In Canada, Justin Trudeau just announced his plans to use his version of the Enabling Act.  The truckers and their allies are protesting the COVID restrictions from the last two years and particularly the vaccine mandates that began in 2021.  But Trudeau won’t back down.  He is in fact going full totalitarian.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden is cheering on Trudeau and telling him to use any means necessary to quash the protests.

Over the last year, I have heard many people question why there are protests all over Europe and other places, yet there is very little in the United States.  The reason isn’t because Americans are more passive.  The reason is because the restrictions have not been as bad in the U.S., as hard as that is to believe.

People have lost their jobs over vaccine mandates, and that continues to happen to this day.  But overall, the same restrictions don’t apply in the U.S. as in some of these other supposedly first-world countries.  Americans also have a choice of moving to a freer state.  It isn’t an easy choice, but it is a choice.

The Super Bowl was held in Los Angeles where the stadium was packed with mostly maskless people.  This includes many hypocritical celebrities.

Even with vaccine mandates in some big cities, they are starting to be rolled back or not enforced.  Some mayors are starting to suggest that they weren’t meant to be permanent.  Meanwhile, you have many of the previous COVID hysterics who had been deemed “experts” starting to say that we have to learn to live with the risk of the virus and get on with life.

This is not a coincidence.  They see which way the parade is marching, and they are getting out in front of it.

The establishment relies on the consent of the people.  They understand if they keep issuing edicts and most everybody ignores them, then it won’t look good.  They would rather pretend that it was their expertise that called an end to the “pandemic” and led us back to normal.

Consent of the People

In the mid 1500s, a man named Etienne de la Boetie pointed out that all rulers rely on the consent of the governed.  It doesn’t have to be an explicit consent, but at least an implicit consent in accepting the ruling system.

If the rulers lose this consent to too many people, then their rule collapses.

Look at the United States.  There are about 330 million people.  There is only one president.  There are only 535 members of Congress.  There are only 9 Supreme Court justices.  There is only one Federal Reserve chairman,

All of these people rely on people being obedient to the system.  Some might complain about the president or members of Congress, and some might even despise the individuals in office.  But if they still consent to the system, then the rule continues.  The rulers themselves may change over time, but the power is still there as long as people obey.

In one of his writings, de la Boetie wrote:

“Obviously there is no need of fighting to overcome this single tyrant, for he is automatically defeated if the country refuses consent to its own enslavement: it is not necessary to deprive him of anything but simply to give him nothing; there is no need that the country make an effort to do anything for itself provided it does nothing against itself.  It is therefore the inhabitants themselves who permit, or, rather, bring about, their own subjection, since by ceasing to submit they would put an end to their servitude.”

He continues: “A people enslaves itself, cuts its own throat, when, having a choice between being vassals and being free men, it deserts its liberties and takes on the yoke, gives consent to its own misery, or, rather, apparently welcomes it.”

So while it is better to have a kind and benevolent ruler, if there is such a thing, it is impossible for a country to be ruled by one man or by a small group of people without a large portion of the population consenting.

It is nice to see that Joe Biden’s approval ratings are in the toilet.  Hopefully this means that people just aren’t consenting to his sometimes-dictatorial rule.  In the long run, it isn’t about any one man.  Getting rid of Joe Biden isn’t going to solve all of our problems.  It may solve a few in the short run, but ultimately what matters is how much people are willing to tolerate.

So while Biden and his handlers deserve much criticism, it is really the system that needs to be changed.  It is the concept that such a small group of people is able to inflict so much damage over a large population.  But it is only because a good portion of that population consents to the corrupt system.

Oh Canada

The reason there are mass protests in some places while the rulers double down on their power is because the population is largely split.

It is hard to say exactly, but probably half of the Canadian population wants the mandates and COVID restrictions to go away.  The other half are accepting of them to a large degree and listen to the state media and those deemed “experts”.

Much of my extended family lives in Canada, and I can tell you that most of them are not really on the side of the truckers.  Maybe they don’t disagree with everything the truckers have to say, and maybe they don’t agree with everything that Trudeau is doing, but they generally consent to their rulers.  They enable the people who make their lives miserable.  The rulers don’t care about their subjects at all except to the degree that they are obedient.

This is why there is a standoff.  It is why Trudeau is trying to make the whole thing violent.  Of course, Trudeau has been using the threat of violence all along, which is the problem.  If he were to simply withdraw the restrictions and mandates, then the protests would end.

Trudeau can invoke an emergency and, at least for now, get away with it because about half of the Canadian population consents to it.  They accept it.  They are obedient.  They enable the very people who are their enemies, but they don’t see it.

This is really the problem everywhere.  It is often split down the middle.  Half of the population just wants to be left alone while half of the population wants to impose their will on others, or at least grant the power to their rulers to do so.

It is not quite this clean, but you can see the dividing lines with COVID.  I’m not saying that half the population is libertarian.  But on COVID restrictions and mandates, it probably is fair to say that half of Americans do hold a mostly libertarian position on the subject now.

The good news out of the last 2 years is that more people are seeing the problems of the entire corrupt system.  They are seeing that you shouldn’t trust the “experts”.  In fact, when the establishment media is telling you to trust the “experts”, it typically makes more sense to the do the opposite.

It is hard to say what the next decade will bring, but there is less consent for the rulers today than there was 2 years ago.  This is positive for the long-term prospects for liberty.