of nations. As we see with the general trajectory of many organizations and Hoppe quite clearly elaborates this is that they centralize. This one world federation once it has enough power is functionally a one world government where in the customers have no competition for security/law even disregarding the obvious contradiction of an expropriating property protector (ie taxation is theft and slavery).  Hans Hoppe in his chapter called the errors of classical liberalism  in the democracy the god that failed attacks  his intellectual master Ludwig Von Mises for holding this incorrect view on the nature of monopoly and peace.  If monopolies are bad from the point of view of consumers then why in this very important area of production such as protection of property and the production of law and order are monopolies are justified?  If milk or car monopolies produce comparatively worse cars then why would a monopoly on "government" be any better? Importantly this monopoly thanks to modern technology in addition to taking the logic of both Kant and MIses theories seriously  cannot exist in one regional area and must eventually contain the entire earth into a one world centralized government. 

Hoppe writes in Chapter 11:

"Once it is incorrectly accepted that in order to protect and enforce
peaceful cooperation between two individuals A and B, it is justified and
necessary to have a judicial monopolist X, a twofold conclusion follows.
If more than one territorial monopolist exists, X, Y, and Z, then, just as
there can presumably be no peace among A and B without X, so can there
be no peace between the monopolists X, Y, and Z as long as they remain
in a "state of anarchy" with each other. Hence, in order to fulfill the
liberal desideratum of universal and eternal peace, all political centralization and unification, and ultimately the establishment of a single world
government, is justified and necessary."

 

All statists, classical liberals, liberals and minarchists  (unless for cultural or even other taboo  and unspeakable reasons which arguably Kant, Mill and of course Marx held) must eventually advocate a one world state in order to get peace.  How does this differ from Hobbes Leviathan and of course how does this come about other then by some single local empire (IE the US) indirectly or directly "conquering" or subduing the world? Is that really a "liberal" peace theory? Hoppe in this regard using private property and self ownership as preceding the creation of the state has a theoretical pathway for perpetual peace and reinstates the Westphalian peace  system taking the correct insights of Mises libertarian economics and applying them more thoroughly. Territory X follows these laws and territory Y follows these laws.  Both territories will compete for "customers" and must treat there customers well.  If the two territories want to trade with each other or individual members within the areas want to trade then they can do so but one doesn't need a labyrinth of "free" trade agreements which are merely a way to increase state power and kickbacks. If there is the danger of piracy or foreign aggression regarding trade the those who want to engage in trade must bear the costs rather then externalize them through taxes.    The key to a true liberal peace is not a unilateral worldwide UN or League of nations  with strong teeth as even Mises unfortunately advocates rather independent "states" or better yet private law societies.  Here competition can occur which will decrease the cost and increase the quality of good just as Mises economic theory predicts which was incorrectly applied to the state which has a monopoly and by logical standards must be expanded to the globe if one wants peace.

To quote Hoppe again:

"Liberalism's erroneous acceptance of the institution of government
as consistent with the basic liberal principles of self-ownership, original
appropriation, property, and contract, consequently led to its own destruction. "

 

Hans Hoppe Democracy the god that failed and in it contains his excellent chapter the errors of classical liberalism.

https://portalconservador.com/livros/Hans-Hermann-Hoppe-Democracy-The-God-That-Failed.pdf  

 

 

 

 

 

Ep 51 Keith Preston on whether Thomas Hobbes is right about the necessity state.

The mindcrime liberty show is joined by Keith Preston to discuss whether Thomas Hobbes, the author of the leviathan, is right about the necessity of the state. Is it true that without the state/leviathan humans life would be short, brute and nasty?  What would an anarchist criticism of Thomas Hobbes leviathan be?  How does Thomas Hobbes differ with his rejection of natural telelogy.  What does Thomas Hobbes share and differ with other thinks like Carl Schmitt and Max Stirner both of which Keith Preston has written at length about in his great book Thinkers Against Modernity (and other works).  What would Thomas Hobbes think of dictators like Pinochet or Franco.  Would Thomas Hobbes be more of an anarchist considering the size and scale of the current national state as well as the increasingly growing international system in the past few decades.   Would Hobbes be a "liberal Hobbesian" and advocate an international global government of some kind which so many Hobbesian arguments seem to implicitly or explicitly infer.  Keith Preston also explains why nationalists already have one foot in the door towards the anarchist camp considering existing nation states are in a position of international anarchy as described by most political scientists. Finally what exactly is the peace which Hobbes describes considering that many "liberal" societies have large prison populations and of course many illiberal societies have done mass killings which thinkers like Hummel argue have killed at least 270 million people (and arguably more).     Keith Preston is the author of many books and can be found at attackthesystem.com. 

 

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