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“Take us to your leader!” is the science fiction cliche…but what if there’s no leader to be taken to, and no one to do the leading? In this edition of the Film, Literature and the New World Order series, James examines the philosophy of Eric Frank Russell’s 1951 story “…And Then There Were None” and unlocks the secret of the most dangerous weapon.
CLICK HERE for an audio reading of the story by John Lothe.
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For those with limited bandwidth, CLICK HERE to download a smaller, lower file size version of this episode.
For those interested in audio quality, CLICK HERE for the highest-quality version of this episode (WARNING: very large download).
SHOW NOTES
“And Then There Were None” (text)
“And Then There Were None” (audio)
Biography of Eric Frank Russell
Undercover cops at Montebello protest
Next time: Gandhi (1982)
I think of a common argument given by people who advocate for Statism, and that is, “If we didn’t have the State to organize, manage, and regulate interactions, then we would isolate ourselves and revert back to battling tribal communities who are constantly at war with one another.”
This argument ignores the fact that people interact voluntarily because it is in their interest to do so, economically speaking and practically speaking. People aren’t incentivized to interact because an “authority” said that they should. Trading also encourages peaceful relations because it is beneficial to both parties that they keep trading when they both need something. This builds friendships and community.
So many, if not all of the logical fallacies of Statism ignore basic human nature and the fundamentals of human interaction.
Not only that, but how do statists figure we need to “revert back” to become battling tribal communities? It’s exactly what all of these socially fragmented groups are: modern tribes on a blood frenzy looking to beat the crap out of everyone not fitting in the paradigm. Intercontinental warfare, even if it redefines the description, fits the same bill as well. Nationality, religion, polity, race, sex, culture; everything goes, but it goes with the benediction of the state and therefore it has been blessed by the supreme and almighty.
You said it right there. So true. Whoever is the “authority” determines what words mean, shapes how people think of these terms and determines what the acceptable understanding of these words are.
A point that Statists don’t grasp is that humans already organize naturally and effectively without the need for the state. The state is simply a violent parasite that leaches the wealth, productivity, and prosperity from the people.
I recently read That Which Is Seen, and That Which Is Not Seen, by Claude Frédéric Bastiat, and it’s probably one of the most enlightening things I’ve read in a long time. It demonstrates how the state is immoral and illegitimate through its own “economics” and policies. Funny how most of us were probably never taught any of this in school, even though it is so basic and foundational.
https://mises.org/library/which-seen-and-which-not-seen
I’ll give that a read. Private schools may teach such materials, but public ones sure as hell don’t, unless a teacher goes rogue and starts thinking with their own head ((*.*))
Great link SCPat. Thanks! I use to hate economics , not so much anymore . Austria is not Germany!I want to go to their library.
Great Story, Great Audio Book Reading and Great FLNWO!
Rather prophetic that in 1951 Eric Frank Russell was predicting that Gandhi would be blanked out from the Terran’s history books.
Well perhaps not quite, but none of the government indoctrination camps that I was forced to attend in Terra Australis ever mentioned him.
It wasn’t until the availability of the Internet and Deep State’s action to demolish some buildings on 9/11 that I started looking into more things and discovered Gandhi in the process.
Wow! A fantastic read! Thank you, James, for another enlightening “book”.
As I was reading I could not help but think about the military, soldier types, the ones who currently are our “ambassadors” sent to distant countries to democratize the savages. There are the language and cultural barriers, and I’m sure they’re making contacts just like the ones in the story did. Scary to think. One of which I’m sure everyone has heard by now of the USS Carl Vinson visiting Vietnam.
If only the natives knows about Myob and the greatest weapon of all: F-IW! Those maybe their only hope to turn their potential aggressors/intruders about. LoL
This story aligns in parallel to the recent update about China’s social credit roll-out.
@HRS
Speaking rolling out a social credit system.. https://archive.org/details/jr-5-bbc-srh-x-0-5p
Thought I’d take a break from the drama. But here’s a link to ten movies that they are going to be re-making. For some reason, I think they fit this column. The usual suspects is the only clue I’m giving. Now, it’s off to turn off the internet and smoking out with my friends.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gapXvVjoHo4
Okay, clue 1: Rambo: The Musical. I kid you not. Not sure why this one was re=posted up here, though I did like the attitudes of the people. JimBob who thinks it’s pointless to talk to uniforms hisself, but he does it sometimes just to watch the veins in their temples throb.
Thanks for the interesting article James. Some thoughts came to mind about the “Obs” system that I am hoping you and the subscribers might be able to help me with –
1- How would transfer of obs work? E.g. If farmer Cliff keeled over in his field one day or the dastardly terrans took him away would his obs transfer to his family? Would his children inherit any of his debts or credits?
2- How would society deal with those unable to work?
E.g. old or sick people.
I know these questions are a bit trivial in the greater scheme of things but are really bugging me.
Really looking forward to seeing your analysis of Ghandi – not sure I am up to the challenge of sitting through it all before the show though 🙂
Thanks James!
I loved the Podcast and the Audiobook.
It is worth pondering about where to apply F.I.W. in my own live.
This powerful one-way-weapon wes prominent in the 1980’s in Germany thanks to the film “Ghandi”, but is now often forgotten.
Thanks a lot for the reminder.
Next I will watch again the film Ghandi…
Brian.S, Ol’tom said once ” powerful, moving, nice piece of writing” and I agree!Amen!
I could imagine the parable of Idle Jack working as an isolated incident – if one “fat-tail” outlier comes up against the system – but how would the system work if Idle Jack teamed up with Idle Tom, Idle Dick and Idle Harry, who then organised and armed themselves?
This scenario requires that the others would not be armed. We already know they are not idle. I keep noticing this common theme of free peoples being victims. I am NOBODY’S victim. They can arm themselves all they want, I’m a real redneck. I may be a bit long in the tooth, but I can still dance. JimBob who’s run into a heap of idle Jacks in his time and he’s still standing.
The Gans have a gift economy like Native tribes practiced, not a barter economy as is imagined by economists as the precedent to a money economy. A Gans “puts an ob” on somebody by giving them something or doing something for them, which obligates reciprocity from the recipient. The ob is cleared when the recipient reciprocates.
This only works, as Russell recognized, in local economies where everybody knows each other. Everybody is free to say “I won’t” put an ob on a parasite by giving him something that they know will not be reciprocated. “Morality” only works when the people know each other and impose it on each other. The townsfolk won’t do business with a known crook. Instant karma. The crook is shut out of the local economy.
Even Adam Smith’s “free market” system imagines a barter economy where everybody is a producer of useful stuff and they can trade their surplus stuff with each other in the village marketplace, and the villagers do not do business with producers of bad stuff or traders who demand excessive amounts of other people’s goods in exchange for their own. Smith imagined his free market village, inhabited by farmers and crafters and small owner-operated family businesses (butchers, bakers, candlestick makers). In his 1776 opus Smith was highly critical of Britain’s actual 1776 political economy which was State-corporate mercantilism populated by aristocrats and State-chartered merchant corporations like the British East India Company (of Boston Tea Party infamy). Economists who have never read Smith’s book assume he was “describing” Britain’s free market economy in his book, rather than reading the book to see Smith was presenting his vision of a free market as a utopian improvement over mercantilism.
Native gift economies were between different tribes. Within the tribe they had communism, from each according to his ability, to each according to their need, as is practiced in every family where parents give to children, older kids help younger, younger adults take care of old people, etc. Everybody who can has to contribute to the physical and social labor of life for the good of the family as a cohesive unit. These are not rugged individualists competing against each other for power, wealth and social status. They are members of collectives, parts of wholes, members of the family or tribe whose fortunes rise and fall together.
Tribes are basically economically self-sufficient extended families who do not depend on “trade” to acquire their daily necessities of life. You cannot have advanced technology like steel and electricity and electronics in a local economy because all these things require inputs from geologically diverse regions, require knowledge-based and physically and technically difficult refining and manufacturing processes, and the technologies are interdependent. Native Americans had Stone Age technologies, for example, like tools made of wood and stone, houses made of wood and hides, clothes made of hides, etc. There is no hi-tech processing required to convert these locally available materials into things the people need. But there is a lot of local knowledge, hand skills, and muscle powered labor required.
[SNIP – Please keep comments to 500 words or less. Longer comments can be split into multiple posts. -JC]
Very interesting indeed, thanks so much for introducing me to this story James (and thank you nosoapradio for suggesting I check out this episode).
The part where the Terran ambassador guy was scheming about how to redefine the term “hostile” to justify military action is reminiscent of what is going on right now in Canada. Recently the government here has attempted to redefine the term “violence” to include anything they deem as ‘disruptive to the economy’ so they can justify their using the Emergency Act to crush a peaceful protest with militarized police units and totalitarian technocratic bank account freezing tactics. https://reclaimthenet.org/canada-redefined-economic-impact-as-violence-ea/
Yes I second that request, more FLNWO please! 🙂