From the Rule of Law to the Total State ｜ 8⧸14⧸23
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Summary
As the regime jails political opponents, meme makers, and protesters while letting violent criminals roam the streets, it becomes increasingly difficult to pretend that we re in a nation ruled by laws, not men. Rule of law is understood as a bedrock principle in a constitutional republic, but it s become clear that many Western democracies, America included, have discarded this fundamental axiom.
Transcript
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We hope you're enjoying your Air Canada flight.
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Fast-free Wi-Fi means I can make dinner reservations before we land.
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Wi-Fi available to Airplane members on Equipped Flight.
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As the regime jails political opponents, meme makers, and protesters while letting violent
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criminals roam the streets, it becomes increasingly difficult to pretend that we're in a nation
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Rule of law is understood as a bedrock principle in a constitutional republic, but it's become
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clear that many Western democracies, America included, have discarded this fundamental
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In theory, these nations honor rule of law as a core value, but in practice, they've
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Today, we'll be looking at Bertrand de Juvenal's seminal work on power to help us understand
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why Western liberal democracies discarded rule of law and embraced the total state.
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De Juvenal begins by defining his terms, explaining the critical difference between laws of nature,
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nature, natural laws of society, and positive law.
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Laws of nature are physical laws, like gravity, to which all matter and all men must submit.
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If something is dropped from a height, it must fall, but clever arguments of a lawyer will
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Natural laws of society emerge from the brute facts about their material conditions and the
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nature of humans in that community, but the members of that society still have agency.
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If the key water source in a village dries up, then the tribe must move on to survive.
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They can choose to stay in their village, but the natural consequence will eventually be
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Moral and civil law usually begin as extensions of natural law, and as long as the power of the
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state confines itself to enforcing laws of this kind, its citizens maintain their dignity.
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The barriers placed around human action are aligned with natural consequences and the good
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While there are rules, man is free to pursue virtue because the law is not arbitrary, and he
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can exert agency in the matters over which he would instinctively seek dominion.
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This is the ideal mode of state power, but DeJuvenal acknowledges that it is utopian.
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No government manages to restrict itself to this manner of law in perpetuity.
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Positive law is initially created to buttress moral and civil law derived from nature, but
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Inequality is the most natural of all truths, and the strong will seek laws to enshrine their
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advantage while the weak seek champions who would use the law to elevate them.
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While the law was initially bound together and made coherent by the natural circumstances
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and inherited traditions of society, great and sudden shifts in circumstances can give rise
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to factions which quickly assemble an array of positive law in their favor.
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Law ceases to reflect the natural disposition and folkways of the people, and instead becomes
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a momentary tool of situational advantage wielded by divergent interests.
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Man loses dignity because he can no longer freely pursue virtue.
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He is instead bound by arbitrary dictates that no longer align with the natural laws of society.
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There's been a seismic shift in the legal system.
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An oppressive legal precedent in place since 1971 was recently overturned by the Supreme Court.
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The Americans who benefit the most are people of faith, so we need to get the word out.
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It happened because high school coach Joe Kennedy used to take a knee in prayer on the field after games,
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But now the legal precedent that got him fired is gone, and to celebrate that victory,
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the folks over at First Liberty Institute created the First Freedom Challenge.
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They want people to fill local stadiums and pray after the game,
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just like Coach Kennedy on his first game back, Friday, September 1st.
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Here are three things that you can do to promote the First Freedom Challenge.
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One, sign up at rfia.org and commit to praying on September 1st.
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Two, record a short video message challenging people to take a knee in prayer with Coach Kennedy.
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Let the world know that the freedoms intended by our founding fathers are back.
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DeJuvenal does not dismiss the plight of the dispossessed,
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claiming that they often hold legitimate grievances against social ills caused by times of massive upheaval,
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where those who hold power take advantage of instability.
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Positive legislation is often called upon to adjust the social framework when rapid change takes place.
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No social reality can remain forever static, and change must inevitably come.
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But positive law always proves unequal to the task.
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Ideally, legislative remedies would be thoroughly considered and carefully crafted.
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But in reality, the making of laws is generally a rushed, emotional, and greedy exercise.
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While legislation is called upon to remedy real problems, its creation is usually sloppy, short-sighted, and arbitrary.
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The general disorder of capricious positive law becomes the answer to the specific disorder of societal upheaval.
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As civilizations expand and increase in complexity, they embrace division of labor,
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which creates additional social stratification and widens the disparities between social classes.
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This, in turn, increases the chances of factionalism.
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Citizens now lead very different lives inside the state and rely on a high degree of social coordination.
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binding the very different lives of distinct social classes together,
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orienting them towards a common goal in a predictable and reliable pattern.
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The traditions and folkways which had naturally arisen from the character and shared experience of the people
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now must be carefully passed down from one generation to the next
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if they are to hold the different social classes fast to a common purpose.
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The balance between expansion and social cohesion is delicate,
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requiring the steady hand of a ruling class who understands the cost of trading long-term stability
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Rulers who are too eager to indulge in personal enrichment or the accrual of power
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can easily rupture the social contract by enshrining factional interests in the law,
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warping the system around their temporary desires.
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Mass expansion through colonization or immigration can provide rapid expansion
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due to the influx of raw materials and labor, but also threatens social cohesion.
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The more complex civilization relies heavily on the transmission of traditions and cultural norms
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to create social continuity, and new arrivals, if left unassimilated, can disrupt overall coordination.
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Rapid changes due to revolutionary technological advancement can also heavily disrupt social coordination
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as each faction struggles to find its place and fight for power inside a shifting paradigm.
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No set of laws can predict everything, and during times of civilizational upheaval circumstances will arise
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that demand new patterns of social coordination over which no body of law yet rules.
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This is when deeply ingrained values and traditions are most critical,
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because decisions are made rapidly and informally without significant deliberation.
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If the people have a strong, common morality, then the behavior of leaders will be constrained,
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But if not, leaders can use these moments of instability to ensure advantage for themselves
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It belongs to the creators of the new conditions, to the innovating elites, guided to the extent
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needed by the spiritual authorities to create the code of behavior and the concepts of right
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conduct which are needed to harmonize the new function with the order of society.
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These innovating elites must consider, while innovating, the personnel whom they attract and
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make ready for their reception frameworks of morals as well as the raw materials of their work.
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Each function, in a word, has its law of chivalry and its duty of leadership.
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In the social movement of today, the innovators have neither elaborated these laws nor been
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The elites may set these rules in times of rapid change, but due to the slow destruction of a
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shared culture and moral vision, they fail to recognize their social responsibilities.
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The accelerated nature of modern technological advancement means increasingly frequent social
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upheaval, which in turn creates more opportunities for social advancement.
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The rapidity of this social elevation can create the illusion of equality through opportunity,
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even incorporating the illusion into positive law.
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But the factions of society will continue to exist.
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The only real change is that those in positions of leadership and power are allowed to abandon
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their duties and obligations to the weak under the guise of equality.
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With no shared moral vision or acknowledgement of social hierarchy, the only duty for those
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who are elevated by social upheaval is to secure their advantage during the state of exception
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When the state originally governed an organic community, its powers were bound by other social
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The government was forced to share power with the church, regional leaders, community organizations,
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The traditions of the people would not allow the state to usurp the authority of these natural
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But as social upheaval becomes more common and change more rapid, the state will seek
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to align with individuals who have been elevated by chaos to remove these competing spheres of
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The juvenile sees the libertarian and authoritarian impulse as allies, not enemies.
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Liberation and equality destroy those social institutions that restricted the elevated individual.
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But those spheres of authority were also the only thing holding back the advance of government
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power, and the state quickly comes behind, absorbing the responsibilities and powers once
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With the institutions of shared culture and tradition demolished, all spiritual authority is
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undermined, and only state power can be called upon to quell the resulting chaos.
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The structure of social duties which arose from natural law have collapsed from the top down,
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and the state must claim total power over what has previously been an organic network of
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distributed social authority if it's to restore order.
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Without shared religion or folkways, only mass propaganda can be used to install what is now
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an alien belief system into a population that can find no other way to generate social coordination.
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Rule of law falls, and the total state is born.
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Rule of law falls, and there Woman is a certain kind of beverage without any Hype,