Social media and politics

Last month, I was one of three speakers in a lecture sponsored by UP Sapul, one of my three student organizations in UP Diliman in the 80s.

Creating political awareness for less/minimal (not zero) government, free market and individual freedom

Free market – free trade, voluntary exchange, zero to little government intervention in many sectors of the economy. More individual freedom, personal and civil society responsibility.

*  3 types of free marketers:

(1) Anarchist – zero state authority, zero central (and local?) government,

      citizens’ self-government by voluntary organizations and individuals.

(2) Minarchist – small or minimal government, function is mainly to enforce the rule of law, protect the citizens against aggression, their right to private property, right  to liberty.

(3) “Minimax” – one side advocates minarchy, another side advocates more government, more or higher taxes. Confused free marketers.

  

NOT advocating “good governance” under a BIG government

* Advocacy is limited, minimal governance – small government, small and few taxes, few regulations and prohibitions.

* NOT good governance of a big, intrusive, prohibitionist and tax-hungry government. Like “No business, no job creation allowed unless entrepreneurs will first get the signatures and permits of regulators and officials, dozens of permits.”

* Free society: everything is allowed except for a few prohibitions:
No murder, No abduction, No rape, No stealing, No destruction of private property, etc. Drugs, alcohol, gambling, etc allowed so long as none of the NOs mentioned is committed.

* Unfree society: everything is NOT allowed except with government permits. Driving your car, putting up a business, building a house, renovating a house or office, having a pet, etc. – all of them require permits. Relatively easy to comply yet, but moving towards more complicated, more costly permits.

Concluding notes

* Social media provides information competition. Along the lines of anti-oligopoly, anti-central planning and centralized thought conditioning. Even the most well-thought lies and propaganda cannot succeed if they are not shared in social media. Seemingly ordinary fb posts that become viral, shared 5k+, 10k+ and reaching out to tens or hundreds of thousands of readers. (Talo pa ang maraming newspaper stories or columns)

* The free market system can guarantee this type of information competition. Not central planning and big, interventionist government.

* Big challenge now is how a creeping PH dictatorship with little respect for human rights and international rule of law can be countered by vigilant citizens through social media.

Below, the two other speakers were Marielle "Yeng" Marcaida (to my left, white dress) and USC Councilor _____ (sorry, forgot her name; beside Yeng).

The 13-slides presentation is here.