The events in recent months in Venezuela provide a textbook example of statolatry–the term popularized by Ludwig von Mises in Omnipotent Government about tendencies to make government and its figureheads objects of veneration. This week’s Economist magazine reports (in an article on Hugo Chávez efforts to form a socialist ruling coalition in Venezuela):
Now he has hit his first speed bump since the election. It is over the new party, provisionally called the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, whose leader will of course be Mr Chávez himself. The largest chavista party, the Fifth Republic Movement (MVR), has already agreed to disband. So have others, including the smaller UPV. “My comandante gives the order—we obey,†said its leader, Lina Ron, without irony. “Who am I to question the second Liberator of the Republic, the messiah God sent to save the people?â€
Chávez is a threat to his people, to the extent that he wishes to redistribute wealth, deplete its capital stock, and weaken property rights institutions required for the wealth creation his country desperately needs. Interestingly, he is not only a threat made possible by western actions that have had the effect of increasing Venezuelan oil revenues this decade. He is also now an object of worship.
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Was not a certain maniacal German dictator also worshiped by the majority of his countrymen from 1933 to 1945? And we all know what ultimately happened to Germany and its people.
Dennis-
Looking around it looks like the ideas of that German leader were adopted by even his enemies and enforced with similar efficiency. Areas where he is most influential might include:
- environmental policy
- gun control
- control over private education
- regulation of capital markets
- transportation
- attitude towards Christianity
- use of military force to acquire natural resources
- work permits
- travel permits
- interpretation of American history
- drug policy
However I doubt Chávez will ever leave the same magnitude of imprint on history. Germany was an industrial power with large capital reserves to waste in the name of national greatness, what does Venezuela have? More likely, Chávez will go down as another Amin or Mugabe – destroying his own country but not having much impact beyond.
CC
I just came back this week from a visit to Cuba, and, to my surprise, almost anyone I had the chance to talk to, made fun of Chavez. I guess behind this ridicule is the anguish that this clown with his “donations” that fall way short of that what the Soviets put into the island to make it a showcase of socialism in Latin America is only prolonging the despair that is almost(the exception are the splendid tourist resorts for the Euros and the Canadians) everywhere observable in the other parts of country. Almost nobody dares to speak openly, but my feeling was that implicitly almost any sound minded Cuban is totally fed up with socialism and therefore for them Chavez is more a threat than a boon.
I plan to write more about Cuba on my site: http://www.continentaleconomics.com
Antony Mueller
Antony Mueller, http://www.continentaleconomics.com
In international relations, the best defense is normally no offence as the other side will eventually destroy themselves.
Venezuela once had a per capita income of 70% of that in the USA. Of course they were saved by more socialism than in the USA so now their per capita income is much less than that and declining.
I say go Hugo. Keep you example of pain, misery, servitude, poverty and ultimately murder going because the world needs examples.
Speaking of Adolf Hitler, I recall that many Christians (notably the Lutheran hierarchy) thought he was the second coming of Christ. They were going to make that official church reaching at one stage. Lucky for them the war intervened…
Sione
Anyone who has spent significant time in Florida will recognize a repeat of what happened in the 60s. Castro scared the most intelligent, educated and productive Cubans out of the country. Now Miami is by far the most prosperous Cuban city. Chavez has done the same to Venezuelans.
Horatio
Interesting point.
Where are the Venezuelans escaping to?
Sione
Sione,
“Speaking of Adolf Hitler, I recall that many Christians (notably the Lutheran hierarchy) thought he was the second coming of Christ. They were going to make that official church reaching at one stage. Lucky for them the war intervened…”
War or no war, that perception (not shared by many Christians, if what you say is meant literally) would have come crashing down sooner or later, along with the economy and social structure. Ruined, as always, by the state.
Sione: “Speaking of Adolf Hitler, I recall that many Christians (notably the Lutheran hierarchy) thought he was the second coming of Christ.”
While it’s true that the Lutheran hierarchy worshipped Hitler, it’s important to keep in mind who the Lutheran hierarchy were. In the late 19th century, many German theologians decided that very little in the Bible is true, and that Jesus wasn’t God and never claimed to be God. In other words, they abandoned all belief in the traditional God of Christianity and in the Bible that Christians had maintained for almost two millenia. This was the Lutheran leadership at the time Hitler came along. They would never have equated Hitler with Christ’s return, because they didn’t believe that Christ had gone anywhere (he was dead) nor that he was coming back. Most Lutherans in Germany at that time, but especially the leadership, worshipped socialism, not God.
For accounts of those who maintained their traditional faith and didn’t succumb to Hitler worship, google for Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
The “intellectuals” of Germany led the population in worship of Hitler, according to Harvard historian Niall Ferguson, who wrote “…academically educated Germans were unusually ready to prostrate themselves before a charismatic leader.” p. 240 The War of the World. Ferguson names Max Weber on one of those academics. He also blaims lawyers, doctors, artists and historians. In other words, the educated elite sold Hitler to the less educated masses.
Interesting point.
Where are the Venezuelans escaping to?
Panama City, Panama!
P.S. Economists probably pumped Hitler, too, although Ferguson doesn’t single them out. Still, they were part of the academic elite he describes as prostrating themselves before Hitler. Besides, the German Historical School of economics that reined at the time would have encouraged worship of Hitler.
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