Mark Thornton: Prohibition: The Sword of the State

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Mark Thornton: Prohibition: The Sword of the State

Summary

Prohibition has historically been used by progressives as a means to exert state control, infringe on individual rights, and create societal division, ultimately leading to increased crime and corruption rather than solving the issues it aimed to address.

Progressive Agenda and State Power

Prohibition, initiated in 1914, was utilized by progressives to develop an all-powerful police state, serving as a visual symbol of state power and a means to intimidate the population rather than create a nanny state.

The enforcement of prohibition disproportionately impacted working-class urban immigrant and poor communities, revealing its use as a tool to control non-elite populations such as Catholics, immigrants, and minorities.

Economic and Social Consequences

Prohibition exemplified Mises’s theory of progressive interventionism, creating new problems while exacerbating existing ones, ultimately leading to the establishment of the Federal Reserve as a fourth branch of government.

The policy unleashed crime, chaos, and organized crime, enabling progressives to build a strong police state under the guise of enforcement, particularly during Herbert Hoover’s prohibitionist interventionist administration.

Progressive Miscalculation

As described by Rothbard, prohibition represented a miscalculation and overreach of the progressive mindset, exposing the naivety and lack of real-world understanding among highly intelligent but egoistic progressive leaders once in power.