Every man a king

A curious aspect of the collectivist mindset is the ardent desire among its foremost purveyors, whether openly stated or not, for the realization of a new primitivism - the affection for a "simpler" time when men were allegedly "in tune with nature" and "uncorrupted" by the mechanics of civilization (more specifically, capitalism).

Let us conveniently ignore the facts, then: that peasants (medieval and modern) work(ed) twelve hour days at hard manual labor, that they eked out a bare subsistence, that they rarely lived longer than thirty years, that they were constantly prey to disease, fatal injury, natural disaster, famine, etc., that in every manner the lives of our pre-capitalism ancestors was far, far less pleasant and far more brutal and laborious than our own lives. But this is just all inconvenient prattle to the mystics of nature. Indeed, in his pre-civilized state, man was quite close to nature...and nature, always red in tooth and claw, was quite close to him.

When you see "intellectuals" who praise and extol the lives of savages, be very afraid for our society. (But you see, some animals are more equal than others; so it is presumed that we the common people will participate in the glorious fate our "betters" have prepared for us, while the intellectuals who devise this utter crap will continue to benefit from the "evils" of modern civilization. But I digress.)

What propels men to intentionally self destruct is a mystery. Perhaps it is the mortal terror of having to provide for oneself, which seems endemic among the elite looter class, which affects their subconscious and conscious actions, thereby plunging society headlong into destruction. For they know that they have nothing legitimate to offer in the marketplace, and thus could never compete on normal terms. So they seek to undermine capitalism, in order to make their way on the backs of others. And this may yet be our destruction. But then say goodbye to capitalism, and say goodbye to anything resembling a decent life, in your experience. Say hello to mass starvation and digging for roots to survive.

Because indeed, it is capitalism which has brought about every positive change for humanity: which has established civilization; which has provided the material surplus which allows the vast majority of humanity to live in relative ease and comfort, compared with his ancestors of even a century ago; which has permitted ever greater choice and freedom in living, working, and a thousand other things.

To the men of a thousand years ago, a world where everyone pretty much had plenty to eat, where arduous toil was no longer the lot of the many or even a minority, where the mind was free to pursue any interest or scholarly pursuit it desired, where the vast knowledge of all the world's libraries combined was available at the touch of a button - this would have been considered an impossible dream by them. They had names for it, though: heaven, enlightenment, the Big Rock Candy Mountain, etc. etc. - all implying, of course, that such a world was only possible in the "next" life. In their time, the only men who lived a lifestyle even remotely approaching the modern quality of life were kings. Indeed, because of capitalism, we are all kings. Every Man a King.

Take that, Huey Long! Little did the irony strike you...that we were already kings, that your idea of "every man a king" was to revert every man to a savage...in a jungle where there would only be one King(fish).

As Murray Rothbard famously stated, capitalism and civilization allows man to become fully human, and to realize his complete potential. When one is not always thinking about where the next meal is coming from, the mind is free to create and develop as an individual organism.

In contrast, starvation and primitivism brings no positive fates for humanity, save for the bare comfort that at least in starvation, everyone is indeed equal. And thus is the inevitable outcome of all the equality seekers, of those who envy their betters who are stronger, smarter, more talented, and more driven: For everyone to be truly equal, all must be brought down to that minute level of achievement which the least of our numbers can attain. And thus we are all lowered to the status of the moron and simpering whiner.