The Greatest Political Experiment of Our Time
Welcome to Notes From the End of the World...
Joel Bowman, writing to you with today’s Note from the End of the World...
A new year is here... and a new dawn beckons.
Today I’m going to tell you about a new project I’ve begun. It’s called Notes From the End of the World. And it has to do with something I’m calling the Greatest Political Experiment of Our Time.
This experiment is being conducted in a far away place, on a scale never before tried. And while few realize the magnitude of this movement, I believe it has the potential to impact every corner of the globe.
And if history is any guide, it will happen faster even than anyone expects.
But first, a little background...
When I first moved down to the end of the world – Buenos Aires, Argentina – a decade ago, I had no idea what to expect.
I had spent years living and traveling around the world, examining man’s many and varied relationships to his government.
Over a quarter of a century or so “on the road,” I found ourselves living in:
...a Lucky Country/Nanny State (Australia)...
...a Constitutional Monarchy/Jilted Empire (England)...
...a Constitutional Republic/Corporatocracy (the USA)...
...an Authoritarian Theocracy/Squabbling Brotherhood (United Arab Emirates)...
...a Paper Democracy/Dragon Snack (Taiwan)...
...a Federal Republic/Kleptocracy (Mexico)...
...a Democratic Republic/Narcocracy (Colombia) and of course...
...in our present country of residence... the Constitutional Ineptocracy of Argentina...
...with plenty of other “isms,” “ocracies” and misguided debacles along the way.
Failures, Many and Varied
My own peripatetic journey has (thus far) spirited me across ~90 countries, in many of which I received snail mail, paid utility bills and was on first name basis with my local barkeep.
During this time I’ve witnessed no shortage of norms and givens, unexamined “truths” about the way government “should” work... and the infinite ways it can’t... and therefore, invariably doesn’t.
But nothing I’ve seen along our travels is quite like what I’m witnessing right now – up front and personal – in my adopted home of Argentina. What is unfolding before my eyes is truly an experiment like no other... perhaps the greatest of our lifetime.
And not just for the long-suffering Argentines, either.
In fact, the implications of this movement will be far reaching. Citizens the world over are watching with keen interest... as are their political overlords, unsure as to just how this extraordinary exercise will play out.
And this is where my new project, Notes From the End of the World, comes in.
But first, let’s back up a bit...
The Greatest Political Experiments in History
It seems impossible for us to imagine now, from the relative comfort of our Modern Age...
But there was a time before the Greeks invented democracy... just as there was a world that had never known the rise (and fall) of the Roman Empire... there were the Dark Ages, steeped in superstition and ignorance and plague, in which the masses dared not hope for a movement so revitalizing as the Renaissance...
So too existed an Old World that had not yet awoken to the illuminating discoveries of the Enlightenment... a society that predated the momentous French Revolution... an idea of America as it was before a single signature had been inked on the Declaration of Independence...
And yet, as difficult as it is for us to conceptualize a world without events of such historical significance now, it must have been infinitely harder for those living at the time, in the “blindness of the moment,” as it were.
Even those who stood at the very brink of a new dawn must have suffered grave doubts, must have struggled to see beyond the immediate, to comprehend a world that might be turned entirely upside down.
Imagine living a century... a decade... even a few years before Martin Luther’s Reformation... before the words “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union...” appeared in the United States Constitution... before the Berlin Wall came crashing to the ground, liberating tens of millions of impoverished human beings...
Not only did these events shape the world around them at the time... they have come to forge the political landscape of the human experience ever after.
Which brings us to today...
Man, Economy & State
Ever since man first conceived the notion of the modern nation state, he has wrestled with the inextricable tension between such concepts and ideals as liberty vs. security... natural law vs. governmental decree... the unalienable rights and freedoms of the individual vs. the infinite and tireless claims of the collective...
In the balance, and at the ballot box, it was often the tyranny of the mobjority that prevailed... and the political elites who made out with the spoils.
Perhaps no land on earth has such a destructive tendency been more apparent than right here in Argentina, down at the very end of the world.
For three-quarters of a century, the Argentine citizens have watched as the parasitic political class feasted on the nation’s vast riches.
Since Juan Perón’s victory, back in 1946, the socialist Perónists have prevailed in 10 out of the 14 elections held. During that period, the nation has gone from being one of the wealthiest on the planet... to one of the poorest.
Before Sr. Perón came to power, Argentina’s economy was richer than South Korea, Norway, Chile, Ireland and Germany. Only a handful of western powers were more favorable positioned, economically.
But by 2000, after half a century under the Perónist regime, 28% of the population was living in poverty.
Today, four in ten Argentines find themselves mired in poverty... with one in ten (4.6 million people) suffering what’s called “extreme poverty,” unable to even afford to eat.
It is of course no coincidence that the growth of the state mirrors almost exactly the relentless plight of the middle and working class people.
At the turn of the 20th Century, the Argentine government consumed 25% of the nation’s total GDP.
Two decades later, by 2020, that figure was 40%.
And by the time world-weary Argentine voters went to the polls a couple of months ago, their bloated administrative state had grown to consume no less than 45% of the entire nation’s total economic output.
Then something phenomenal happened... something I’m calling the greatest political experiment of our time.
“Viva La Libertad, Carajo!”
When I first began writing about Señor Javier Milei in these pages, almost 18 months ago, he was not yet even considered a political outsider.
In fact, among those in the capital’s “cocktail class,” he was barely considered a clown. The “political caste” scoffed at him... the media mocked him... the celebrities jeered and shook their empty heads.
Still, I recognized the power of Milei’s ideas... ideas that I had been writing about and studying since I first moved here, back in 2010. That is to say...
Austrian School economics... Anarcho-capitalism... Voluntarism... Decentralization... Free Markets...
... in a word, Liberty.
When I spoke to people here in Argentina, these ideas seemed to resonate in a way that people in other countries – countries that were not as far gone as this one – found unintelligible, even offensive.
They hadn’t gone “Full Argentina” yet. (Just wait...)
But the people down here at the end of the world... squashed under three-quarters of a century of misery and statist quo... understood something was afoot. And once Sr. Milei’s ideas began to take hold, I knew there would be no stopping them.
As the great French novelist, Victor Hugo, once proclaimed:
“Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come.”
Here was a man, standing in front of a broken nation, echoing the philosophy of Friedrich Hayek, Ludwig von Mises and Murray Rothbard, among other luminaries well outside the prevailing, groupthink majority.
And what did these men have to say about government, about the administrative state, about social justice, collectivism, equity and all the rest?
I do not think it is an exaggeration to say history is largely a history of inflation, usually inflations engineered by governments for the gain of governments.
~ Friedrich HayekThe worship of the state is the worship of force. There is no more dangerous menace to civilization than a government of incompetent, corrupt, or vile men. The worst evils which mankind ever had to endure were inflicted by governments.
~ Ludwig von MisesThe State is, and always has been, the great single enemy of the human race, its liberty, happiness, and progress. ~ Murray Rothbard
And so, wielding his trademark chainsaw...
...and proclaiming his trademark slogan, “Viva la libertad, carajo!” (Long live liberty, damnit!)
... Milei promised to hack back the wretched overgrowth of the Peronist Leviathan, to oust the socialist political caste and to return the riches and opportunities of the nation to her hard-working people.
It was an idea whose time had come.
Hearing the message of liberty, as echoed through the voice of one political outsider, the Argentine voters decided to embark on the greatest political experiment of our time.
Milei won in a landslide not seen since the country was returned to democracy forty years ago.
The Road to Freedom
I know of no modern democracy, certainly none of this size, that has voluntarily decided to so dramatically repeal the insatiable growth of the administrative state.
The results, even in this very early stage, are nothing short of breathtaking.
Within 48 hours of taking office, Sr. Milei’s administration had...
... slashed the number of government ministries from 18 to 9...
... ended all state funding for media outlets...
... halted all public infrastructure projects not already underway...
... abolished entire divisions and subdivisions of the vast, administrative state...
... ended all fuel and energy subsidies...
... quashed meddlesome import/export regulations...
... and put tens of thousands of government workers, whom he calls the “political caste,” on notice.
And this is just the beginning.
Of course, there are many challenges ahead for Sr. Milei, and no shortage of enemies in the entrenched political caste who have had their rice bowls broken.
But Milei has been frank with the people. “There is no money,” he told supporters at his inauguration in front of the Congresso building downtown three weeks ago.
There is likely to be years of pain, as he has acknowledged, a hangover from the exorbitant money-printing undertaken by the previous administrations (which saw local peso inflation soar to an eye-watering ~200% per annum this year...)
But now that the “freedom genie” is out of the bottle... now that citizens have hope where they once had despair... I find myself with a front row seat to the greatest political experiment in our lifetimes.
And I want to invite you to join me for the show...
Notes from the End of the World
If you’ve been reading my work for a while, you know I seldom go out of my way to avoid the hot button socio-political topics of the day.
At Notes From the End of the World, I’ll actively seek them out...
Culture wars... the mutilation of our language... so-called “social justice”... the mission creep of the state... DEI and wokeism...the bought-and-paid-for mainstream press... and so much more…
It’s not only that I enjoy the gentlemanly pastime of full contact editorial... I also happen to think there’s a lot at stake here.
Your political independence... your philosophical independence... even your geographic independence...
... all are matters of pressing importance that will come into high relief in the pages of Notes from the End of the World, buttressed of course with literary references and deep reading from the classical texts.
The aim of Notes From the End of the World is to help you preserve and maximize your non-financial assets. Your time. Your independence. Your liberty.
If I’m right, and we’re witnessing the greatest political experiment of our age up close and in real time... the ramifications are going to be existential in nature for governments around the world.
Not only are free citizens near and far watching what’s unfolding here in Argentina... but politicians are taking note, too, as are their deep state overlords and their sniveling lackeys in the mainstream media.
If a full scale rebuke of collectivist ideology is possible here... in one of the most corrupt, entrenched governmental apparatuses on the planet... they understand it’s possible anywhere.
Please join me for your front row seats to the greatest political experiment of our time, right here...
As a Notes from the End of the World subscriber, you can expect twice weekly musings from the end of the world, plus members-only conversations with best-selling authors, political philosophers, classicists and independent thinkers around the world on our brand new podcast.
A new year is nigh... and a new dawn beckons. The revolution is here, dear reader.
Joel Bowman
Founder, Notes from the End of the World
P.S. As a special thank you, Notes From the End of the World readers will also be able to download both of my novels, Morris, Alive and Night Drew Her Sable Cloak. Here’s our friend and fellow anarcho-capitalist, Doug Casey:
“Full of witty dialogue, sound philosophical meditations and memorable scenes. Joel's prose style, characters and plot development simply belong to a more graceful era.”
Unfashionable as it sounds, I believe aesthetics stands at the very foreground of the culture wars currently raging across western academies. As such, I aim to take back truth and beauty, one book at a time. Download both novels (and more to come...) from the members page, today.