The inevitable corruption of the security monopoly: when the protector becomes the predator

“ Whether they live in isolation or in society, men are, above all, interested in preserving their existence and the fruits of their labor. If the sense of justice were universally prevalent on earth; if, consequently, each man confined himself to laboring and exchanging the fruits of his labor, without wishing to take away, by violence or fraud, the fruits of other men's labor; if everyone had, in one word, an instinctive horror of any act harmful to another person, it is certain that security would exist naturally on earth, and that no artificial institution would be necessary to establish it. ”

“ Everywhere, even among the least enlightened tribes, one encounters a government, so universal and urgent is the need for security provided by government.
Everywhere, men resign themselves to the most extreme sacrifices rather than do without government and hence security, without realizing that in so doing, they misjudge their alternatives. ”

“ Man experiences a multitude of needs, on whose satisfaction his happiness depends, and whose non-satisfaction entails suffering. Alone and isolated, he could only provide in an incomplete, insufficient manner for these incessant needs. The instinct of sociability brings him together with similar persons, and drives him into communication with them. Therefore, impelled by the self-interest of the individuals thus brought together, a certain division of labor is established, necessarily followed by exchanges. ”

“ In brief, we see an organization emerge, by means of which man can more completely satisfy his needs than he could living in isolation.
This natural organization is called society.
The object of society is therefore the most complete satisfaction of man's needs. The division of labor and exchange are the means by which this is accomplished.
Among the needs of man, there is one particular type which plays an immense role in the history of humanity, namely the need for security. ”

“ It remains for us to investigate how it has come about that the production of security has not been subjected to the law of free competition, but rather has been subjected to different principles.
What are those principles?
Those of monopoly and communism.
In the entire world, there is not a single establishment of the security industry that is not based on monopoly or on communism. ”

“ Political economy has disapproved equally of monopoly and communism in the various branches of human activity, wherever it has found them. Is it not then strange and unreasonable that it accepts them in the security industry?
Monopoly and Communism
Let us now examine how it is that all known governments have either been subjected to the law of monopoly, or else organized according to the communistic principle. ”

“ Everywhere, when societies originate, we see the strongest, most warlike races seizing the exclusive government of the society. Everywhere we see these races seizing a monopoly on security within certain more or less extensive boundaries, depending on their number and strength.
And, this monopoly being, by its very nature, extraordinarily profitable, everywhere we see the races invested with the monopoly on security devoting themselves to bitter struggles, in order to add to the extent of their market, the number of their forced consumers, and hence the amount of their gains.
War has been the necessary and inevitable consequence of the establishment of a monopoly on security. ”

“ or we may find, by our own unhappy experience, that there is a natural and necessary progression from the extreme of anarchy to the extreme of tyranny, and that arbitrary power is most easily established on the ruins of liberty abused to licentiousness. ”

“ So many people exaggerate the nature and prerogatives of government that it has become useful to formulate strictly the boundaries outside of which the intervention of authority becomes anarchical and tyrannical rather than protective and profitable. ”

“ The military activities and those of the special Serbian police forces in Kosovo against the civilian population have not ceased, despite the numerous demands of the Security Council in its resolutions and despite the commitments made by the Belgrade Government to that effect. On the contrary, in recent months and weeks, the military action against the civilian population has further escalated. The attacks have become more violent, thus causing an even greater humanitarian catastrophe. ”

“ If, on the contrary, the consumer is not free to buy security wherever he pleases, you forthwith see open up a large profession dedicated to arbitrariness and bad management. justice becomes slow and costly, the police vexatious, individual liberty is no longer respected, the price of security is abusively inflated and inequitably apportioned, according to the power and influence of this or that class of consumers. The protectors engage in bitter struggles to wrest customers from one another. ”

“ Security an Exception?
We are consequently led to ask ourselves whether his exception is well founded, in the eyes of the economist.
It offends reason to believe that a well-established natural law can admit of exceptions. A natural law must hold everywhere and always, or be invalid. I cannot believe, for example, that the universal law of gravitation, which governs the physical world, is ever suspended in any instance or at any point of the universe. ”

“ Like the earth on which it stands, society moves in accordance with general, preexisting laws. In this system, there is no such thing, strictly speaking, as social science; there is only economic science, which studies the natural organism of society and shows how this organism functions.
We propose to examine, within the latter system, the function and natural organization of government.
The Natural Order of Society
In order to define and delimit the function of government, it is first necessary to investigate the essence and object of society itself. ”

“ But why should there be an exception relative to security? What special reason is there that the production of security cannot be relegated to free competition? Why should it be subjected to a different principle and organized according to a different system? ”

“ While an ardent individualist, Molinari grounded his argument on free-market, laissez-faire economics, and proceeded logically to ask the question: If the free market can and should supply all other goods and services, why not also the services of protection?
During the same year, 1849, Molinari expanded his radically new theory into a book, Les Soirées de la Rue Saint-Lazare, a series of fictional dialogues between three people: the Conservative (advocate of high tariffs and state monopoly privileges) , the Socialist, and the Economist (himself) . ”

“ If some audacious conqueror tried to become dictator, they would immediately call to their aid all the free consumers menaced by this aggression, and they would treat him as he deserved. Just as war is the natural consequence of monopoly, peace is the natural consequence of liberty.
Under a regime of liberty, the natural organization of the security industry would not be different from that of other industries. In small districts a single entrepreneur could suffice. This entrepreneur might leave his business to his son, or sell it to another entrepreneur. ”

“ In the second place, whether his character is such that they will not have to worry about his instigating the very aggressions he is supposed to suppress.
In the third place, whether any other producer of security, offering equal guarantees, is disposed to offer them this commodity on better terms. ”

“ In a word, all the abuses inherent in monopoly or in communism crop up.
Under the rule of free competition, war between the producers of security entirely loses its justification. Why would they make war? To conquer consumers? But the consumers would not allow themselves to be conquered. They would be careful not to allow themselves to be protected by men who would unscrupulously attack the persons and property of their rivals. ”

“ Every monopoly necessarily rests on force.
When the monopolists are no longer as strong as the consumers they exploit, what happens?
In every instance, the monopoly finally disappears either violently or as the outcome of an amicable transaction. What is it replaced with?
If the roused and insurgent consumers secure the means of production of the salt industry, in all probability they will confiscate this industry for their own profit, and their first thought will be, not to relegate it to free competition, but rather to exploit it, in common, for their own account. ”

“ Among the tangible and intangible commodities necessary to man, none, with the possible exception of wheat, is more indispensable, and therefore none can support quite so large a monopoly duty.
Nor is any quite so prone to monopolization.
What, indeed, is the situation of men who need security? Weakness. What is the situation of those who undertake to provide them with this necessary security? Strength. If it were otherwise, if the consumers of security were stronger than the producers, they obviously would dispense with their assistance. ”

“ First let us investigate what is understood by the words monopoly and communism.
It is an observable truth that the more urgent and necessary are man's needs, the greater will be the sacrifices he will be willing to endure in order to satisfy them. Now, there are some things that are found abundantly in nature, and whose production does not require a great expenditure of labor, but which, since they satisfy these urgent and necessary wants, can consequently acquire an exchange value all out of proportion with their natural value. ”

“ If you succeed in persuading the multitude that God himself has chosen certain men or certain races to give laws to society and to govern it, no one will dream of revolting against these appointees of Providence, and everything the government does will be accepted. A government based on divine right is imperishable. ”

“ Monopolistic governments claim to have obtained from God himself this authority which gives them the right to modify or remake society according to their fancy, and to dispose of persons and property however they please. Communistic governments appeal to human reason, as manifested in the majority of the sovereign people. ”

“ The government no longer looks to Providence for its authority, it looks to united mankind, to the one, indivisible, and sovereign nation.
Here is what the communists, the partisans of popular sovereignty, assume. They assume that human reason has the power to discover the best laws and the organization which most perfectly suits society ”

“ Article 55 The police are a civil order body whose responsibility is to serve the people. The police guarantee for the people tranquility and security and provide for the maintenance of order, public security and morals, according to the law. ”

“ The armed forces are accused, but not the average soldier or officer, no matter how high ranking. Only the top policy-makers—the General Staff and High Command—are named. The police forces are accused, but not every policeman: not the ordinary police, which performed only normal police functions. Only the most terroristic and repressive police elements—the Gestapo and SD—are named. The Nazi Party is accused, but not every Nazi voter, not even every member; only the leaders, the Politische Leiter. ”

“ The wild and ruthless manhunt as practiced everywhere in towns and country, in streets, squares, stations, even in churches, as well as at night in homes, has shaken the feeling of security of the inhabitants. Every man is exposed to the danger of being seized suddenly and unexpectedly, anywhere and at any time, by the police, and brought into an assembly camp. ”

“ Since the greater part of the Eastern territory is free of Jews, and since the few remaining Jews, who are required for most urgent work, have been put into ghettos, it was the task of the Security Police and the SD to round up those Jews who were hiding mainly in the country. Many times Jews who had left the ghetto without permission or who were not wearing the Jewish Star have been arrested. ”

“ That especially serious is the breakdown of the Rule of Law by means of the creation and development of government-protected armed groups which, in addition to threatening citizens’ security and rights as well as domestic peace, are headed towards a confrontation with the Armed Forces. Just as serious is that the police are prevented from carrying out their most important responsibilities when dealing with criminal riots perpetrated by violent groups devoted to the government. ”

“ Given the extreme gravity, one cannot be silent before the public and notorious attempts to use the Armed and Police Forces for partisan ends, destroy their institutional hierarchy, and politically infiltrate their ranks ”

“ The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia must comply with its obligations, including respect for a ceasefire, an end to violence against the civilian population, and full observance of limits on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia's security forces, as agreed on 25 October 1998.
Humanitarian considerations underpin our action. We cannot simply stand by while innocents are murdered, an entire population is displaced, villages are burned and looted, and a population is denied its basic rights merely because the people concerned do not belong to the "right" ethnic group. ”

“ “Power, the instrument of collective puissance, created in society to mediate between labor and capital, is fatally chained to capital, and directed against the proletariat. No political reform can resolve this contradiction, since, by the admission of the politicians themselves, such a reform would only serve to give more energy and extension to power, and that unless the hierarchy were overthrown and society dissolved, power cannot affect the prerogatives of monopoly. ”

“ Norway strongly condemns the decision by President Putin to send Russian troops into the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and the latest announcement of a special military operation. Those decisions are unjustified, unprovoked and irresponsible. We call on Russia to reverse those decisions and to immediately, completely and unconditionally withdraw all its military forces from the territory of Ukraine and the vicinity of its internationally recognized borders. ”

“ For several months, the President of the Russian Federation has been patiently preparing the ground for a major offensive against Ukraine. He has amassed soldiers and weapons on a scale not seen since the end of the Second World War. He has incited violence through lies and disinformation. He has even denied the very legitimacy of the Ukrainian State. He has undermined the sovereignty and integrity of Ukraine by recognizing the independence of parts of Ukrainian territory. ”

“ We have since seen numerous false-flag events staged along the lines of contact in Donbas. We said Russia would theatrically convene emergency meetings at the highest levels of the Russian Government. We all saw that on Monday, with the State-televised Russian Security Council meeting held by President Putin — an orchestrated moment in which the Russian Government decided to recognize as “independent States” sovereign territory of Ukraine controlled by Russia’s proxies since 2014. Russia literally violated Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity on live television before the world. ”

“ We know the importance of respecting the voice and integrity of all countries, big or small. Most fundamentally, we know the value of peace. We believe that one State threatening and using lethal force against another to get its way or to expand its territory is no solution.
⁠Let us be clear — the internationally recognized borders of Ukraine have not changed. The decision of Russia to recognize as independent entities the non-Government-controlled areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine does not change those borders one iota. ”

“ Regrettably, that harsh reality stubbornly persists in several regions of the world, in particular in Africa, Asia, America and, today, in Europe.
⁠ The Council must ensure respect for the basic principles of the Charter of the United Nations, in particular the peaceful settlement of disputes, respect for the territorial integrity of States and national sovereignty. My country calls for an immediate ceasefire and de-escalation, as well as a sense of responsibility, by prioritizing the peaceful settlement of conflicts, in line with the United Nations Charter. ”

“ We are particularly concerned by the high intensity of violations of the ceasefire in recent days and their consequences for the civilian populations in the Donbas region. We remind all parties of the need to respect international law and international humanitarian law and urge the parties to guarantee unimpeded access for humanitarian assistance in both Government- and non-Government-controlled areas. We condemn any military activity that would deliberately target civilians and civilian infrastructure and remind all parties of their personal responsibility that exists in international law. ”

“ Furthermore, there are still obstacles to the delivery of humanitarian assistance to some of those in need, which existed even before the recent tensions arose, particularly in the areas near the contact line in eastern Ukraine.
⁠ Any further escalation could worsen the humanitarian situation for a larger number of civilians. We therefore emphasize the importance of de-escalation and a ceasefire. In that regard, we urge all parties not to obstruct access to humanitarian aid or the movement of civilians in conflict areas, in accordance with their obligations under international law. ”

“ Decides, in accordance with the recommendations contained in the report of the Secretary-General of 17 December 1996, to authorize for a threemonth period the attachment to MINUGUA of a group of 155 military observers and requisite medical personnel for the purposes of verification of the agreement on the definitive ceasefire, and requests the Secretary-General to notify the Council no later than two weeks before the operation is to begin ”

“ Immediately after the entry into force of this Declaration of Principles and the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and Jericho area, with the view to promoting economic development in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, authority will be transferred to the Palestinians on the following spheres: education and culture, health, social welfare, direct taxation, and tourism. The Palestinian side will commence in building the Palestinian police force, as agreed upon. Pending the inauguration of the Council, the two parties may negotiate the transfer of additional powers and responsibilities, as agreed upon. ”

“ There are few people hanged in Texas for murder, but plenty are strung up every year for horse-stealing. You would be objects of suspicion if you should take a walk out in the country. My advice, then, is to buy three excellent ponies, provide yourselves with a good outfit, including a fine repeating Winchester rifle and a revolver apiece, with plenty of ammunition. You will need an extra animal to carry your luggage. Then strike out for New Mexico. ”

“ 'Thrice is he armed who hath his quarrel just.' We simply can't afford to wait for the police or to keep within the four corners of the law. ”

“ While that the Armed hand doth fight abroad, Th' aduised head defends it selfe at home: For Gouernment, though high, and low, and lower, Put into parts, doth keepe in one consent, Congreeing in a full and natural close, Like Musicke
Cant. ”

“ But when we attempt to describe the evils and abuses which follow close after, as a result of the power which monopoly has placed in the hands of a few, we may well pause at the task. The whole array of perplexing social problems comes before us, and we realize more and more what a curse monopoly has become. ”