The Free Market Mechanism–Abortion Is Now A Traded Commodity

Liberals are exercised over the recent Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v Wade, turning the divisive issue back to the electorate.  The decision does not outlaw abortion, but simply allows states through the democratic process to decide whether or not and to what degree abortion services should be permitted.  Rule by judicial fiat is no longer acceptable.

The decision was not surprisingly criticized by the Left on civil rights grounds.  The pro-choice argument was based on imputed social values.  A woman’s body is inviolate and hers alone; and the interests of men are irrelevant.  Issues of morality were dismissed as prejudicial to women’s social and political integrity.  The debate on the nature and origins of life was clotured, abortion became ‘settled’, and those who objected were marginalized, ignored, or dunned.

However Constitutional originalists like Justice Alioto and former Justice Scalia, political conservatives, and religious adherents all applauded the decision.  Roe had been wrongly decided and based on subjective, politically-influenced interpretations of the Constitution; and thus an unpopular ruling was imposed on the people by fiat.  Morality was at the heart of the abortion debate, not a minor issue.  Injunctions against abortion were universal and found in all major religions.  The principle of the sanctity of life was central to Hinduism and fundamental to Christian theology.  Roe was political interference in the democratic process par excellence.

Now that Roe has been overturned and the disposition of abortion services returned to the states, liberal states like California and New York will do a land office business, becoming the country’s new abortion mills.  Private industry, eager to keep sledding behind the progressive sleigh, is already offering to pay for employees’ out-of-state abortions.  Fund-raisers, volunteer organizations, and non-profit agencies are already gearing up to provide rides, per diems, and costs to defray the cost of abortion procedures for those who cannot afford them. Manufacturers and retailers of Plan B abortifacient pills are gearing up for bigtime sales.  

Liberal states can crow victory and welcome women who have been deprived of their civil rights.  Legislators can count on solid electoral support for their progressive stance, and encouraged by such voter patronage, can vote taxpayer-generated funds for nominal or free abortions. 

The free market is not just an economic mechanism, but operates in all sectors of civil society.  At its heart is the idea of trading, valuation, and contractual conditions.  Every institution from marriage to government is subject to supply and demand.  Parity, equality, and justice are based principally on economic balance.  The best marriages are those that have worked out the intricacies of sexual balance, economic value, and the conditions of stability. Governments depend upon the social or public market for survival.  Too few taxes, too little investment, too little investment in public services, and unhappy electorate.  Too many taxes, too much inefficiency, too little return on investment, and the same result.

So, returning abortion to the states and the free market was a very American decision.  The Court did not rule on the rightness or wrongness of abortion, just that like every other social issue, it should be debated in the public arena, and supply and demand sorted out just as it continues to be in every other sphere of civic life.

There is no rights or wrongs about immigration.  After all, America was built upon it; but there are limits to it, and the current debate over the abused rights of Central American refugees versus the wholescale opportunism of those simply want the bounty of El Norte is essential.  Issues of labor cost, taxpayer expenditures, and the very nature of an increasingly heterogeneous society losing its foundational principles cannot be ignored.  In a restricted way, the free market worked admirably before the Biden open door policy.  When the economy of Mexico dramatically improved while that of the US stagnated, there was a reverse migration.  When the US economy picked up and labor shortages occurred, more migrants sought work here.

Given the natural ebb and flow of economics, politics, and society, it is always surprising how much energy is spent on true belief, absolute causes, and unrealistic expectations of permanence when market forces, be they purely economic or neutral arbiters of power, influence and share, are so reliable.  Social interventionism is as faulty as a command economy.  The laws of supply and demand, governing as they do all enterprise without comment or personal preference are the best ways of avoiding dissension, division, and conflict. 

Yet the howls of outrage against this policy or that are heard incessantly.  Things must change, social reformers cry, nothing can be left to chance, there is no such thing as value neutrality, and the free market is nothing but a capitalist tool for oppression and monopoly.

It is only within recent memory that there have been so many initiatives to recalibrate behavior, to reject what have been millennia of unchanged and unchallenged social givens, and attempt to create a new, more ‘inclusive’, representative version of moral, sexual, and social behavior.  Identity politics according to which one’s race, gender, and ethnicity are the only descriptors of any merit in assessing value will soon go by the board in the inevitable flow of variable, relative values.  There is nothing to indicate that transgender reconfiguration of natural sexual identity will ever last more than any other politically-driven idea; or that gay marriage – an oxymoron given its lack of procreation and the centrality of male-female dynamics within the family – will persist as a civil and moral right. 

Society will act and react accordingly.  The current reconfiguration of traditional, natural law sexual identity will be accepted by some, rejected by others, disputed and debated, arguments made for and against its costs and benefits until the issue is settled – only temporarily of course, but at least a pause in the drumbeat.

One would have thought that the recent Supreme Court decision would be welcomed by Americans used to and enjoying the fruits of the free market.  Abortion is still available, accessible, and affordable.  Private abortion clinics, liberal politicians, and dyed-in-the-wool progressives will all benefit as abortion simply becomes a traded commodity subject to supply and demand with some who prosper and others who do not; but all according to a fair, unmediated, value-neutral mechanisms.

The market depends on countervailing forces and competition just as predictably as Darwinian evolution; so it is good that those presenting opposing arguments do so forcefully.  It is another thing altogether to become passionate, driven, and emotionally disturbed by opposing arguments.  Since even a cursory look at history shows that as Buddhists have always known, ‘there is no change but change’.  The only absolutely proven and conclusive fact about human evolution is that it is constantly and permanently changing.

By extension, the only consistent, universal behavioral pattern since the first settlements is the free market, the only neutral, fair, and egalitarian arbiter of value.  Evolution has rewarded not fanatics, but moderates; not true believers, but rationalists; not the purposeful, but the opportunistic.

And so it should be with abortion.  It’s still there as it has always been, just in a new configuration, one of many to come.

Abortion, The Court, And The End Of Roe v Wade – Progressive Angst Over An Unpleasant Truth

The Supreme Court of the United States has just (6/22) overturned Roe v Wade, the landmark decision guaranteeing the right to abortion that stood for over sixty years.  The Court decided that Roe was wrongly decided – that there was no such right either stated or implied in the Constitution; and that decisions regarding abortion must be those made by the people through the electoral process alone. Abortion by fiat will no longer be the law of the land.

Progressives who had applauded Roe for its acknowledgement of women and their particularly cherished rights had always viewed abortion as a simple expression of civil justice.  They ignored the protests of many who decried the decision and who insisted that the issue of abortion was far more than one of secular legitimacy.  Roe’s dismissal of the moral dimensions of abortion would eventually lead to its rejection.  

Now that these critics were proved right, progressives were apoplectic.  The Court’s decision, they said, was a blow against the integrity of women, returned them to second-class status, took away dominion over their bodies, and strengthened the hand of white, male supremacists.

The Court itself, the handmaiden of these malignant forces, should  be either dismantled or packed with the righteous.  Ignorant, misogynist rulings should never again occur.

Progressives of course have been up in arms forever over perceived insult, injury, and abuse.  The very nature of progressive liberalism is righteous indignation and outrage, a passionate feeling which has given the movement and those within it identity, meaning, and comfort.  

The more progressive causes espoused and promoted, the more comforting the welcome, the more secure the belonging, and the happier the outlook.

When commitment turns passionate, logic disassembles, deteriorates, and disappears. Whereas there might be some rational take in one’s first cause, it quickly evaporates thereafter.  The conclusion that women are the victims of misogynist, opportunist men makes it easy to automatically and instinctively believe in the absolute certainty of the pernicious racism that exists within every white man and woman; or of the absolute destruction of the planet; or the perpetual, pernicious corruption of Wall Street.  

One emotional cause folds into each successive one until the great ball of causes becomes bigger and bigger, gaining momentum, rolling hither and thither, finally losing its way.

A lot has been written about conspiracy theories and why so many people subscribe to them.  The Freudian school sees ego and superego conflicts ending in external resolution (aliens, Armageddon).  Social psychologists feel that the resort to unproven and improvable theories is a result of alienation, a lack of empowerment, and the loss of a sense of entitlement. Cognitive theorists suggest that those who believe in strange, improbable happenings simply have loose wiring in their hippocampus; and behaviorists predicate a loss of lack of reason on repeated illogical reinforcement.

While all these theories are reasonable, there has been no effective treatment for what is distinct type of mental disorder. What hope is there for people who believe that the Soviets are behind the universal fluoridation of American drinking water because fluoride has a mind-addling quality that increases receptivity to Marxist-Leninism? Is there anyone who doubts that the one-in-seven Americans who believe that Armageddon is coming within our lifetime belong in St Elizabeth’s?  We simply have to live with them, roll our eyes as one loose-limbed theory after another rolls through the Internet, and take the dark side of American exceptionalism along with the light.

Most progressives do not start off as conspiracists but as true believers in reasonable causes.  They are ardent environmentalists who fight tirelessly for clean water, clean air, and a nuclear-free environment ; or believe that women had enough ‘bumps on the noggin’ after so much banging the glass ceiling and joined women’s groups, academic caucuses, feminist associations, and the progressive wing of the Chamber of Commerce.

Good progressives are for equal-pay-for-equal-work, taking Walmart, Target, and other big box stores to task for their meager benefits and pitiful wages; become officers of Save Our Parks. For them the decline of rockfish and local oysters in the Chesapeake Bay is a tragedy that must be stopped.  As far as the granddaddy of social causes – Global Warming – they are as committed and tireless as Rachel Carson.

As reasonable and popular as these causes might be, if one were to look at progressives through the various cognitive, behavioral, and Freudian lenses referred to above, they would be no different than any conspiracy theorist. When disaggregated into component pieces, each cause itself is an expression of an American can-do idealism and a belief in progress and secular salvation.  

Adherence to any one of the many social movements popular today would be no more than a happy confluence of humanism, idealistic illogic, and irrational exuberance. No harm done.

Taken as a whole, however, social activism becomes unhinged, adherents find they have no time for friends, family, or church.  There is no balance in one’s life; no proportionality.

Most social activists have chosen to work under a big tent, understanding as they do the principles of economies of scale and efficient management. Since global warming is a result of predatory capitalism; materialism, and venal self-interest; and since such self-serving institutions will ultimately bring the whole house down , all causes are welcome.  

Fighting against global warming as an integrated whole means that all progressive vendettas can be carried out under one aegis. If there were more women in power to keep male egos kept in check, the country would adopt a more nurturing and caring view of the planet.  If capitalism could be tamed and reformulated into a ‘dynamic socialism’ which tended to the poor and needy while harnessing the energy of small, family-owned enterprises. If Christian faith-based community action groups could be brought even more fully into the mainstream, then the fundamental generosity of Jesus Christ would finally be realized on earth.

In other words, one size fits all. Raise the banner of Global Warming and everyone will enter the tent of Women’s Rights, Fair Housing, and good benefits for all.

Some social activist newcomers are never tempted by the progressive big tent. They want no part of universal suffrage, grab bag of environmental or social party favors.  They want an undiluted, mainstreamed, full-bore charge of energy and decisiveness for each and every cause that they espouse, and because of this quasi-religious zeal, go around the bend.

Greg Harkins was one of the most respected leaders of the progressive movement in America and the one to whom all comers turned to for advice, counsel, and support.  He was a Big Tenter par excellence and devised ingenious financial instruments to centralize donor funds. Everyone with a gripe, whether it be against the One Percent, Wall Street, Walmart, or the XL Pipeline, contributed the The Global Warming Fund of America.  

Harkins was a PR genius who understood the wisdom of what he called ‘idea collectivization’. By identifying and stressing the links between the many and variegated progressive causes in America and proudly raising the Global Warming banner overall, he made millions. He was the best carny barker that America had ever produced.  “Come one, come all”, he shouted and pointed at the great multicolored circus tent behind him.  “Its all inside, my brothers and sisters.  Salvation for you and the world.”

Harkins, calculating how he could harness the indefatigable energy of newcomers and send them out with his forward legions into America, invited the most promising to the corporate headquarters of the Global Warming Fund. It was a ten-story warren of individual action committees, so numerous that an annotated Building Directory, complete with electronic interface capability was installed in the lobby.  

Everyone was reaching out to their constituencies but sharing facilities and benefitting from common photocopying operations, accounting services, and HR support.  Under Greg Harkins’ management, the Fund not only made millions for each group, but millions more in overhead and profit for the mother company.  Similarly, the stable of lawyers on the tenth floor developed and monitored sophisticated tax firewalls while the investment counselors on the ninth worked with Wall Street to confection the latest in financial instruments.  It was a goldmine.

One such pupil became his his acolyte and he quickly succumbed to every social and psychological force that turned him into a true believer, a laborer in the vineyards, a soldier in a crusading army.  He became a whirling dervish of social causes, not a bureaucrat.  

The moral of this story is that social causes are good for the mind, soul, and pocketbook.  History has amply shown that the world does not progress, that one execrable human event is always followed by another; one depredation of resources and wealth is always followed by another even more callous and ingenious.  Wars follow wars, deprivation follows plenty, floods follow drought, and the engine of human nature never loses steam.

If the evidence is so clear – that human activity hasn’t made the world a better place after ten millennia – then it isn’t likely to any time soon.  Investment in social causes, then, is counter-intuitive. Nietzsche and Dostoevsky’s Devil had the right idea – the expression of human will is the only possible validation of existence in a meaningless world.  In other words, stop going to Save the Bay meetings, and have some fun.  Or as importantly focus on your own spiritual evolution before it is too late.

Yet the crusade continues, the good fight never wanes, women must be protected, the planet must be saved, and progress towards Utopia accelerated.  

Overturning Roe v Wade, as heinous and execrable a decision as it is to progressives will not slow the juggernaut, will not dampen enthusiasm and in fact will generate even more passion and commitment.  

True belief is both self-fulfilling prophesy and Mobius strip, turning forever back on itself in an illusion of progress where each upside down turn becomes an accelerator.  Now the fight is not to retain the universal right to abortion, but to tear down the very institution that desecrated women – the Supreme Court.  The true believer has no setbacks, for every seeming reversal is nothing more than the reason for more concerted effort, more fire in the loins, more purpose, more anger, and more belief.

We are therefore at one of those interesting socio-political moment where multiple Mobius strips are providing platforms for inertia and energy for both conservatives and progressives.  The courts, public opinion, civic leadership is finally calling out progressive excess, while progressives are performing a St. Vitus’s dance in a final wild exhilarating panegyric.