In this article we continue our exploration of Dr. Carl Jung’s insights into the origins of the State and its effects on myriad aspects of society as found in his last great work, The Undiscovered Self. Last article, we explored how the growing power of the State leads to the destruction of the individual. And how the loss of individualism and growth of collectivism leads to mass slaughter. We continue to build on these observations below.
Under these circumstances it is small wonder that individual judgment grows increasingly uncertain of itself and that responsibility is collectivized as much as possible, i.e., is shuffled off by the individual and delegated to a corporate body. In this way the individual becomes more and more a function of society, which in its turn usurps the function of the real-life carrier, whereas, in actual fact, society is nothing more than an abstract idea like the State. Both are hypostatized, that is, have become autonomous. The State in particular is turned into a quasi-animate personality from whom everything is expected. In reality it is only a camouflage for those individuals who know how to manipulate it. Thus, the constitutional State drifts into the situation of a primitive form of society, namely, the communism of a primitive tribe where everybody is subject to the autocratic rule of a chief or an oligarchy. [pg. 11]
One of the big benefits people believe that they gain from the State is that it allows them to avoid responsibility for their lives. People delegate their thinking and decision making to the State in exchange for obedience as long as it protects them and provides for them. Even when it fails to live up to these promises, and it never does live up to them, the mere fact that it promises to do so is most often enough for people. In delegating away their liberty, they are essentially surrendering their individuality and the responsibility it places upon them, to the corporate identity of the State. The State then begins to act as if it were the person or persons it claims to represent – justifying all its actions in their name and by their authority. As this process occurs, its power grows, and as its power grows, the more those at the top claim to represent the nation itself, and the more the individuals in society allow themselves to be submerged into the collective, the volk, the people, the Nation.
Pieces of land go from property to the Homeland, the Fatherlands, and the Motherland, while the governments which run them becomes the voice of the Parental State which oversees the masses as if they were children, incapable of survival without those in power to direct them in the same way babes would starve without the mother’s treat or wander into traffic and die without father’s hand to guide and discipline them. Thus, as Dr. Jung says, no matter what State you have you eventually end up in an authoritarian state, ruled by either oligarchs or an autocrat. Or, as the American religious leader Joseph Smith put it, “We have learned by sad experience that it is the nature and disposition of almost all men, as soon as they get a little authority, as they suppose, they will immediately begin to exercise unrighteous dominion.” (D&C 121:39)
I love that Dr. Jung notes that for all the ink we spill and words we waste talking about them – concepts such as “society” and “the State” are actually merely fictions. Society doesn’t exist. Groups don’t think. Groups don’t have a voice. Groups don’t act. An individual thinks. An individual speaks. An individual acts. That is all there is. Society is a fiction that can be expanded upon or shrunk at will, according to those doing the speaking because it has no definitive meaning and therefore no existence at all. It is whatever you say it is and having no definition, no parts, no personality, no passions, no mind, no will, no ability to act, it is nothing.
Likewise, the State. It only exists because we buy into its fiction. If we disavowed it and became voluntaryists then the State would simply cease to exist, left behind in the dustbin of history along with such ideas as feudalism and Marxism. That we believe in the State, is a result of the intense indoctrination within it that we are subjected to from childhood, not because it objectively exists. People objectively exists. Human beings objectively exist. As Bastiat so perfectly said it, The State is the great fiction by which everyone endeavors to live at the expense of everyone else. All forms of the State, including minarchy, eventually degrade into authoritarianism. How you organize your government and what you put into your written constitution might slow the process down or speed it up. But the outcome is inevitable.
This is why Voluntaryism is the only solution. The only way to form governments that don’t descend into autocracy, oligarchy, and tyranny is to make them voluntary. When the government has no power to compel obedience or any power at all, then it cannot warp, twist, and transform into totalitarianism. Voluntaryism prevents tyranny and maximizes liberty, prosperity, and human equality by recognizing the inherent and inalienable rights of each and every person. It does not deal in collectives, but individuals. Individualism is the foundation of voluntaryist interaction. All forms of government are voluntary and are as various as there are individuals.
Thus, there is no centralized government which collectivizes society or political parties which we are to collectivize into. By refusing to lay down the foundation upon which the edifice of totalitarianism is built -the State and its doctrines- you prevent the State and its inevitable slavery and totalitarianism from coming into existence. And if you truly wish to maintain the liberty of the individual and maximize the possibility of people to enjoy their liberty, maintain their safety, and pursue happiness, then you must nullify the State. You must abandon its false doctrines and leave its churches. Only when we have forsaken it completely and thereby torn it apart root and branch, can liberty prosper and society have lasting peace. In political terms, Voluntaryism is not just the best way forward. It is the only way forward.
Source: thelatterdayliberator.com