A most thoughtful and perceptive piece. I unfortunately think that your case is flawed because you have no theory of the State to back up your favourable view of the nation state and of representative democracy.

I was myself brought up in the UK in the 1950s and 60s so I ended up as a young adult with pretty similar views and assumptions. I held on to these with the “victory” of the West over communism.

However, the massive economic and financial changes that have occurred over the past years fro the dot.com bust, the wars in the Middle East, American global hegemony, and then the 2007-09 financial meltdown and the repurcussions in terms of extreme monetary policy by (private) central banks, and the emerging melt-down in paper currencies; all this leads me to take a much more critical stance to the limitations and risks both of the State in general and representative democracy (dominated by party politics).

The most incisive critique of the State, imo, comes for writers like Hoppe and Rothbard. I do not buy in to everything that they conclude from their praexologic analyses. Nevertheless, their insights (built also on the work of von Mises) offer coherent positions why we, as individuals with the right to be free of coercion, should beware of the monopolistic, coercive nature of the State and its tendency to extend and intensify its power and control – at the expense of free exchange and the unhampered markets.

Yes, tap up Russell Brand for some dosh to make some great video’s. Anyone got his e-mail

http://isteve.blogspot.de/2014/02/american-deep-state.html

I’m quite impressed by what I’ve read of it so far.

It’s in straight forward English for change, not language that only the author and his mother can understand.

The Kindle version only costs £3.14.

I’ve put up a few quotes from the book here http://bit.ly/1gwvTdH

re: Roger — perhaps an issue is that the commons is too firmly wrapped up in the “Public” sphere, and thus entangled in the neverending battle of Public vs. Private?

“Deception is the strongest political force on the planet.”

agreed, but doesn’t using signifiers such as “Xtrevelism” only continue to play the game of polarization that allows deception free reign?

perhaps in order to not give up on either, we need to give up our belief that one person, no matter how well-intentioned we believe them to be, will be THE ANSWER TO ALL OF OUR PROBLEMS?

p.s. this is not a comment criticizing the accomplishments or ideologies of the Honorable Gentlewoman from the fine State of Massachusetts.

“Romanian Stereotyping , as with all stereotyping it comes across as shallow and holds little water”

Why don’t you simply admit that your use of the word “stereotype” is just a veiled accusation of racism.

Are you going to try to deny that statistically Romanians and Bulgarian immigrants (legal or illegal) are far more likely to commit crime than, say, a racially pure Swede? Give me a break. Furthermore, your Romanian economist friend appears to be trying to play that completely worn out “victim of racism” card, which is in reality an attempt to stifle other peoples natural right to express their own opinion. This is all a part of the Cultural Marxists agenda of breaking down and diluting the social capital that historically has allowed western democratic states to exist and to thrive. Well none are thriving anymore, and denial of the primary role that the left has played in these insane immigration policies is not going to bring that back.

I would also like to point out that the degree to which the NHS ever functioned well in its entire history was, as stated above by someone else, in the old days before the left crammed all THIER pet immigrants down OUR throats and diluted our social capital. That’s the thing about the left, they always want someone else to pay for their pets, whether they be immigrants from societies devoid of social capital or state monopolies whose existence destroy freedom and free markets.

http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-social-security-20131205,0,4771601.story#ixzz2nFobouxI