1
00:00:00,320 --> 00:00:04,200
This is a section from the great
fiction Property, Economy, 

2
00:00:04,200 --> 00:00:07,280
Society, and the Politics of 
Decline by Hans Hermann Hapa. 

3
00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:12,240
I want to shed light on the 
principal strategy that all 

4
00:00:12,240 --> 00:00:16,440
statists from the late Middle 
Ages on until today have pursued

5
00:00:16,440 --> 00:00:20,920
to reach their statist ends, so 
as to also gain, if only 

6
00:00:20,920 --> 00:00:25,640
indirectly, some insight into 
any possible counter strategy 

7
00:00:25,880 --> 00:00:28,440
that could lead us out of the 
current predicament. 

8
00:00:28,840 --> 00:00:31,760
Not back to the Middle Ages, of 
course, because too many 

9
00:00:31,760 --> 00:00:36,000
permanent and irreversible 
changes have taken place since, 

10
00:00:36,280 --> 00:00:40,840
both in regard to our mental and
our material conditions and 

11
00:00:40,840 --> 00:00:45,840
capacities, but to a new society
that takes its cues from the 

12
00:00:45,840 --> 00:00:49,960
study of the Middle Ages and 
understands and knows of the 

13
00:00:49,960 --> 00:00:56,120
principal reason for its demise.
The strategy was dictated by the

14
00:00:56,120 --> 00:01:00,320
quasi libertarian, stateless 
medieval starting point, and it 

15
00:01:00,320 --> 00:01:04,560
suggested itself naturally first
and foremost to the top ranks of

16
00:01:04,560 --> 00:01:08,880
social authority, in particular 
to feudal kings. 

17
00:01:09,200 --> 00:01:12,040
In a nutshell, it boils down to 
this rule. 

18
00:01:12,480 --> 00:01:18,080
Instead of remaining a mere 
Primus inter Paris, you must 

19
00:01:18,080 --> 00:01:21,520
become Solas Primus. 
And to do this you must 

20
00:01:21,600 --> 00:01:24,720
undermine, weaken, and 
ultimately eliminate all 

21
00:01:24,720 --> 00:01:28,000
competing authorities and 
hierarchies of social authority.

22
00:01:28,440 --> 00:01:32,040
Beginning at the highest level 
of authority with your most 

23
00:01:32,040 --> 00:01:36,080
immediate competitors, and from 
there on down ultimately to the 

24
00:01:36,080 --> 00:01:39,240
most elementary and 
decentralized level of social 

25
00:01:39,440 --> 00:01:44,200
authority invested in the heads 
of individual family households.

26
00:01:44,400 --> 00:01:49,120
You, every statist, must use 
your own initial authority to 

27
00:01:49,120 --> 00:01:53,600
undermine each and every rival 
authority and strip away its 

28
00:01:53,600 --> 00:01:57,680
right to independently judge, 
discriminate, sentence, and 

29
00:01:57,800 --> 00:02:02,120
punish within its own 
territorial, limited realm of 

30
00:02:02,120 --> 00:02:06,120
authority. 
Kings other than you must no 

31
00:02:06,120 --> 00:02:10,720
longer be allowed to freely 
determine who is another or the 

32
00:02:10,720 --> 00:02:14,960
next king, who is to be included
or excluded from the rank of 

33
00:02:14,960 --> 00:02:18,880
kings, or who may come before 
them for justice and assistance,

34
00:02:19,120 --> 00:02:22,920
and likewise for all other 
levels of social authority. 

35
00:02:23,160 --> 00:02:28,040
For noble Lords and vassals, as 
well as separate local 

36
00:02:28,040 --> 00:02:31,800
communities, orders, 
associations, and ultimately all

37
00:02:31,800 --> 00:02:36,760
individual family households, no
one must be free to autonomously

38
00:02:36,760 --> 00:02:40,640
determine his own rules of 
admission and exclusion. 

39
00:02:41,000 --> 00:02:45,480
That is, to determine who was 
supposed to be in or out, The 

40
00:02:45,480 --> 00:02:50,240
conduct to expect of those who 
are in and want to remain in 

41
00:02:50,240 --> 00:02:53,760
good standing, and what member 
conduct instead of results in 

42
00:02:53,760 --> 00:02:58,360
various sanctions ranging from 
disapproval, censure, and fines 

43
00:02:58,560 --> 00:03:01,040
to expulsion and corporal 
punishment. 

44
00:03:01,760 --> 00:03:05,600
And how to accomplish this and 
centralized and consolidate all 

45
00:03:05,600 --> 00:03:09,720
authority in the hands of a 
single territorial monopolist? 

46
00:03:10,080 --> 00:03:13,480
First, an absolute monarch, and 
subsequently a democratic state.

47
00:03:13,880 --> 00:03:17,640
By enlisting the support of 
everyone resentful of not being 

48
00:03:17,640 --> 00:03:22,080
included or promoted in some 
particular Community Association

49
00:03:22,080 --> 00:03:26,480
or social rank, or of being 
expelled from them and unfairly 

50
00:03:26,600 --> 00:03:31,400
punished against this unfair 
discrimination, you, the State 

51
00:03:31,400 --> 00:03:37,160
or would be state promise to get
the excluded victims in and help

52
00:03:37,160 --> 00:03:41,400
them get a fair and non 
discriminating treatment in 

53
00:03:41,400 --> 00:03:45,440
return for their binding 
commitment to and affiliation 

54
00:03:45,560 --> 00:03:48,600
with you on every level of 
social authority. 

55
00:03:48,920 --> 00:03:52,440
Whenever and wherever the 
opportunity arises, you 

56
00:03:52,440 --> 00:03:57,480
encourage and promote deviant 
behavior and deviance, and 

57
00:03:57,480 --> 00:04:02,080
enlist their support in order to
expand and strengthen your own 

58
00:04:02,240 --> 00:04:05,680
authority at the expense of all 
others. 

59
00:04:06,720 --> 00:04:09,920
Accordingly. 
The principal counter strategy 

60
00:04:10,200 --> 00:04:15,480
of re civilization, then, must 
be a return to normality by 

61
00:04:15,480 --> 00:04:19,399
means of decentralization. 
The process of territorial 

62
00:04:19,399 --> 00:04:23,680
expansion that went hand in hand
with the centralization of all 

63
00:04:23,680 --> 00:04:27,880
authority in one monopolistic 
hand must be reversed. 

64
00:04:28,280 --> 00:04:31,840
Each and every secessionist 
tendency and movement, then, 

65
00:04:31,840 --> 00:04:35,840
should be supported and 
promoted, because with every 

66
00:04:35,920 --> 00:04:40,360
territorial separation from the 
central state, another separate 

67
00:04:40,400 --> 00:04:44,880
and rival center of authority 
and adjudication is created. 

68
00:04:45,360 --> 00:04:49,240
And the same tendency should be 
promoted within the framework of

69
00:04:49,240 --> 00:04:54,000
any newly created, separate and 
independent territory and center

70
00:04:54,000 --> 00:04:57,120
of authority. 
That is, any voluntary 

71
00:04:57,120 --> 00:05:01,360
membership, organization, 
association, order, club, or 

72
00:05:01,360 --> 00:05:04,920
even household within the new 
territory should be free to 

73
00:05:04,920 --> 00:05:09,200
independently determine its own 
house rules, IE, its rules of 

74
00:05:09,200 --> 00:05:14,280
inclusion, of sanctions and of 
exclusion, so as to successfully

75
00:05:14,280 --> 00:05:19,360
replace the current status 
system of forced territorial and

76
00:05:19,360 --> 00:05:24,160
legal integration and 
uniformation with a natural 

77
00:05:24,240 --> 00:05:28,600
quasi organic social order of 
voluntary, territorial, and 

78
00:05:28,600 --> 00:05:33,440
legal customary association and 
disassociation. 

79
00:05:34,480 --> 00:05:38,280
Moreover, as an important 
addition, in order to safeguard 

80
00:05:38,280 --> 00:05:41,920
this order of increasingly 
decentralized centers, ranks and

81
00:05:41,920 --> 00:05:46,520
hierarchies of natural social 
authority from internal 

82
00:05:46,520 --> 00:05:51,960
corruption or external foreign 
attack, each newly reemerging 

83
00:05:52,320 --> 00:05:56,880
social authority should be 
encouraged to build as wide as 

84
00:05:56,880 --> 00:06:01,600
possible a network with 
similarly placed and like minded

85
00:06:01,600 --> 00:06:06,440
authorities in other foreign 
territories and jurisdictions 

86
00:06:06,640 --> 00:06:10,400
for the purpose of mutual 
assistance in case of need. 

87
00:06:11,240 --> 00:06:13,840
Thank you for watching Keith and
I don't tread on anyone in the 

88
00:06:13,840 --> 00:06:15,160
Libertarian Institute.