On C-Span I watched the lesser known candidates in the New Hampshire Presidential Primaries. For the most part the lesser known candidates offered the same boring garbage as the better known candidates. The only difference was that their performances weren't polished. However, there was one very notable exception in both regards...Vermin Supreme.
Vermin Supreme offered blatant garbage in a very polished fashion. What do I mean by blatant garbage? In my post on a taxpayer division of labor I discussed how Roger Koppl's ONE political lesson was that politicians tend to signal goodness rather than actually doing anything good. Unlike all the other candidates...Mr. Supreme signaled badness..."I offer lies for less".
My name is Vermin Supreme. I am a friendly fascist. I am a tyrant that you should trust. And you should let me run your life because I do know what is best for you. Yes I'm a politician, I will promise you anything your little electorate heart desires because you are my constituents. You are the informed voting public, and because, I have no intention of keeping any promise that I make.Here are some of his campaign promises...
- A mandatory tooth brushing law. "We can no longer be a nation indentured, our very salivation is at stake. Together we must brace ourselves..."
- Ponies for everybody. We would be able to use the ponies as our own personal identification numbers. Here are two positive externalities that he offered... 1. the manure would help restore nutrients depleted from our farmlands and 2. we could use the methane from the manure as renewable energy.
- In order to further tackle the energy problem he would put zombies in giant hamster wheels/turbines and motivate the zombies to run by placing brains at the end of a stick.
- Time travel research. Specifically to go back into time and kill Hitler.
Turns out that he's an anarchist but...perhaps a pragmatic one..."I believe that we can dismantle the government gradually if the citizens take up more of the slack."
Ron Paul says that the government should be drastically reduced in scope...period. He has faith that the private sector will take up the slack...despite a glaring absence of clear empirical evidence. If I had to choose between Ron Paul and Vermin Supreme I'd vote for Vermin Supreme because he offers that very realistic clause..."IF the citizens take up more of the slack". We shouldn't just assume that citizens will take up the slack...but we can provide them with the opportunity to flex their atrophied civic muscles in a very real way.
Which of course ties into pragmatarianism...allowing taxpayers to directly allocate their taxes. Anybody that does not trust congress would have the opportunity to directly support the government organizations that they believe are actually doing good things...not just signalling goodness. Or...for those people that believe that the government only does bad things...they would have the opportunity to directly allocate their taxes to the government organizations that represent the lesser of evils.
For example...according to Gary Chartier..."But by far the worst thing governments do is to make war". While we don't have a time machine that would allow us to go back into time to kill Hitler...we do have the option to allow taxpayers to use their taxes to boycott any future wars. This was the point of my entry on the opportunity costs of war.
It all boils down to convincing. If I haven't convinced you to contribute your time/money to support Vermin Supreme's run for president...then so be it. It could be very well possible that I'm wrong...perhaps he wouldn't lead the country in the "right" direction. Along those same lines...if a president can't convince enough taxpayers to support a war...then so be it. It could be very well possible that the evidence he offered was not sufficiently conclusive and/or there are other ways of dealing with the problem. Pragmatarianism would facilitate heterogeneous approaches to problems. It would allow us to hedge our bets.
It requires humility for us to recognize the possibility that we might be wrong. That humility forms the basis of political tolerance. We have to recognize that while our perspectives are valuable in their uniqueness...they are extremely limited. Political tolerance and humility are the only cures for the "fatal conceit" that allows congress to decide for us which government organizations receive our taxes.
If you still need some additional evidence that Vermin Supreme should be our next president...then here are some videos. From the C-Span panel of lesser known candidates...
01:15:37 - Tooth brushing law
01:32:10 - Free pony platform
01:39:50 - Zombie energy
01:48:10 - Glitterbombs Randall Terry
Here are a couple of the videos that I found on Youtube...
Here's a partial transcript from this video...
Vermin Supreme, I'm a real person. It's my real name. I live my real life. I'm here. I am trying to get votes. I am running a real campaign. Like I say, I mean, the platforms, are they reality based? Maybe not. The whole system's rotten. It stinks. The power concentration of the corporate influences in America is over the top. The ability of us as citizens and citizenry to really make a difference, to really control our lives has been compromised. My own real political personal beliefs do lean towards anarchism. I am an anarchist in real life. Um, I am a registered Republican but I believe that we don't need government to run our lives. I don't believe we need the government to tell us what to do, where to do it, when to do it and how much to do it.
But I also believe that in order for that to happen we also have to take the responsibility for ourselves. We have to take responsibility for others. We have to offer mutual aid and support and care to our fellow citizens. It's those two things. The libertarians, you know, are just about abolishing the government and letting shit fall where it may. But I believe that's a mistake. I believe that we can dismantle the government gradually, if the citizens take up more of the slack. It's all a certain Republican idea you know...taking the government down. But they offer no alternative to helping people other than charity. I mean...civics, citizenship...Americans don't know what it means to be a citizen any more. They aren't taught in school what it means and if they are then they are taught some very twisted and jingoistic fashion.
People are being lied to and that's why I offer lies for less. That's why my "joke humour" campaign is so important. There are real issues. We're in serious trouble and if the people don't wake up the planet is going to go down the frikn toilet...ie global warming, ie the evironment, ie the totalitarian fascist clamp down that's going on in our lives. You know I'm here, I'm running, my rights will be violated. I know this. Every campaign...I go out in the streets my civil liberties will be violated. This is a guarantee. They've been violated already. It's fucked. - Vermin Supreme
"... We shouldn't just assume that citizens will take up the slack...but we can provide them with the opportunity to flex their atrophied civic muscles in a very real way...."
ReplyDeleteWe can absolutely assume that citizens would step in, and for profit, assume what ever services are demanded by society.
But your centric world view dismisses the very same citizens are "wrong" or "short-sighted" if they do not take up all things if government disbanded.
Indeed, what is really happening is all those things left undone are simply....not that important... and no matter how important it might have been for you or others (as the net beneficiary of such things) is completely irrelevant.
If you want what has yet to be provided, do it yourself (and maybe start a business around it, as it is not likely you are completely alone)
But just because all things done by government will not be done by the free market is not a failure of the free market, but a statement that government is a wastrel.
and PS:
ReplyDeleteRe-word Vermin and he is right one...
Men will not be free just because government disappears.
Government will disappear when men chose to be free.
When men chose not government as their tool for the answer to their problems, that is when government becomes irrelevant and fades away.