In a recent commentary, we discussed the real objectives of the lockdowners – the people who claim to be concerned about people getting sick and dying of the novel coronavirus, and therefore create and support mandates about masking, vaccines, lockdowns, embargos, and more. A major part of their actions which leads us to recognize the real objectives as power and control and wealth is their tactics. Among other tactics, they LIE.

In today’s world, the art of lying – of not telling the truth (or all of the truth, or telling the truth in a way that the listener does not believe it) – seems to be incredibly sophisticated. Much of our daily life is warped by the lies that we are told. Told, and sadly, believe.

Of all lies, the penultimate are those told us by government, “the state.” We are bombarded daily by “facts” that are not fact. It is the “best interest” of government to deny the truth constantly, especially by subtle manipulations of reality. It may be as simple as emphasizing the risks and dangers of something relatively small, in order to justify more government control. Or as complex as the web of lies pushed for half a century about the dangers of the Soviet Union (NOT Communism) to the American Union.

So why do I use “penultimate” to describe those sorts of lies? Because the ultimate lies are those of people who support and encourage the state. The lies of statists.

Some definitions are in order. What is a state? Britannica tells us: “state, political organization of society, or the body politic, or, more narrowly, the institutions of government. The state is a form of human association distinguished from other social groups by its purpose, the establishment of order and security; its methods, the laws and their enforcement; its territory, the area of jurisdiction or geographic boundaries; and finally by its sovereignty.” Now, that sounds really, really complex, doesn’t it? And very subject to interpretation. Perhaps we need to say, “I really can’t define it easily, but I know it when I see it.” 

What is a statist? Obviously, someone who advocates and supports “statism.” And what is that? Merriam-Webster defines it as the “concentration of economic controls and planning in the hands of a highly centralized government often extending to government ownership of industry.”  I like Ayn Rand’s definition more: “Statism is nothing more than gang rule. A statist dictatorship is a gang devoted to looting the effort of the productive citizens of its own country.” She wrote that back in 1962 when (by 2021 standards)

So in essence, statism is the belief that the state or government is “legitimate” to at least some extent. Legitimate regardless of its size or the amount of control it exerts over its subjects. Now, that is a pretty broad target and could include minarchists. (But NOT free-market anarchists.) So perhaps a slightly less broad definition is in order.

We’ll get into that later, but what is the tie to lies? Very simple: Governors exercise power, they claim and demand authority over everything and everyone within their jurisdiction. And they do anything that they can to exercise and expand that power. Regardless of what their founding documents say. Regardless of what their “citizens” (subjects in practice) say. But they often have to hide their actions – and that means lies.

In the next part of this discussion, we’ll talk about how we should define statism and statists, and why THEIR lies are worse than the lies of the actual government leaders and officials. At least in the opinion of this lover of liberty.

In the meantime, let us remember that what we hear often IS lies. Not just about COVID-19, not just about Trump (or for that matter, FROM Trump). Not just about violence and threats. Because lying is a bad habit, and the more you do it, the more you want to do it.