Negotiation is the art of getting an opponent to advocate for your position. You want one thousand dollars for an old car. You ask for two. The buyer works you down to one, and you shake on the “deal.”
Parents employ similar skills. A toddler who is unhappy about being put in the stroller might be given a choice: we can either go to the park or take a nap. Cries often disappear when the alternative to play is less fun. Of course, children quickly learn this game, too. Some will double-down on crying until mom throws up her hands and offers to renegotiate: and we can stop for ice cream on the way! Teenagers realize that either-or offers invite workarounds. “Do your homework or you’re grounded” succeeds as a negotiating position only if Junior can’t climb out the window after dark.
From an early age, we grasp that successful negotiations take advantage of (1) asymmetric information and (2) asymmetric authority. Individuals who know more than their opponents and who are capable of restricting the range of available outcomes to any dispute are likely to get what they want.
Governments use such asymmetries to maintain control. By knowing more than the public and by exercising complete authority over what is permissible, their bargaining power far exceeds that of the lowly citizen. In the United States, the Department of Justice maintains an almost perfect conviction rate. Is that because prosecutors pursue only the guilty? Or is it because lone defendants are up against federal law enforcement agencies with huge bureaucratic workforces and immense investigatory resources? When the “United States of America” is a party to any case, the underdog sits on the other side.
Governments also relish playing parent. Before their deaths, Saddam Hussein, Muammar Gaddafi, and Hugo Chávez embraced the role of father to their respective nations. Kim Jong Un, Vladimir Putin, and Xi Jinping assume that role today. Even in so-called “democratic” countries, it is common to treat the heads of government as family patriarchs (or the matriarch, as was the case with the late Queen Elizabeth II). Right now in America, the Democrat Party is doing its best to brand vice presidential nominee Tim Walz, “America’s Dad.” Dictatorships, monarchies, and constitutional republics, it seems, all love to turn their rulers into daddy and mommy figures.
Why wouldn’t they? There is a great deal of perceived authority and omniscience ascribed to parents. Who else could get away with answering, “Why should I do that?” with this one-two punch: because I’m your mother, and I said so. That’s the kind of power that governments adore. How come we have to change our doctors and embrace socialized medicine? Barack: because I said so. Why can’t we talk about mail-in-ballot fraud and stolen elections? Pelosi’s J6 committee: because we said so. Why can’t we exercise free speech and engage in vigorous debate? Disinformation Governance Board: because we said so. Why can’t we enforce existing immigration law and secure America’s borders? D.C.’s Uniparty and corporate paymasters: because we said so. Why should we elect an unlikable and incompetent politician just because she’s a woman? Hillary and Kamala: because we said so. No wonder governments use a combination of regulatory sticks and welfare carrots to punish and reward their children. Nobody dares to question Daddy Government when he scowls across the kitchen table and threatens to throw the misbehaving public over his lap!
Does this seem absurd? I certainly think so! I find it bizarre that so many adults are comfortable with others telling them what they can and cannot do. I don’t need Facebook and Google to censor words because they might be “scary.” I don’t need the Department of Homeland Security to “save me” from foreign points of view. I don’t need self-described “public health experts” to filter knowledge based upon an article’s likelihood to “harm” my thoughts. I don’t need some bureaucratic “parent” questioning my reasoning skills or decisions. Adulthood requires some semblance of personal responsibility and a willingness to utilize the organ resting between one’s ears. Human equality requires the exact same things. It is no surprise, then, that governments of all stripes work so hard to infantilize their citizens. When Daddy Government “knows best,” obedient children behave. No civic or political equality survives government paternalism.
As a negotiating strategy, however, government paternalism is highly effective. Should a citizen question why we must rush into war, the NSA, CIA, or Pentagon can simply say, “That’s classified.” If anyone asks why we must take an experimental “vaccine” with unproven effectiveness, the CDC and FDA can answer, “We’re working at the speed of science.” If someone wonders why it’s okay for the government to ban certain political viewpoints, public censors can explain, “We’re experts in disinformation.” Like any good negotiator, the more that government actors depend upon (1) secret knowledge and (2) special authority, the easier it is for them to get what they want. Daddy Government is such a good negotiator that he can get peaceniks to cheer for war, medical doctors to wear six useless paper masks, and free speech enthusiasts to warn against the dangers of unregulated speech!
How does Daddy Government negotiate so well? He’s a “nudger” really. He always has been. He asks, “Don’t you care about freedom and the American flag?” And answers, “If so, you’ll agree to fight and die overseas.” He will never suggest, however, that you fight and die for freedom right here! He tells us every problem has a government solution. Too much interstate crime? That’s why we need the FBI! Too much economic uncertainty? That’s why we need the Federal Reserve! Too many evil regimes plotting our demise? That’s why we need the CIA! Too many domestic enemies in our midst? That’s why we need the NSA to spy on everything we say!
Daddy Government succeeds when his children are conditioned to root for bigger and more intrusive government. After all, negotiation is the art of getting an adversary to convince you that your opinion is right! When more government is the only answer to any perceived problem, who wins the negotiation? Daddy Government! That’s why he’s a master negotiator!
When we speak about a “Great Awakening” happening in America and throughout the West, what we are talking about is a growing public recognition among citizens that their governments have long been “negotiating” in bad faith. Censorship is not free speech. Mandatory vaccination is not healthcare. Energy cartels, fiat currencies, central banks, overseas slave labor, and heavily regulated domestic economies do not constitute free markets. Endless war does not produce endless peace. Governments that have long “nudged” us into believing such lies are being broadly exposed. You take thirty years of a relatively open Internet, combine it with enlightened public conversations that transcend national boundaries, add a handful of technologies that provide workarounds to mass surveillance, mix in a few revelations from the likes of Julian Assange and Edward Snowden, and what do you get? You get a large number of citizens who realize that they are in an abusive relationship with their government.
Americans who once believed that tyranny could not happen here now know better. Western Europeans who believed that totalitarianism had been beaten know better, too. This change in social consciousness is why governments have swapped their “nudge patrols” for authoritarian armies that push and shove. Government coercion and violence are on the rise because Westerners see through the rigged “negotiations” of their fake “democracies.” It’s why Germany disenfranchises conservatives, France arrests the CEOs of free speech platforms, Brazil bans Elon Musk’s X, the UK treats “anti-Establishment rhetoric” as a crime, and the United States persecutes J6 political prisoners.
Daddy Government is afraid because his “children” are done negotiating.
Flickr, CC BY 2.0 (cropped).
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