The Worst of Times, the Best of Times

Smaller governments, plus strong civil institutions, have proven far better for protecting life, liberty, and property.

Each heart knows its own bitterness, and no one else can fully share its joy.
—Proverbs 14:10 (NLT)

My grandfather told us that he lived to see men go from never having flown to flying to the moon.

But even though each person has some experiences in common with other people, each person has a different combination of inheritance, religion, family, society, legal environment, places, and times.

Each individual lives in a different world.

Smaller Governments (1607–1894) (287 years)

For white settlers, at first the American Colonies were hazardous to life. Soon, life stabilized. The colonists surpassed the Old World’s people in liberty. Over time, the colonists surpassed the Old World’s people in earning property.

For black slaves too, at first the American Colonies were hazardous to life. The first generation started out in Africa with life and mostly with liberty, but on a continent of rival hunter-gatherer tribes, where warring, diseases, and starvation controlled the population by taking many lives. Some slaves died in transit and some still died young. More were born, and more were able to live, but at the next-worst costs: throughout most of this long period, almost none could gain liberty or earn property.

For white men, bigger governments started emerging late in this period. This, plus increased affluence, created the newly industrial-scale Civil War (1861–1865). New transportation and communications technologies helped facilitate taking many lives.

Black slaves ended up gaining liberty. But in the aftermath of the destruction, the former slaves gained little ability to earn above subsistence level and save up property.

Meanwhile, across this lengthy period the printing press spread Christianity. The newly re-understood Christianity turned out to significantly limit people’s previously-ubiquitous deprivations against other people, which were (and still are) fueled by envy. Besides developing new transportation and communications technologies, people also significantly developed trade, and business organizations.

As the figure shows, the people in the American Colonies and then the USA added value exponentially. The people throughout the world added value exponentially too, lagging by 150 years.

The people in each group raised their living standards by an order of magnitude.

Figure. The USA’s people have added value exponentially. The world’s people started out lagging by 150 years and now lag by only 70 years.

Bigger Governments (1894–2024) (130 years)

For all men, World War I (1917–1918), World War II (1941–1944), the Korean War (1950–1953), and the Vietnam War (1956–1975) took many lives. For people with Spanish Flu, the new aspirin treatment (1918–1919) took many lives. New abortion sanctions and technologies (1973–2024) have been taking many lives. Covid responses including mRNA poisons (2020–2024) also have been taking many lives.

For people with serious mental illnesses, the new frontal lobotomy technology (1936–1967) permanently reduced liberty. New incentives to depend on governments were created, and these notably accelerated the corrosion of religious faith, families, and other voluntary cooperation, reducing liberty. New language norms, seemingly about environment and race and gender, but really about creating critical transitions to socialism, have reduced expression, thought, and liberty. For young girls and for people with autistic characteristics, new gender-transition technologies have been savaging the core identity that’s rooted in these people’s biological sex, reducing liberty.

For people in minorities, including the descendants of the slaves who had gained liberty only in the ruinous wake of the industrial-scale Civil War, desegregation finally freed up new potential to earn and save property.

Meanwhile, people developed electricity, internal-combustion engines, chemicals, telecommunications, widespread technologies, and information technology. The new computing and communications technologies can be anticipated to bring immense systemic improvements, as were seen with spoken language, writing, and the printing press.

The people in the USA kept adding value exponentially. The people throughout the world kept adding value exponentially too, starting this period lagging by 140 years and catching up to now lag by only 70 years.

The people in each group raised their living standards by another order of magnitude.

Inequality has long been demonized, but this record shows that inequality should instead be given the full credit that it’s due, and heartily celebrated. Inequality has made available proven knowledge and inputs, which more and more people have used to earn and save more property, the equivalent liberty, and ultimately lives.

New Hope

We each are born into specific communities, places, and times, and we each learn as we go. Our learning paths make it less than intuitive for us to connect the most-crucial bedrock causes and effects: that Christianity reduced people’s envy, and that constitutional governance freed people to voluntarily cooperate. Christianity and constitutional governance both underpin our complex modern world’s greater freedom.

Now, in both Christianity and constitutional governance there is great new hope:

• Christian teaching on the core principle of grace is more accessible nowadays than ever in history.

  In large part this is thanks to decentralized, Bible-following churches, together with clear Bible translations which are available with helpful study notes.

  Also, the streaming TV series The Chosen offers an authentic feel for Christian history and belief, in a form neatly matched to our built-in abilities to learn through vicarious experience, including through vividly acted-out stories. And it’s bingeable.

• Constitutional practice is poised to be advanced. We have now identified that in order to have a complete, functioning solution that constitutionally limits governments, we need to develop the single missing component. At least one political party must itself be limited, by a party constitution.

  Already, in freedom caucuses, legislators are taking the single most-essential action: they are using their constitutional powers to limit others in government. They’re even using their constitutional powers independently—limiting others who are in their own party. Such correct actions, and such multiple independent limiting actions, are the keys to robustly producing high-reliability limiting.

  Also, executives are beginning to limit others in governments. Historically-unprecedented actions have been taken by Florida governor Ron DeSantis, and by attorney generals in Missouri and Louisiana. An executive, by himself, has extraordinary power to protect the Constitution.

We are living in most interesting times.