It is often possible to see how some “libertarians” (in quotes) continue to look across the ocean with breathless admiration. They pray to the US Constitution, quote the Founding Fathers, and seriously believe that America is the bastion of a “free republic.” Except they are stuck in the 18th century. That republic has long been gone, and what we see today is “Pindostan.” This is not a federation of equal states, but a real, classical, bloated, and last surviving empire of our days. And do you know what happens to empires? They collapse, and that is great! So let’s break down exactly what is what.
What is an empire in the classical sense? It is when one center, greedy for taxes, forcibly holds under its power absolutely different peoples and territories that are culturally alien to one another. Now look at the map. How can Alabama and New York seriously be called a “single country”? Wyoming and California? These are different universes. In one state, people want to go to church on Sundays, own an AR-15 to protect their families, pay minimum taxes, and have bureaucrats simply leave them alone. In another, they demand total control over the economy, a ban on plastic straws, insane taxes, and regulation of how you breathe.
But as soon as the subject of a possible breakup of the USA into separate independent states (or at least a confederation) comes up, conservatives and mainstream libertarians begin to panic: “This will be the end of the world! Madness! The collapse of civilization!”. But let’s take a breath and open a history textbook. Do you know who screamed like that a hundred years ago? Supporters of the “One and Indivisible” Russian Empire. When the Russian Empire began to crack at the seams in 1917, it seemed as if the heavens were falling to earth. But let’s ask the Poles and Finns how they like this “terrible collapse”? For them, it was the best thing that ever happened to them.
Poland and Finland jumped away from the imperial corpse in time. They stopped feeding bureaucrats in a foreign capital, stopped sending their guys to die for someone else’s imperial ambitions, and built their own countries. No one in Helsinki today is crying: “Oh, what a pity that we no longer send taxes to Petersburg!”. The collapse of an empire is not the end of the world. It is spring, decentralization, and secession in its purest form—the sacred right to self-determination that Rothbard wrote about.
Why is the collapse of Pindostan beneficial to libertarians worldwide? First, it is the death of the global policeman. For the last 80 years, Washington has exported not freedom, but bombs, sanctions, and inflation. The breakup of the USA into 5-10 independent jurisdictions means that none of them will any longer have a budget for 800 military bases around the world. There will be fewer wars, less intervention, and less blood.
Second, it is the collapse of dollar hegemony. The Fed (Federal Reserve System) is the main sponsor of global etatism. They are the ones who allow budgets to bloat and print candy wrappers, for which the entire world pays through a hidden inflation tax. The collapse of the empire will bring down the fiat system and open the way for hard money—gold and crypto.
Additionally, this will create a market of jurisdictions. Imagine that in place of one monster, half a hundred states of various sizes will appear. A brutal competition for minds, capital, and labor will begin. California wants a 90% tax? Please! Only all businesses will move to an independent free Texas or Nevada within an hour. This will be the greatest experiment in jurisdictional competition in history.
It is time to get rid of the cargo cult! The fact that the Founding Fathers wrote a cool piece of paper 250 years ago does not make modern Washington a holy place. Today it is the same kind of imperial center as Rome was before its fall, London at the beginning of the 20th century, or Petersburg in 1917. There is no need to fear the balkanization of America. This should be welcomed! Division is the path to freedom. After all, the smaller the state, the closer the power is to the land and to the specific person, and the fewer opportunities it has to build a digital GULAG.
