The Post-Partisan Emporium

State Power And the temptation of anarchism Carlos Ramalhete Image © Nieuw I do understand anarchists. Even more so rich anarchists. In a way, a First-World anarchist is like someone who only knew an abusive father, and ends up rejecting the very concept of family. If I lived in a place where all laws a Modern state tries to promulgate were enforced, the anarchist temptation would be indeed strong. Fortunately, I live in a country whose language has no expression for “law enforcement”, and where laws can “stick” (that is, be accepted and obeyed) or not. Most of them don’t, and absolutely nobody in Brazil would ever consider the possibility of mistaking mere State-promulgated laws for moral precepts. The problem, though, is not laws by themselves, but the whole package: the function of the State, its powers, its limits if any, what  Law  (or  a   law ) happens to be, and so on. As always, there is a long story; a quite big chunk of History leading to the present situation. That’s the st

The Zoom Class Gets Covid BY  JEFFREY A. TUCKER      For nearly two years, we’ve wondered how this will end. In retrospect, the clue is in how it began.  The initial lockdowns had a strong class-based component. The working classes were assigned the job of delivering groceries, tending to the sick, driving the trucks filled with goods, keeping the lights on, and keeping the fuel running. The professional class, among whom were the people who pushed lockdowns in the name of disease avoidance/suppression, were assigned the job of staying home in their pajamas and staying safe.  It all happened seemingly in an instant. We all had to figure out whether our job qualified and what we should do. More striking at the time was the very notion that government bureaucrats could slice and dice the population this way, deciding what can open and what cannot, who must work and who must not, what we can and cannot do based on our station in life.  So it now seems obvious to me. This whole disaster wo