{"id":917,"date":"2025-08-13T14:55:37","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T20:55:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marginalnonhermit.com\/?p=917"},"modified":"2025-08-13T14:56:22","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T20:56:22","slug":"a-crooked-numbers-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marginalnonhermit.com\/?p=917","title":{"rendered":"A Crooked Numbers Game"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\">Critique of Rousseau&#8217;s <em>Social Contract<\/em>, part 11<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<iframe id=\"odysee-iframe\" style=\"width:100%; aspect-ratio:16 \/ 9;\" src=\"https:\/\/odysee.com\/%24\/embed\/%40MarginalNonHermit%3A3%2Frousseau-pt-11%3Ab?r=8gvoByECHNgc2BfQ5o91oxf89bpi1Ui4\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">This week we&#8217;re covering four chapters in Book 3: Chapters 3 through 6. These chapters contain Rousseau&#8217;s definitions and thoughts on the differences inherent in governments vis a vis their relative size compared to the citizenry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Full show notes <a href=\"https:\/\/marginalnonhermit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/part-11.pdf\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Much of this is just his extensions of his weird fuzzy math from earlier, but he does do a few crucial things in this part. For instance, he stumbles onto a form of the Iron Law of Oligarchy, which I&#8217;ve been harping on for a long time; he argues for the superiority of elective aristocracy over any other form of government; and he puts forward a few reasonable criticisms of monarchy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">On the down side, he also makes a bunch of conflicting and fuzzy definitions, employs more fuzzy math, makes a bizarre criticism of Plato, pushes his desire for subsistence farming and poverty, and trips over his own earlier definitions! He also anticipates Franz Oppenheimer&#8217;s separation of means into economic and political means, but in the worst possible way: by arguing that political power gives people another way to gain fame and influence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">What he fails to realize is that when you create a totalitarian framework, the number of magistrates is a relatively minor concern. In the end, it&#8217;s all a crooked numbers game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">This video is available on <a href=\"https:\/\/odysee.com\/@MarginalNonHermit:3\/rousseau-pt-11:b\">Odysee<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/0QWSk8Q912Y\">YouTube<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bitchute.com\/video\/OX9RCiICH5UG\/\">BitChute<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Return to the <a href=\"https:\/\/marginalnonhermit.com\/?page_id=769\">Table of Contents<\/a> for this series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">References:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Salerno and Mises on Comparative Advantage and Ricardo<br><a href=\"https:\/\/mises.org\/mises-wire\/mises-ricardo-assumptions\">https:\/\/mises.org\/mises-wire\/mises-ricardo-assumptions<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Hayek&#8217;s &#8220;Why the Worst Get on Top&#8221; from The Road to Serfdom<br><a href=\"https:\/\/fee.org\/resources\/the-road-to-serfdom-chapter-10-why-the-worst-get-on-top\/\">https:\/\/fee.org\/resources\/the-road-to-serfdom-chapter-10-why-the-worst-get-on-top\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Intro quote by Ralph Raico, from &#8220;The Struggle for Liberty&#8221;<br><a href=\"https:\/\/mises.org\/library\/book\/struggle-liberty-libertarian-history-political-thought\">https:\/\/mises.org\/library\/book\/struggle-liberty-libertarian-history-political-thought<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Intro music by Praz Khanal, courtesy Pixabay<br><a href=\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/users\/prazkhanal-24653570\/\">https:\/\/pixabay.com\/users\/prazkhanal-24653570\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Thumbnail image uses a photo by Klim Musalimov, courtesy Unsplash<br><a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/@klim11\">https:\/\/unsplash.com\/@klim11<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Critique of Rousseau&#8217;s Social Contract, part 11 This week we&#8217;re covering four chapters in Book 3: Chapters 3 through 6. These chapters contain Rousseau&#8217;s definitions and thoughts on the differences inherent in governments vis a vis their relative size compared to the citizenry. Full show notes here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":918,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[82,4,2],"tags":[246,86,269,60,19,85,236,72,270,199,202],"class_list":["post-917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-philosophy","category-political","category-video-link","tag-critique","tag-freedom","tag-jean-jacques-rousseau","tag-libertarian","tag-liberty","tag-philosophy","tag-political-philosophy","tag-politics","tag-social-contract","tag-study-guide","tag-voluntaryism"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/marginalnonhermit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/thumb-11.png?fit=1280%2C720&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marginalnonhermit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marginalnonhermit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marginalnonhermit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marginalnonhermit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marginalnonhermit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=917"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/marginalnonhermit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/917\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":926,"href":"https:\/\/marginalnonhermit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/917\/revisions\/926"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marginalnonhermit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marginalnonhermit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marginalnonhermit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marginalnonhermit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}