I read a Mark Jeftovic article recently about "Subsidiary". He summed it up as "It means they set the rules, and you get to follow them any way you want." They don't put it like that of course. Jeftovic cited Klaus Schwab's book on "Stakeholder Capitalism". Schwab is considered a leading advocate for "the new globalism".
Schwab and his confederates are sharp enough to know that few of us regular folk are going to buy what he is really selling, which Jeftovic summed up nicely. So they have to make us think it is something other than what it really is. They have to make us think that it is something a lot more like real localism, which the establishment media is loathe to talk about. In order to keep people from "going there" they ignore the growing demand for decentralization. And when it can't be ignored anymore, they loudly market what they are selling as decentralization while ignoring the real deal.
Since the Greeks defeated the Persians, rulers have noticed that citizens fight harder, work harder, and cooperate more with their government if they believe that they are co-owners of the society, citizens and not slaves. That's why the ruling elites of nations go to a lot of trouble to give people the "illusion of choice". In America that has for the most part been stripped down to two loathsome and terminally corrupt political parties full of empty suits that nobody really trusts anymore, but the charade continues. It continues because the people who manage your "choices" want you to be able to rationalize to yourself that you still have a meaningful one.
Donald Trump may have slipped through but love him or hate him, he's an anomaly. And the system sacrificed what was left of the credibility of many of their own institutions to eliminate him. I expect they will fix it so that he can't return. That doesn't mean he was good for America, it just means he was not a part of their plans.
Redefining local control as "you can do what we tell you any way you want" isn't a new tactic. Like I said, crafty rulers have realized the power of the illusion of ownership for over two thousand years. Decades ago, I heard a Governor who campaigned on "local control of schools" in my state pull this switch once he got into office. Formerly "local control" meant that the schools had broad authority in many areas to make their own policies. He started defining it as broad authority to implement the policies that he and the federally-funded state department of education set for them.
They have to bang the drums about alleged threats which demand "global" solutions as a way to expand their control over everything. COVID was a good trial run. The CDC started making rules about evictions of renters under the guise of preventing COVID. My own state health department abused their authority to the max, demanding that small retailers close down while exemption big, politically connected entities. It was outrageous, and it failed anyway. Control freaks are pathological. They will never stop using any excuse they can to exercise more and more control over the lives of people they have never met living in places they have never been to. They will never stop- unless we stop them.
Subsidiary sounds good in principle. Schwab describes one of its tenets thusly: "decisions should be taken at the most granular level possible, closest to where they will have the most noticeable effects. It determines, in other words, that local stakeholders should be able to decide for themselves, except when it is not feasible or effective for them to do so."
That sounds reasonable, except the example he gives for it is the European Union, which is full of meddlesome bureaucrats trying to run people's lives from afar. Why, they have taken to banning national plebiscites in individual member states because they are afraid if citizens could decide on their own, that many would do what the Brits did and leave.
Localism does not care what is most "effective" or what rulers in distant capitals think is "feasible". Localism is an agreement between smaller political units and larger ones as to who has the authority to do what. This includes the option for the smaller unit to cut ties with the larger unit should the citizens feel that it is no longer operating in their interests. It is not Subsidiary, it is classical Federalism on steroids.
Control freaks will plead good intentions. They will plead expediency. They will point to crisis. Any and every possible rationalization will be given as to why they should assume additional power and authority over your home, your city, your county, and your state. None of the alleged threats they point to are as menacing to your family and your well-being as they themselves. History has proven this a thousand times.
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