[This is an excerpt from Progressivism: A Primer on the Idea Destroying America (2014).]
One of the great virtues of liberalism is that, it alone among the political worldviews, discovered a way for people from different ethnic, racial and religious groups to live together in relative peace. In all systems of powerful government, including progressivism, these groups struggle with each other for control of the state. As I demonstrated in a paper presented at the Mises Institute in 2002, the major cause of war in the last fifty years was conflict between or among competing ethnic, racial and religious groups inside states: civil war.[1] The state system has not only failed to solve the problem of peace among disparate groups but in fact is itself the major cause of conflict and violence among these groups. The cause of the violence is the fear of or the actual exploitation and domination of ethnic, racial or religious groups by a state controlled by hostile groups.
It is also a myth that the best way to smooth over multicultural differences is through the ballot box. This is false. The ballot box is simply a means to determine how state violence is to be used against the losers of the election and how those losers will then be exploited economically and in other ways by the majority. Thus, the incentive for minority groups to attempt to secede or seize control of the state to avoid such domination and exploitation exists in democracies and dictatorships. In 23 of the 25 recent intrastate wars, the prevailing regime was democratic throughout the dispute or at least at certain times during the dispute.[2] In certain cases, a democratic government was overthrown because of the feeling of an ethnic or religious subgroup that its interests were not being protected or advanced by the democratic state.
Thus, in strong states that exercise a great deal of control over people’s economic and personal lives, groups that do not control the state live in constant fear of exploitation, domination, and sometimes genocide itself. In such states, whether democratic or not, different groups live in continual fear that competing groups may increase their political power, including by increases in population and immigration and thus, the state creates a conflict of interests that would not otherwise exist! In a liberal market society, disparate groups and individuals may live side by side, house to house, without the slightest fear that those who differ from them will seize control of the state and deprive them of their life, liberty or property. They may associate with them if they wish, trade with them to their mutual benefit if they wish, or not associate with them if that is preferred. Most importantly, peace is achieved!
It must be emphasized that progressive government, contrary to popular myth, exacerbates racial, ethnic and religious tensions and does not ameliorate them. Every progressive policy, involving as it does state violence, creates winners and losers and thus resentment among the losers. The progressive’s favored policies such as civil rights laws (forced association), affirmative action (affirmative racism) and welfare, create winners and losers and therefore resentment among the losers. Under liberalism, both parties in every voluntary transaction are winners and positive relations among different groups are attained.
Multiculturalism and big government are a toxic mix. We see this today all over the world with ethnic, racial or religious violence ongoing in Iraq, Ukraine, Syria, Sudan, Israel/Palestine, Darfur, Chechnya and other regions. Those who look forward to a peaceful multicultural world should embrace liberalism and the free market. No other political system can maintain peace and tolerance in a multicultural world.
Notes
[1] “The Myth of Democratic Peace: Why Democracy Cannot Deliver Peace in the 21st Century,” LewRockwell.com, Feb. 19, 2005.
[2] Id.
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