The police are brutalizing the #OccupyWallStreet protestors, and yet the protestors’ list of grievances (or at least the grievances of the NYC General Assembly, which doesn’t represent all the protestors) presumes government ought to solve their problems (if only it implements the right policies). They haven’t seemed to connect the dots to realize that the government is the problem, and that is why it is brutalizing them. To see their fallacies in detail, read this excellent analysis of the Anonymous “Open Letter” (Anonymous is the organization that initiated #OccupyWallStreet). That article really says it all, but here’s my take on this movement in light of recent events.

The NYCGA and Anonymous (but surely not all the protestors) criticise capitalism for the exploitation they are on the receiving end of rather than the institution, the State, that actually enables their exploitation via its monopoly on force. Changing government policy does not fix this problem, since there would still be an organization, the State, with a monopoly on force. And whoever controls the government (and that’s not the voters) gets to use the monopoly on force, which they will invariably use for their own ends. The only way to fix this problem is to get rid of the State, which doesn’t need to exist. The State does not provide any necessary services that cannot be provided by the free market, i.e. via voluntary exchange without the use of force. Any services that can only be funded by force probably shouldn’t exist and we’ll all be happier without them (except criminals).

(It is interesting to note that the protestors actually recognize that force is immoral, and thus their movement is explicitly nonviolent. And yet they have not seemed to draw the implication that the State, because it is intrinsically aggressive, is intrinsically immoral, and is therefore a problem and not a solution.)

I fully support the sentiment of #OccupyWallStreet—the well-connected elites are indeed exploiting the 99%. Unfortunately, the 99% (or at least many of them) appear to have fallen hook, line and sinker for the propaganda/myth/lie that the State is “we,” the 99%, rather than them, the elites. But hopefully their movement will spark conversation and thought, and perhaps the right ideas will see the light. I would suggest people start with “The Mystery of Banking” and all other works by Murray Rothbard, which will detail exactly how it is the elites (which are usually connected to banking, government and the control of the money supply one way or another) are exploiting the masses. And for a thorough modern and even entertaining update of basically the same ideas, watch and listen to Stefan Molyneux.

Update: Further evidence that the protestors (or at least some of them) don’t get it.

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