The insanity unleashed during the virus scare was a real eye opener for many. Who would have thought that a majority of our fellow men would enthusiastically root for lockdowns, social distancing and mask mandates; that vaccine passports and concentration camps for the unvaccinated would become popular ideas; that liberty would be thrown away for the mere prospect of protection against what was evidently a fairly harmless virus?
The scare revealed that the vast majority of people are way more simpleminded than I and many with me had imagined, and we were all disheartened. Before the virus scare, we held some hope that the virtues of liberty and a free society would gain popularity, provided we put our case forward properly. After the scare, hardly any of my liberty minded friends hold any hope for a general awakening. People are set on collectivist ideas. They don't want liberty. They want feudalism.
While I remain confident that liberty will win over tyranny in the post-virus era, I don't think it will come about through political argument. Rather, it will come about through necessity and pragmatism. The liberty minded will act on their principles, and they will navigate pragmatically towards their desired goals. They will focus on family and friends, and they will let politics be politics. The political stage is not a place for the liberty minded. Nothing ever comes of it. It's a waste of time and energy.
A similar realization must have struck my great-grandfather, William, during the second world war, because he dramatically changed his attitude towards politics over the four years that the war was raging. He was a vocal libertarian, and even had a seat in parliament on a libertarian platform, before the war. After the war, he abandoned politics. His attention become focused on his family and business, and he forged many strong ties with the emerging welfare state in the process.
William must have realized during the war that very few of his fellow men were interested in liberty. The problem in the eyes of most Norwegian's wasn't so much with the politics put forward by the national socialists, but the fact that it was being put forward by Germans. Hardly anyone objected to the socialist agenda, complete with state provided welfare, education and pensions. The state was going to take care of people from cradle to grave, and this feudal idea was widely popular.
Socialist thing made a great leap forward during the war. So much so that the nationalization of private businesses was seriously considered by a large minority of political parties.
William who had risked much in his fight against the Nazis during the war must have been appalled by the fact that the very people he hoped to help were now plotting to steal all his wealth. However, he didn't mention this with a word. Instead, he did like the prince in The Leopard, he sided with the majority. He became a friend of the "moderate" socialists. He invited them over to his mansion for dinner. He gave them lucrative positions in his various enterprises.
William was in turn given lucrative positions in various state enterprises. He made many connections, and he promised to provide whatever the top bureaucrats in various departments were requesting. He forged solid ties with the department of education as well as the department of culture. Thirty-five years later, when his grandson navigated the business even further into feudal waters, the counter manoeuvre was complete. The last remaining restrictions on how the family business disposed of the various subsidies given to it by the welfare state were relinquished.
Thanks to this crafty bit of forward looking pragmatism, William secured for his descendants a place among the new nobility, namely the well connected families with strong ties to the welfare state. It's a supremely feudal system, but it's also widely popular, and having seen how dead set against liberty most people are, I no longer see any reason to actively change it. My anarchist views have grown stronger. What matters is not what everyone thinks, but how we navigate through the landscape as it is.
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| Constance and William |
Av Gustav Borgen – Norsk Folkemuseum: image no. NFB.49970, via digitaltmuseum.no., Offentlig eiendom, Lenke
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