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NOTE 2.01. Direct Exchange · Types of Interpersonal Action: Violence

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Chapter 2. Direct Exchange

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1. Types of Interpersonal Action

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Violence

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The analysis in Chapter 1 was based on the logical

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implications of the assumption of action, and its results

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hold true for all human action. The application

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of these principles was confined, however, to

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and Economics, where the actions of isolated individuals are considered by themselves.

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In these situations, there are no interactions between persons.

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Thus, the analysis could easily and directly be applied to N number of isolated crusos

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on N islands or other isolated areas.

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The next task is to apply and extend the analysis to consider interactions between individual

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human beings.

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Let us suppose that Crusoe eventually finds that another individual, say Jackson, has

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also been living an isolated existence at the other end of the island.

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What types of interaction may now take place between them?

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One type of action is violence.

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Thus, Crusoe may entertain a vigorous hatred toward Jackson and decide to murder or otherwise

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injure him.

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In that case, Crusoe would gain his end, murder of Jackson, by committing violence.

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Or Crusoe may decide that he would like to expropriate Jackson's house and collection

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of furs and murder Jackson as a means to that end.

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In either case, the result is that Crusoe gains in satisfaction at the expense of Jackson,

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who, to say the least, suffers great psychic loss.

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Fundamentally similar is action based on a threat of violence or intimidation.

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Thus, Crusoe may hold up Jackson at the point of a knife and rob him of his accumulated

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furs and provisions.

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Both examples are cases of violent action and involve gain for one at the expense of

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another.

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The following factors, singly or in combination, might work to induce Crusoe or Jackson to

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To Refrain From Any Violent Action Against the Other

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1.

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He may feel that the use of violence against any other human being is immoral, that is,

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that refraining from violence against another person is an end in itself, whose rank in

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his value scale is higher than that of any advantages in the form of capital or consumers'

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goods that he might gain from such action.

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2.

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He may decide that instituting violent action might well establish an unwelcome precedent

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causing the other person to take up arms against him, so that he may end by being the victim

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instead of the victor.

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If he begins a type of action where one must gain at the expense of another, then he must

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face the fact that he might turn out to be the loser as a result of the action.

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3.

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Even if he feels that his violent action eventually will result in victory over the other, he

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may conclude that the costs of the war would exceed his net gain from the victory.

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Thus, the disutility of time and labor energy spent in fighting the war, war may be defined

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as violent action used by two or more opponents, in accumulating weapons for the war, capital

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4. Even if Crusoe feels reasonably certain of victory and believes that the costs of

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fighting will be far less than the utility of his spoils of victory, this short-run gain

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may well be outweighed in his decision by long-run losses. Thus his conquest of Jackson's

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Jackson's furs and house may add to his satisfaction for a while after the period of production,

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that is, preparing for the war plus the length of time of the war itself.

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But after a time his house will decay and his furs will become worthless.

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He may then conclude that by his murder of Jackson he has lost permanently many services

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which Jackson's continued existence might have furnished.

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This might be companionship or other types of consumers or capital goods.

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How Jackson might have served Crusoe without resort to violence will be indicated below,

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but at any rate, Crusoe may be detained from using violence by estimating the disutility

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of the long-run consequences more highly than the utility of the expected short-run gains.

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On the other hand, his time preference may be so high as to cause his short-run gains

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to override the long-run losses in his decision.

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It is possible that Crusoe may institute violent action without taking into consideration the

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costs of the war or the long-run consequences, in which case his actions will turn out to

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be erroneous.

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That is, the means he used were not the appropriate ones to maximize his psychic revenue.

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Instead of murdering his opponent, Crusoe might find it more useful to enslave him,

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and under continual threat of violence, to force Jackson to agree to expend his labor

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for the satisfaction of Crusoe's wants rather than his own.

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Under slavery, the master treats the slaves as he does his livestock, horses and other

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and Animals, using them as factors of production to gratify his wants, and feeding, housing

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them etc. just enough to enable them to continue in the master's service.

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It is true that the slave agrees to this arrangement, but this agreement is the result of a choice

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between working for the master and injury through violence.

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Labor under these conditions is qualitatively different from labor not under the threat

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of Violence, and may be called compulsory labor as compared to free labor or voluntary labor.

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If Jackson agrees to continue working as a slave under Crusoe's dictates, it does not

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mean that Jackson is an enthusiastic advocate of his own slavery.

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It simply means that Jackson does not believe that revolt against his master will better

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The Theory of Money and Credit

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The Theory of Money and Credit

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In this sense, a man's own person and will is inalienable, that is, cannot be given up to someone else for any future period.

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Such an arrangement is not a guarantee of security of provisions since no one can guarantee a steady supply of such goods.

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It simply means that A believes that B is better able to furnish a supply of these goods than he is himself.

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It is clear that the slave is always worse off than he would be without the threat of violence by the master,

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and therefore that the master always gains at the expense of the slave.

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The interpersonal relation under slavery is known as hegemonic.

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The relationship is one of command and obedience, the commands being enforced by threats of violence.

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The master uses the slaves as instruments, as factors of production, for gratifying his wants.

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Thus slavery, or hegemony, is defined as a system in which one must labor under the orders of another under the threat of violence.

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Under hegemony, the man who does the obeying, the slave, serf, ward, or subject, makes only one choice among two alternatives.

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One, to subject himself to the master or dictator, or two, to revolt against the regime of violence by use of his own violence, or by refusing to obey orders.

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If he chooses the first course, he submits himself to the hegemonic ruler, and all the other decisions and actions are made by that ruler.

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The subject chooses once in choosing to obey the ruler. The other choices are made by the ruler.

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The subject acts as a passive factor of production for use by the master.

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After that one act of continual choice made by the slave, he engages in coerced or compulsory

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labor, and the dictator alone is free to choose and act.

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Violent action may result in the following developments.

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A. Inconclusive fighting, with neither opponent the victor, in which case the war may continue

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C. The victor may simply rob the victim and leave, to return to isolation, or perhaps

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with Intermittent Violent Forays D. The victor may establish a continuing hegemonic

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tyranny over the victim by threats of violence.

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In Course A, the violent action has proved abortive and erroneous.

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In B, there is no further interpersonal interaction.

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In C, there is an alternation between robbery and isolation.

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And in D, a continuing hegemonic bond is established.

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Of these results, only in D has a continuing pattern of interpersonal relationship been

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constituted.

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These relations are compulsory, involving the following coerced exchanges.

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The slaves are treated as factors of production in exchange for food and other provisions.

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The Masters acquire factors of production in exchange for supplying the provisions.

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Any continuing pattern of interpersonal exchanges is called a society, and it is clear that

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a society has been established only in case D. There is, of course, no judgment at this

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point concerning whether the establishment of a society, or such a society, is a good,

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bad, or indifferent development.

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In the case of Crusoe's enslavement of Jackson, the society established is a totally hegemonic

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one.

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The term society, then, denotes a pattern of interpersonal exchanges among human beings.

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It is obviously absurd to treat society as real with some independent force of its own.

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There is no reality to society apart from the individuals who compose it and whose actions

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We have seen in Chapter 1 that all action is an exchange, and we may now divide exchanges

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into two categories.

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One is autistic exchange.

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Autistic exchange consists of any exchange that does not involve some form of interpersonal

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exchange of services.

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Thus, all of isolated Crusoe's exchanges were autistic.

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On the other hand, the case of slavery did involve interpersonal exchange, in which each

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gives up some goods in order to acquire other goods from the other.

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In this form of compulsory exchange, however, only the ruler benefits from the exchange,

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since he is the only one who makes it of his own free choice.

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Since he must impose the threat of violence in order to induce the subject to make the

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exchange, it is clear that the latter loses by the exchange.

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The master uses the subject as a factor of production for his own profit at the latter's

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expense, and this hegemonic relationship may be called exploitation.

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Under hegemonic exchange, the ruler exploits the subject for the ruler's benefit.

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This system has sometimes been called compulsory cooperation, but we prefer to limit the term

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cooperation to the result of voluntary choices.