Peace and violence

on Saturday, October 1, 2011

Production, innovation and wealth are produced by peaceful cooperation, efficiency, innovation, thrift and honesty.
Leading an army, to defend the innocent from slavery and murder at the hands of foreign invaders, is done with top-down, statist, hierarchical organization, prowess, honor, ostentatious waste and violent deception. Soldiers blindly follow their leaders, and that is all well and good in times of war, when warriors support themselves by stealing from productive and peaceful men in order to defend those from whom they steal.
The trouble arrives when statists become friends with productive people, and are so bold and corrupt as to trade their power for material wealth. The result is a gruesome combination of treachery and corruption, leading eventually to the fall of empires throughout history.