"You know, this used to be a helluva good country"

Reflections on a post-NPSM America

Nick Gillespie | December 11, 2008

(Page 2 of 2)

And here's one final turn of the screw, the worm, whatever. According to the authors of the depressing yet persuasive (and unpublished!) paper "Regulation and Distrust," the less we believe in government, the more of it we will demand.

Writing in July, Philippe Aghion, Yann Algan, Pierre Cahuc, and Andrei Shleifer argue that "distrust influences not just regulation itself, but the demand for regulation. Using the World Values Survey, we show both in a cross-section of countries, and in a sample of individuals from around the world, that distrust fuels support for government control over the economy. What is perhaps most interesting about this finding...is that distrust generates demand for regulation even when people realize that the government is corrupt and ineffective."

That's just one more horrible, deep-rumbling-in-the-very-depth-of-our-bodies-and-souls truth that stands revealed before us, at the end of the Clinton-Bush years. And, sadly because history is a dream from which we cannot awake, the Bush-Obama years, which have already started.

Nick Gillespie is the editor-in-chief of Reason.tv and Reason.com.

Comments

Lester Hunt|12.11.08 @ 8:13PM|#

This just baffles me. You often see people saying that Enron or some other corporate misdeed is evidence that there is something wrong with capitalism. You never hear someone saying (at least never those people) that some political scandal or atrocity shows that there is something wrong with the state, or with letting it get too powerful. I don't get it. The state, as someone said, is the only institution that is judged by its intentions and not by its performance.

|12.11.08 @ 8:19PM|#

Come on Nick. Don't hold back. Tell us how you really feel!

Douglas Gray|12.11.08 @ 8:36PM|#

What is happening now is a lot closer to what happened in ATLAS SHRUGGED than I would have imagined 10-12 years ago.

Kyle Jordan|12.11.08 @ 8:36PM|#

Way to fuck up my good evening Gillespie! Thanks!

I wish I were joking. That article was very depressing.

|12.11.08 @ 8:44PM|#

Politicians are amoral economic actors who respond to incentives by doing what is in their personal interests and not in the interests of the public they purport to want to help?

Who could ever have anticipated this happening?

|12.11.08 @ 8:48PM|#

Incredible. You have perfectly summed the range of my emotions over this last couple of weeks. Though I now know I am not alone I still want to kill my self.

|12.11.08 @ 8:52PM|#

I blame the media!!!!

(only somewhat tongue in cheek)

Jackson Kuhl|12.11.08 @ 8:53PM|#

NPSM is pretty good but I'm going to stick to my own personal catchphrase re: world events, which is, "I feel like I'm taking crazy pills."

Oh, and Nick?

(a) You should write more like this; and

(b) All of Reason should be more like this.

|12.11.08 @ 9:03PM|#

Lester Hunt-

At bottom, implicit in your reference to the proposition that the state is the only institution judged by its intentions, and not by its performance, is the unchallenged acceptance of the premise that the state's intentions are always good.

Travis|12.11.08 @ 9:06PM|#

"The faint of heart should evacuate this page immediately, like patrons at a Golden Corral buffet once the cheese sauce runs out."

In my personal opinion one should evacuate the Golden Corral whether the cheese sauce has run out or not. If the care about their taste buds or personal health.

Orange Line Special|12.11.08 @ 9:06PM|#

Lotsa noise, not really meaning anything. Reason had a chance to (for a low price) put on debates and HoldPoliticiansAccountable by asking questions, and did nothing.

Joel|12.11.08 @ 9:09PM|#

There are some good politicians, of course,...

An unsubstantiated assertion, a statement of opinion not supported by observable fact.

Other than that this was a wonderful article, exactly mirroring my own opinion (and mood) on the subject for several months. Well, years, actually.

Well done. I'm now going to brood in the dark for a while.

|12.11.08 @ 9:12PM|#

Nick,
Thank you!

but, I've got to ask: Where is your line in the sand? Do you have one?

|12.11.08 @ 9:23PM|#

and the Taliban-istas hate us 'cause we're 'free'..........

Travis|12.11.08 @ 9:26PM|#

"The first NPSM I recall fully came on August 20, 1998, the day that Bill Clinton ordered bombing runs on terrorist sites in Sudan and Afghanistan. It was also, as you may recall, the same 24-hour-period during which Monica Lewinsky delivered grand jury testimony on the then-pressing matter of whether the president had lied under oath (he had)."

I think this might be a big reason why I became a libertarian. I remember being a idealistic 17 year old & thinking that Clinton was going to be held accountable. Not for lying about getting a blow job, but for starting a bombing campaign & killing innocent people to cover up the fact that he was lying about getting a blow job.

|12.11.08 @ 9:30PM|#

Flow, your murderous impulses are directed at the wrong person/people.

anarch the non-lawyer|12.11.08 @ 9:37PM|#

In a fundamental way, we know that all the charges are true, against Blago and every other politician, now and forever, amen.

Just wondering: Does prefacing an accusation of guilt, prior to trial, by the phrase "in a fundamental way" absolve a journalist of charges of libel?

Just looking out for your interests, Nick.

Balloon Maker|12.11.08 @ 9:48PM|#

I'm sending this shit to everyone I know.

|12.11.08 @ 9:52PM|#

Call it the final Shrug.

Bingo|12.11.08 @ 9:59PM|#

Thanks for summarizing my thoughts, Nick. We're fucked and the only way out is going to be a new Bretton-Woods or something drastic and unprecedented.

I've been waiting for the other shoe to drop, but they keep dropping.

|12.11.08 @ 10:03PM|#

Over the years, I have often wondered, occasionally aloud, what is this misdirection for, the "Look Over There!" factor. With Clinton, no such wondering. I'm back to asking it again. NPSM indeed. May the Farce be with you.

|12.11.08 @ 10:30PM|#

I've been waiting for the other shoe to drop, but they keep dropping.

Like they're coming out of Imelda Marcos' closet. By the time the last one actually drops we will have all stopped paying attention.

left_nut_right_nut|12.11.08 @ 10:40PM|#

Isn't it true there are parts of America that are rather isolated from whatever fucked things happen on a national scale?

is the country still good there?

|12.11.08 @ 10:50PM|#

I remember being a idealistic 17 year old & thinking that Clinton was going to be held accountable.

I remember counting on Reagan to abolish selective service registration just because he'd called it "unconscionable" during his campaign against Carter. That let-down was why I gave up on the Republicans.

-jcr

Orange Line Special|12.11.08 @ 11:11PM|#

left_nut_right_nut: Yes, there are still some OK places left. The problem is that they're really isolated and really, really cold.

The only way to go to a place with culture and good weather and a true sense of freedom is Somalia. No, really: it's the only libertarian paradise we have left.

America never was a "helluva" place, but Somalia is one helluva a place, and right now!

Join the movement! Come work for peace and freedom!

Jordan|12.12.08 @ 12:35AM|#

Damn, Nick, you hit this one out of the park. And yet, it's more depressing than a Radley Balko post.

The only way to go to a place with culture and good weather and a true sense of freedom is Somalia.

Lefiti also brings up this Somalia strawman. Is he your sockpuppet? A country without rule of law cannot be free.

The Wine Commonsewer|12.12.08 @ 1:28AM|#

Nick, I guess I have to buy you that glass of wine afterall.

In the old days you could just ride out of town and move west. Find some arroyo with good water and build a house.

Paul|12.12.08 @ 2:00AM|#

Nick, I guess I have to buy you that glass of wine afterall.

What is this, the Women's Auxiliary Balloon Corps? Buy the man a scotch!

dhex|12.12.08 @ 2:37AM|#

"Reason had a chance to (for a low price) put on debates and HoldPoliticiansAccountable by asking questions, and did nothing."

you are a NationalTreasure.

Nigel Watt|12.12.08 @ 3:44AM|#

Where is the line in the sand? Every time I think of one, it's already been crossed.

|12.12.08 @ 6:03AM|#

Lately I've come to the conclusion that the Founders wrote our Constitution as they did, granting the federal government limited and specifically enumerated powers, largely because they realized that any political class ultimately would be comprised of vermin, and stupid and venal vermin at that. They knew that the only way to control the damage and havoc they would wreak was to limit, by charter, their power.

I've often thought that if these men could be brought back to life and could witness what we've become as a nation that they'd commit mass suicide.

Dave W.|12.12.08 @ 6:49AM|#

You forgot when they covered up the fact that the US military sent the anthrax for all those years.

You also forgot when they stood down the air defenses and let 9/11 happen without trying to stop it. LIHOP.

These are bigger PSMs than anything you mention. By far. I went to Canada. But then I came back because I think things are actually getting better. The thing with the Illinois government is one of those signs of IMPROVEMENT, believe or not.

Oh, and thanks for laying off the dog eating entries lately. Those made me disgusted with you.

cunnivore|12.12.08 @ 7:23AM|#

The auto bailout and "car czar" is dead in the water for now after it only got 52 votes in the Senate last night.

I do like the AP story that compares this vote to the first vote on the $700B bailout that failed and "sent stocks tumbling" -- and then fails to not that the second vote that passed it also sent stocks tumbling!

ed|12.12.08 @ 8:10AM|#

Nice job, Nick, but you left out this little turd of a story.

I caught part of ESPN's Outside The Lines yesterday afternoon, wherein Rep. Barton literally engaged in extortion tactics with his foe from the other side. He very calmly stated that a bill had been introduced, and that college football had till 2011 to "act" on a playoff scheme. He didn't actually say "Or else", or "It would be a shame if something were to happen to your BCS", but the threat was implied.

It would have been a great moment in broadcasting history if the show's host, Bob Ley, had said to the Congressman: "Sir, I'm not an expert on the legislative process, but how is what you've told us not extortion?"

Alas, everyone was pleasant and civilized, thinking but not saying the unthinkable.

|12.12.08 @ 8:12AM|#

"What is happening now is a lot closer to what happened in ATLAS SHRUGGED than I would have imagined 10-12 years ago."

I said precisely the same thing on a job app cover letter just this week!

|12.12.08 @ 8:13AM|#

I think Jordan is onto something:

The only way to go to a place with culture and good weather and a true sense of freedom is Somalia.
Lefiti also brings up this Somalia strawman. Is he your sockpuppet? A country without rule of law cannot be free.

Although I suspect that Lefiti might be several peoples sock puppet.

|12.12.08 @ 8:14AM|#

As for the article: "The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire: we don't need no water, let the motherfucker burn. burn motherfucker, burn."

Alan Vanneman|12.12.08 @ 8:25AM|#

Trade in the black leather jacket, Nick. You've officially become an Old Fart. What's next, a column about how the kids have ruined the music? Oy vey, oy vey.

ed|12.12.08 @ 8:49AM|#

It's not so much that we're losing the war that bothers me,
but that we're losing it to human cockroaches.

|12.12.08 @ 8:52AM|#

Nick,

Great piece.

Nick Gillespie|12.12.08 @ 8:52AM|#

Oh Alan Vanneman, blogger and film critic extraordinaire, words that wound!

I will officially become an old fart the moment that Medicare approves my Rascal Scooter.

|12.12.08 @ 9:01AM|#

Uh... what happened to that really, really optimistic Nick who wrote that piece on the freer America like... a week ago?

Warty|12.12.08 @ 9:16AM|#

I will officially become an old fart the moment that Medicare approves my Rascal Scooter.

I like this image that's in my head now of a grossly obese Nick riding a fatty-scooter in a Walmart. Wearing the skins of six cows, of course.

creech|12.12.08 @ 9:28AM|#

At some point America decided to stop being a serious nation. Maybe it was the "Greatest Generation" thinking they could have both guns and butter with LBJ while laughing at Goldwater. Or approving of Nixon's freeze on wages and prices. And then their kids, the Boomers, falling for socialism and irresponsible, feel-good behavior. Then the Soviet Union fell and the GOP was mesmerized by temporary surpluses into passing a massive new prescription drug measure and ignoring the looming threats of unfunded social security and medicare. Years and years of government meddling in the economy, with no appreciation of the few voices warning us off the path.
So why isn't libertarianism now sweeping the field as its spokesmen have been proven largely right? Why does the LNC spend a large chunk of its latest meeting worrying about some un-pc humor uttered by one of its members, instead of laying plans for a grassroots assault on all the nonsense spewing out of Washington, the state capitols, and county governments?

Egosumabbas|12.12.08 @ 9:30AM|#

DUDE! I remember that pants-shitting moment on Aug. 20th 1998 too! Like it was yesterday!

I was a 17 year old lad on vacation in France, watching their news channel.

And the BREAKING EXLUSIVE! was that Slick Willy had fired off some rockets into a foreign country or two... right after the news segment about Monica Lewinsky.

Even at that tender age of political naivety I could see right through the ruse. 50% of the country couldn't figure it out?!?!

Egosumabbas|12.12.08 @ 9:33AM|#

@ Travis

Holy crap, you had the same experience as I did.

Egosumabbas|12.12.08 @ 9:34AM|#

Only I had no idea what libertarianism was (yet). That took a few more years to set in.

|12.12.08 @ 9:36AM|#

Excellent article - I've posted a link to it on my site and sent it to everyone whose intelligence I trust (and this includes those who disagree with me).

|12.12.08 @ 9:41AM|#

i'm reminded of the roman empire, just before it was invaded by vandals and torn apart... all "good" things come to an end.

|12.12.08 @ 9:42AM|#

"the war of clintons pants"
i wonder what kind of footnote that will get in the history books?

|12.12.08 @ 9:44AM|#

bob,

An ear did pretty good.

|12.12.08 @ 9:57AM|#

There is a way to fix things, or at the very least to put a lid on the cesspool:

In every election, vote anti-incumbent. Don't let the roots of corruption snake their way into the bank vault.

This will never happpen, of course. We are fricking doomed!

|12.12.08 @ 10:09AM|#

Goddamn RUB. Lissen...

Hanson was an ACLU lawyer, not a "small town lawyer". And while he (and Billy and the Cap) were in fact beaten by bats, it was the hatchet that killed Hanson. Watch it again.

Citizen Nothing|12.12.08 @ 10:21AM|#

Bravo, Nick!

猪|12.12.08 @ 10:24AM|#

That has to be Gillespie's best column since "Year of the Rat". The Suck version, of course.

Mike M.|12.12.08 @ 10:53AM|#

Every nation can undoubtedly withstand a certain amount of inherent corruption amongst its ruling class, but go too far and it will reach the "tipping point" where the people get fed and begin to openly revolt.

The relevant question is how far away we are in America from reaching our tipping point.

|12.12.08 @ 11:51AM|#

The relevant question is how far away we are in America from reaching our tipping point.

Very, very far away. People don't even seem outraged by the bailout - which must be one of the most egregious transfers of taxpayers money to an unproductive elite since Louis XIV. Maybe the concepts are too abstract for most of us, most people are conditioned to paying taxes and assuming the government is looking out for us. Or maybe the narcotizing effects of our 24-hour entertainment culture are sufficient to keep most people on the sidelines.

|12.12.08 @ 12:02PM|#

@ Mike M.

If the study that Nick linked to is accurate, then every nation reaches an equilibrium comprised of either distrust and regulation with corruption being the only method of production, or trust and liberty generating vast amounts of production. As a culturre becomes more corrupt the citizenry demands more regulation even from those who are corrupt until equilibrium is reached.
I actually found this less depressing than most, as it shows the US in a better position than almost the rest of the world. Also, it would seem to indicate that investing in social capital would help foster trust in the culture and subsequently decrease regulation. So everybody get out there and throw block party BBQ's and wave to neighbors.

|12.12.08 @ 12:35PM|#

I like it. It's got this whole Hunter S. Thompson, gonzo thing going on.

Now, you just need to add some drug references to the whole pants-shitting thing, and it would be perfect.

This isn't just pants-shitting territory we're in. It's bad-acid-trip land. Any day now, I'm expecting Bush to appear on TV in a military uniform with a Che hat, and Obama to ride by, naked, on a unicorn.

Publilius|12.12.08 @ 1:04PM|#

People don't even seem outraged by the bailout - which must be one of the most egregious transfers of taxpayers money to an unproductive elite since Louis XIV. Maybe the concepts are too abstract for most of us, most people are conditioned to paying taxes and assuming the government is looking out for us. Or maybe the narcotizing effects of our 24-hour entertainment culture are sufficient to keep most people on the sidelines.

It's because the "taxpayers" aren't paying for the bailout. The government simply borrows more money or creates more new money to pay for these things. Now if they actually had to raise taxes on the middle class to pay for the bailout, then people would be outraged.

The Illuminati|12.12.08 @ 1:36PM|#

You forgot when they covered up the fact that the US military sent the anthrax for all those years.

You also forgot when they stood down the air defenses and let 9/11 happen without trying to stop it. LIHOP.

Yep. We covered it up well, didn't we? But you, Dave W., you alone have managed to pierce the shroud of secrecy so carefully developed and employed by us, the REAL RULERS.

For that we extend our respect

Before you enlighten the powerful and righteous sleeping mass that is the American Public, you must die. Pray to your gods, Dave W., this is your last day on Earth.

|12.12.08 @ 3:45PM|#

Seriously, Nick, pantshitting notwithstanding, this is one of the most concise assessments of the state of government in America that I have read. Keep it up.

Karlh|12.13.08 @ 12:25PM|#

Odd I have never been one to buy into conspiracy theories but in light of all that is happening and has happened I find it hard to believe much else.

It seems insanity has reached out and taken down every person of any power in this country, that or the conspiracy theorists are at least 50% correct. Which would put them way ahead of the grade curve set by our leaders.

Either way the point has been made and is difficult to refute that as a nation we are fucked. We have nothing left but lint and sarcasm in our pockets.

So when the mobs start marching and the pitchforks and torches come out I will find it difficult to shed a tear or even feel an emotion for the fate of those that will face those mobs. Save for the law enforcement that may try to keep order.

(wild tangent warning stop here read no further)I am still hoping the EPA's tax on cow flatulence will be the start of something. It would be great if generations hence were taught that it was an ass tax that kicked off the second American Revolution. Would it not be true comedy if the last NPSM was an ass tax?

|12.14.08 @ 9:21AM|#

fascinating review. one cannot help but notice that the "progressives'" objectives are inconsistent over time -- yet consistent with popular sentiment~ i.e. designed to garner political support. their real cause: statism is constant