BOOK REVIEW

 

Sustainable: The war on free enterprise, private property, and individuals.

 

 

Das Steýn

Research Fellow, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, University of the Free State, PO Box 392, Bloemfontein, South Africa. Phone 051 4012893, e-mail: <steynjj@ufs.ac.za>

 

 

 

THE WAR ON FREE ENTERPRISE. PBIVOTE PROPERTVíKD IHOIVIBIIALS
Deweese, Tom. 2018. Richmond (USA), Gold Dust Publishing. 195 pages. Paperback $17.99

There are intelligent people with considerable knowledge and experience wh vote for the ANC. There are intelligent people with considerable knowledge an experience who vote for the EFF. There are intelligent people with considerab knowledge and experience who vote for the DA. There are intelligent people with considerable knowledge and experience who vote for the ACDP.

Thus, rational considerations are not the determining factor. Emotional and primitive impulses play a role, according to emeritus prof. Juliaan van Acker.¹ The same could be said about different approaches to what is necessary for the world to function well. Think about the debate between capitalism and socialism/communism.

Like John Locke, Tom Deweese (2018: 1) believes that "life and liberty are secun only so long the right of property is secure", meaning the full ability to own and control your property. The American dream is built on a governmental system tha protects private property and the free enterprise system. No one is guaranteed to be successful and prosperous, but each individual was assured the right and freedom to try. Thus, a country built on Hope, Opportunity and Freedom.

For over a hundred years, people have tried to eliminate poverty by the redistribution of wealth through rushing aid to the poor and the starving. Instead of helping, it sustains poverty and the system that drives it. Thus, the NGOs and governments grew bigger and bigger, while less money ends up in the hands of the poor. More people have that experience. The Soviet Revolution and other communist-orientated regimes promised decent housing, jobs and food enough for all through equality and freedom. Rather than helping the poor, the redistribution of wealth schemes destroyed the right of ownership and control. It led to all being equally poor (Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, East Germany, Cuba, Zimbabwe, and Venezuela). For the author, without property rights, no other rights are possible.

The discourse for and against planning (and control) is not new. In the 1930s and 1940s, Friedrich A. Hayek, among others, was afraid that centralised state planning leads to dictatorship (Taylor, 1998: 132). He "recognised that it can make matters worse by preventing evolutionary solutions and by depriving individual owners of an interest in putting their land to better use" (Miller, 2010: 172).

Failed socialism/communism now needs a new Siren Song "towards the promise of a single global overseer armed with those same, well-worn empty promises - that the elimination of free enterprise, individuality and private property will somehow lead to equality, eradication of poverty and some kind of undefined freedom. What such promises really lead to is an all-powerful government tyranny"² (Deweese, 2018: 5).

The reorganisation of human society by global forces, without people fighting this, could, according to the author, only happen if the power-mongers keep their aggression under wraps and if they use a plan to save Mother Earth and convince people that the common enemy of humanity is man. Pollution, global warming, water shortages, famine and other modern-day troubles are caused by human intervention. The world is in crisis and drastic action must be taken in order to save it. According to Deweese, this plan is called Agenda 21 and Agenda 2030 and its drive for social justice.

Deweese is not a 'traditional environmental crises sceptic', but he emphasises the drive for globalism by using the idea for sustainable development as a lever to reorganise society under the excuse of environmental protection. In this book, he tries to provide property rights activists with information so as to organise opposition to it.

Under the banner of Sustainable Development, a comprehensive top-down plan is to:

• Control the marketplace.

• Control private property.

• Eliminate cars.

• Lock away land from human activity.

• Eliminate local control.

Deweese (2018: 124) is, in a certain sense, a positivist, as he believes that control of society will prohibit "all individual innovation that no government bureaucrat could foresee or direct". Another Thomas Edison, Henry Ford or Wright brothers will not be allowed in this well-ordered society. For him, sustainable development is the tyranny of out-of-control government expanding into every segment of society, while it disregards individual liberty and property rights (Deweese, 2018: 148).

"Sustainable Development ignores the warnings of John Locke, that the abolition of private property rights will lead to the destruction of human incentive to build, prosper, and succeed on one's own. Instead it will create a society of thieves who live by taking the fruits or the labor of others" (Deweese, 2018: 179). For Deweese, the pillars of freedom are free enterprise, private property, and individual liberty.

 

REFERENCES

DEWEESE, T. 2018. Sustainable: The war on free enterprise, private property, and individuals. Richmond, VA: Gold Dust Publishing.         [ Links ]

HANCOCK, G. 1994. The lords of poverty: The power, prestige, and corruption of the international aid business. London: Atlantic Monthly Press.         [ Links ]

MARTIN, H. & SCHUMANN, H. 1997. The global trap: Globalization and the assault on prosperity and democracy. London: Zed Books.         [ Links ]

MILLER, E.F. 2010. Hayek's The constitution of liberty: An account of its argument. London: The Institute of Economic Affairs.         [ Links ]

 

 

1 Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands, in an article "Het mannelijke is noodzakelijk om in deze eeuw als volk en als beschaving te overleven". (Aanlyn). Beskikbaar by <https://tpo.nl/2019/09/02/het-mannelijke-is-noodzakelijk-om-in-deze-eeuw-als-volk-en-als-beschaving-te-overleven/> [Besoek op 2 September 2019].
2 Of this new world order, the former UN Secretary-General, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, stated: "Today we are living in the midst of a worldwide revolution. The planet is in the grip of two vast opposing forces: globalization and fragmentation" (Martin & Schumann, 1997:28).