The evolution of modern government

[Cornfed]

Here is my take on the situation.

In the pre-modern period in Europe, different places had their own traditional systems of law stretching back many centuries. In continental Western Europe they had Civil lLaw (not to be confused with civil vs. criminal law) which was derived from Roman Law. In England you had Common Law, which was based on the precedent set by English judges whose judgements originally stemmed from Anglo-Saxon tradition. This kind of thing is summed up in the phrase “Law of the land”.

An issue arose as trading between different nations became more common. The issue was how to resolve commercial disputes between people with allegiance to different systems of law, particularly those occurring at sea or in frontier territory that could be metaphorically though of as being the sea. The solution was for trading partners to enter into contracts under the aegis of an agreed upon authority to resolve any disputes. By their very nature, commercial contracts follow libertarian principles - legitimate interactions seen as voluntary transactions between atomised individuals or corporate entities, everyone being seen as equal, contracts being voluntary but once entered into being enforced using violence if necessary etc.

Because of this, Maritime Law, or “The law of the sea” became synonymous with Commercial Law. Since Britain became the world’s dominant naval power, British Admiralty Law, later called the Uniform Commercial Code, came to be the dominant commercial legal system. As the zeitgeist of the world changed from theocracy to manufacture and trade it was natural that this law of the sea would begin to encroach on and eventually supplant the law of the land. So for example, crimes such as murder, which had previously been seen as going against the will of God, became seen by the powers that be as essentially interference with commercial enterprise.

That is where we are now. “Governments” are not really governments at all, but rather a set of private corporations and their employees that enter into and carry out contracts with other corporations. These exist under the framework of the parent system of law, which in the Anglosphere is English Common Law. When your parents get you a birth certificate they are agreeing on your behalf to the creation of a corporation called SURNAME GIVEN NAMES which is why that form of name in all caps appears on your identification. This corporation, which you are responsible to, is contracted to obey the corporate policies, i.e statutes, of another corporation such as the New Zealand Government or Commonwealth of Australia or whatever. You affirm this contract by getting a social security number or tax number or similar. Hence we live in a libertarian/an-cap world of voluntary commercial contracts and this is what it looks like.