 Mark Thornton has a special offer for fans of minor issues. A free copy of Murray Rothbard's famous work, Anatomy of the State. This is a limited time offer, so act fast. Get yours today at mises.org slash issues free. Hello and welcome to the first episode of the Minor Issues podcast in 2024. What might we expect to see in the new year? What are the likely surprises? And what is not even being talked about in the mainstream media, but is on the minds of many Americans? Well, it's a presidential election year, which many prognosticators claim should be a normal to good year in the stock market as incumbent politicians seek to assure voters and investors that all is well in Washington D.C. and in all the state capitals. Americans would love a return to normal times after years of the government's COVID chaos in a quarter century or more of the Fed's Frankenstein monetary policy. Opening the Wall Street Journal Tuesday morning, the lead headline was Investors Hope for 2024. A return to long lost normalcy. Many think markets can find a more stable equilibrium after recent rate increases. Boy, everyone can hope. Our collective hope, as investors or otherwise, however, seems very misplaced. And a moment's reflection reveals that we are a very divided people in 2024. Biden voters hate and fear Trump and the Republicans. Trump voters hate and fear Biden and the Democrats. Villification, impeachment, and criminal charges are the new political process. What does that tell you about the outcome of the election in November when one of the two will win? In the last episode of the Minor Issues podcast, I pointed out that all the primary sectors and markets of the economy have been greatly disturbed by government intervention and are in various states of disarray, which is a bad thing. We also pointed out that our traditional political institutions are in chaos, which is potentially a good thing. The problem is that while markets have built-in systems of correction and renewal, the political sphere could potentially vacate its traditional orbit and cause catastrophic consequences. As a people, we have been whipped up into a millennialist fever, but one led by self-anointed surrogates, such as the neocons, the progressives, globalists, and environmentalists, who gleefully passed judgments, proclaimed imagined new eras, and back fantasy utopian societies, such as the Great Reset. The prospects are scary and dangerous, but with the U.S. government's evil fingers dug in on both the Western Front and Europe, and in the Holy Land, you can almost hear the doomsday clock ticking. More stable mines must prevail. Even stepping back a bit, it certainly can conjure up images of revolution and civil war, even here in the United States. In one public opinion poll, 52% of Republicans, 36% of Democrats, and 23% of independents sided with the idea that the U.S. is facing a new civil war. The Center for Politics recently reported polling results from last fall that more than two-thirds of Biden and Trump voters viewed the other side as doing lasting harm to the country, with half of them viewing the other side as threats to the American way of life, and 40% of both agreeing that it's acceptable to use violence to prevent the other side from achieving their goals. Hat tip, Michael Oliver at MSA. Revolution and civil war would have, as they always have had, disastrous consequences, and that is why the political sphere could vacate its traditional orbit and cause catastrophic consequences. On the other hand, peaceful secession is obviously a better way out of this mess. Breaking up or national divorce would at least put disgruntled groups at a distance and allow them to pursue their own peculiar majoritarian agendas. However, secession is messy, time-consuming, and can degenerate. It's certainly not what the leaders of this evil cabal overlaughtering this political mess want, and it's a good way to start. The most direct and peaceful solution is that we all be willing to put the self-enrichment of the individual as our highest goal and the highest goal for American society. This means denigrating the state in all its aspects and the neutering of all its functions. It means no subsidies or special privileges. It means sink or swim. It means no grand schemes to control the world or for micromanaging the buying and selling between people. It only requires respect for other people's property rights down to the level of not forcing your neighbor to mow her lawn. The solution requires a founding father's view of religion and other ideals. It requires an anti-federalist view of the state. It requires us to put William Graham Sumner's forgotten man in charge of all taxes and government spending. To paraphrase Carl Jung, you can put a million zeros together, but it does not add up to a single one. Ultimately, the quality of society depends on the quality of the individual. The quality of the individual requires a rebirth of the spirit. And the rebirth of the spirit requires freedom, not obedience to the state. That should be clear. That's what made this country great. And America is the most hardworking, happy and charitable people. A most literate, inventive and entrepreneurial people. A people of great character and a nation of great characters. Right now, Americans have circled the wagons and are ready to fight. That is exactly what the vile cabal wants. If instead we could all agree on the social principle of freedom and the self-enrichment of the individual, we could begin to dismantle the state and recover the American dream.