Decentralists or D.C. Centralists?rnOverthrowing the Tyranny of LiberaHsmrnby Donald W. LivingstonrnAs we approach the end of this century, and indeed of a millennium,rnthere is more than the usual tendency to reflectrnon things human and divine. One thing we should ponder isrnthat the 20th century, often praised as the most enlightened,rnprogressive, and humane period in history, has in fact been thernmost barbarous. World War I resulted in over eight millionrnbattle deaths (more than were killed in the two preceding centuriesrnof “civilized” warfare in Europe). World War II confoundedrnthe distinction between soldiers and civilians, yieldingrnover 50 million deaths. But worse than this would be the numberrnof people killed by their own governments in the name ofrnglobal ideologies of universal human emancipation. In his importantrnbook Death by Government, R.J. Rummel estimatesrnthat the Soviets alone killed some 62 million people underrntheir jurisdiction. From 1900 until today, nearly four times asrnmany people have been killed by their own governments asrnhave been killed in all wars, foreign and domestic.rnThis destruction would not have been possible without thernunprecedented concentration of power available to modernrnstates. Had Hitler and Stalin been 18th-century monarchs,rnthey could not have murdered millions because they wouldrnnot have had the authority to mobilize the necessar)’ resources.rnThey would have been hedged in by powerful independentrnsocial authorities (the Church, the nobility, and provincialrnpowers) whose authority, in their sphere, was as good as thernmonarchs’ and who could be expected to resist. The czar, forrnexample, from 1825 to 1905 executed an average of only 17rnDonald W. Livingston is a professor of philosophy at EmoryrnUniversity and the author, most recently, of PhilosophicalrnMelancholy and Delirium: Hume’s Pathology of Philosophy.rnpeople a year. With the collapse of the monarchy and all independentrnsocial authorities, large-scale corporate resistance vanished,rnand Leirin and Stalin could murder millions.rnThe French Revolution gave birth to the first truly modernrnstate. The storming of the Bastille revealed only seven inmates,rnnone of whom were political prisoners. The king, who wasrnwilling to become a constitutional monarch and who refusedrnto use force, was executed; the nobility, clerg’, provincial authorities,rnand an independent judiciar’ were eliminated. ThernFrench republic, in the name of the “rights of man,” seizedrnhalf a million political prisoners. Of these, 17,000 were executedrnwith trial; 12,000 without trial; and many died in prison.rnThe republic, for the first time in European histor)’, orderedrnuniversal male conscription. Wliereas the armies of the greatrnmonarchies had hovered around 190,000, the French republic,rnovernight, placed a million men in the field. By the end ofrnNapoleon’s reign, the republic had conscripted some threernmillion troops. Other European states imitated the French republic.rnAs a result of European imperialism, world wars, andrnglobal capitalism, most of the world was hammered into thernform of the modern state.rnUnivcralist liberalism views the destruction carried out inrnthe 20th centur)’ as the result of illiberal forms of government.rnWhat is overlooked is that liberalism itself first legitimated therndestruction of independent social authorities, transformingrnpeoples into masses and concentrating power to the center.rnThe French republic was the first modern state, the first governmentrnlegitimated by liberal ideology, and the first totalitarianrnregime.rnThe most important war of the 20th century was World WarrnI; World War II and the Cold War were simply its unresolvedrn16/CHRONICLESrnrnrn