Caleb Anderson: Our would-be feudal overlords - will turning the money taps off be enough?

In 1905 Max Weber, one of the founding fathers of sociology, produced a groundbreaking and canonical work titled "The Protestant Work Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism". In this work, Weber sought to explain the extraordinary improvements in economic well-being and quality of life in those countries most impacted by the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century. 

 These countries, mainly in northern Europe, exceeded others in almost every measurable well-being metric.

The Protestant Reformation emphasised not only diligence, responsibility, and frugality, as imperative Christian virtues, it provided critical motivation for the development of initiative and innovation. Enclosure and engrossment of land enabled the gentry, and emerging mercantile class, to own land once owned by the nobility, this motivated a new land-owning class to innovate. Improved agricultural productivity created surplus wealth that could be invested elsewhere. Demand for products and services grew, people began to specialize and employ other people, value was added to products in previously unforeseen ways and trade flourished.

While industrialization did come at a cost (all things do), lives generally were improved immeasurably (while acknowledging that there were notable exceptions to this). People were no longer serfs (owned by nobles and tribal leaders), their right to own property became entrenched in law, common law gave them rights hitherto unforeseen, countries became wealthy enough to have standing armies, and they could now realistically defend themselves (and their citizens) from interlopers without and from malcontents within, which generally made life more settled. The institutions and processes of representative government became increasingly embedded and extended, resulting in universal suffrage by the early twentieth century.

This is the legacy of the protestant and Judeo-Christian West. It is no coincidence that Britain (in particular - and not perfectly), and the colonies she spawned, became light bearers in a world where poverty (and slavery) were the norm (in pre-European NZ too), and rights belonged only to those of privilege. It is no coincidence that these countries were the first in the world to abolish slavery. These countries became a destination for those seeking better lives, the right to self-improvement, and the concept of government by consent alone.

In short, ninety-five percent of those who have lived in the past one hundred years (globally) have had better living standards than the most privileged five percent in all periods prior. Global poverty had been almost eliminated by the start of the twenty-first century. We have the capitalist West, and the ideas it championed, to largely thank for that.

The freedoms the West enjoys, of which others have risked life and limb to partake, are not an accident, they are the product of a unique set of near coincidences, or providence if that is your inclination. They are characteristic, in degree and nature, of no other system of social and economic organization in time past, anywhere.

While far from perfect there is nothing that comes near to them, and plenty that fall short.

These freedoms and privileges are contingent on the following principles...

1. That people are free to innovate and to trade

2. That there is minimal interference in this right to innovate and trade

3. That private property rights are sacrosanct

4. That those in power are such only by the consent of those who are governed, must respect the public will, and can (and should) be removed when they do not

5. That nation-states are sovereign entities that exist to protect the values and rights of their citizenry above all else

These five imperatives interlock, they are mutually interdependent, we have all of them, or we have none of them.

The prosperity, peace, and freedom of the West, and by default, the world at large, is very much at risk.

Each of the above imperatives is currently under attack, often by those elected, or appointed, to public office. Whether under the cloak of climate change, critical theory, or the insidious creep of Marxism, there has been a steady, and unrelenting, erosion of each of the above imperatives.

While capitalism is not perfect, we know by what it has made possible, and by what we know of all possible alternatives, that it is worth fighting for.

Increasingly, those inclined to effort and innovation, encounter endless and non-sensical restrictions on innovation and trade. Increasingly, property rights (in NZ) are being undermined (potentially on a massive scale). Increasingly bedrock values, and simple common sense, are under attack by politicians, by pretend academics, and by those who have chosen to live in the West and yet not learn from the West.

Each day furnishes evidence anew of modern-day feudal overlords in media, government, education, and the civil service, claiming to give voice to all, but acting with supreme disregard for the public will and the mood for change so decisively signaled at the last election.

There is a growing sense that those who call the shots are not accountable and that "governments of change" are simply window-dressing.

That a growing number of our parliamentarians proudly confess their Marxist orientations provides a salutary warning of just how mad some of these people are and of the lengths to which they think they should go.

We must not allow this government to "play at the edges" as National governments are so wont to do. The risks we face are foundational. Simply turning the money tap off on our would-be feudal overlords will not be enough.

Caleb Anderson, a graduate history, economics, psychotherapy and theology, has been an educator for over thirty years, twenty as a school principal.