On a recent podcast with Microsoft founder Bill Gates, two-time OpenAI CEO Sam Altman suggested that a “global regulatory body” was needed to monitor artificial intelligence. This is a colossally dumb idea. But Mr. Gates doubled down: “If the key is to stop the entire world from doing something dangerous, you’d almost want global government.” Wait, global what? Mr. Altman responded, “That feels possible to me.” Oh no. In fact, of his 2023 world tour meeting heads of state, Mr. Altman noted, “there was almost universal support for it.” Well of course there was. Demand for power is insatiable. (Microsoft is a major investor in OpenAI.)
Governments don’t like to govern, but they like to control. Human freedom always takes a back seat. I’m reminded of something P.J. O’Rourke told me in 2009: “Think about the kid-has-to-put-a-hockey-helmet-on-to-answer-the-phone society we live in now. Government is filled with people who come and tell you that everything you do is bad for you, bad for other people, insensitive, divisive, harms the climate, unsustainable, leaves too large a carbon footprint, tangles things in the tuna nets that shouldn’t be tangled in them. Whatever. They’ve always got some reason to tell you what to do.”
Why? “Government is just a form of bullying for weaklings,” O’Rourke said. “Politics is the art of achieving power and prestige without merit.” Bingo.
Adam Smith wrote in “The Theory of Moral Sentiments” (1759) that government bureaucrats think they “can arrange the different members of a great society with as much ease as the hand arranges the different pieces upon a chessboard.” But Smith notes on “the great chessboard of human society, every single piece has a principle of motion of its own.” Freedom.
The more you look, the less government can be trusted. Anthony Fauci foisted the 6-foot social-distancing requirement on all of us during the pandemic. How did he come up with 6 feet? Science? Dr. Fauci now admits it “sort of just appeared.” What else has been pulled out of thin air?
The problem with government is that the people in power, especially presidents, become the single point of failure.
