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History rhymes: déjà vu all over again [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-02-18

The following excerpt is from a political economy book written in 1879 called Progress and Poverty, by Henry George. (To be precise, it was modernized by Bob Drake in 2006, and this is from Chapter 42 in this newer abridged version.)

Damned if I didn’t read this, stand up out of my chair, and say “HOLY FUCK” out loud and pace around in circles for a bit.

Ch 42: How Modern Civilization May Decline

A representative government may become a dictatorship without formally changing its constitution or abandoning popular elections. Forms are nothing when substance has gone. And the forms of popular government are those from which the substance of freedom may go most easily. For there despotism advances in the name of the people. Once that single source of power is secured, everything is secured. An aristocracy of wealth will never struggle while it can bribe a tyrant. When the disparity of condition increases, democratic elections make it easy to seize the source of power. Many feel no connection with the conduct of government. Embittered by poverty, they are ready to sell their votes to the highest bidder or follow the most blatant demagogue. One class has become too rich to be stripped of its luxuries, no matter how public affairs are administered. Another class is so poor that promises of a few dollars will outweigh abstract considerations on election day. A few roll in wealth, while the many seethe with discontent at things they don't know how to remedy. Where there is anything close to equal distribution of wealth, the more democratic government is, the better it will be. Where there is gross inequality in the distribution of wealth, the opposite is true. The more democratic government is, the worse it will be. To give the vote to people who must beg or steal or starve, to whom the chance to work is a favor — this is to invoke destruction. To put political power in hands embittered and degraded by poverty is to wreak havoc. Hereditary succession (or even selection by lot) may, by accident, occasionally place the wise and just in power. But in a corrupt democracy, the tendency is always to give power to the worst. Honesty and patriotism are a handicap, while dishonesty brings success. The best sink to the bottom, the worst float to the top. The vile are ousted only by the viler. National character gradually absorbs the qualities that win power. In the long panorama of history, we see over and over that this transforms free people into slaves. A corrupt democratic government must finally corrupt the people. And when the people become corrupt, there is no resurrection. Life is gone, only the carcass remains. It is left but for the plowshares of fate to bury it out of sight. Unequal distribution of wealth inevitably transforms popular government into despotism. This is not a thing of the far future. It has already begun in the United States, and is proceeding rapidly before our very eyes. Men of the highest ability and character avoid politics. The technique of handlers and hacks counts more than the reputations of statesmen. The power of money is increasing, while voting is done recklessly. Political differences are no longer differences of principle. Political parties are passing into the control of what might be considered oligarchies and dictatorships.

(Hope this does not go beyond fair use. The whole book can be read online, so I think it is ok. Bolded text by myself, not the author.)

Of course the end wasn’t written for us in the 1800’s. First we hit rock bottom in the Great Depression and then we clawed our way out. Will we find another Franklin Delano Roosevelt in our moment of need? Must we learn all these lessons again the hard way? (yes, apparently)

The author has a very specific solution to solving our problems of inequality: TAX LAND. It’s a long topic better suited to another diary, and perhaps a better writer. I’ll leave it to the reader to decide if they want to tackle a dense political economy textbook written a mere 14 years after our civil war, in a time of oligarchs and robber barons. The answer we seek is in those pages, I think. The road to it however is beset by arguably insurmountable obstacles cemented in place by every last drop of greed we can muster.

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[1] Url: https://dailykos.com/stories/2025/2/18/2304479/-History-rhymes-d-j-vu-all-over-again?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=latest_community&pm_medium=web

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