The Eventual Political Consensus of Human Nature: Favoring Decentralization

We have a strong feeling that the philosophy of Leave-us-Alone federalism will gradually become a consensus, not only in the United States, but in the world. Why? Because it harmonizes with human nature. It's that simple. Human nature has strongly tended to be kin-centered, local-centered, pair bonding, hierarchical and even xenophobic, to name a few of the conservative elements inherent in human nature.

Now who fights against this constituency of human nature? Those who gain selfish advantage from a centralizing national or international regime, those who are not just socialists, communists, or fascists, but modern liberals, the products of modern liberal “education,” whose religion is totalitarian egalitarianism, controlled by a powerful elite. Large business corporations also use the government to gain personal advantage and wealth. These selfish marginal groups require centralizing government action to prevail.

So what is government good for? Michael Greve points out that for public purposes we need government for protection from force, fraud, and aggression, and to procure the things that deal with the common pool, such as roads and even the environment. But, unlike the economic libertarians, we affirm economic nationalism because it protects localism against the force, fraud and aggression of large corporations.

I think human nature will eventually win out over egalitarian uniformity, leading to the tolerance of a variety of less than perfect (in liberal eyes) states and localities. Localism is good not merely because big government does not work as well as the private world, and not merely because Leave-Us-Alone federalism more or less mimics free enterprise, localism is good mainly because the separating powers of federalism affirm human nature.