Malignant Body Politic

"I hate to tell you this, but it's a bankrupt business model. It won't work. It's systemic, malignant...and it's global. Like cancer."
--Gordon Gekko (Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps)

Jacob Hornberger proposes three malignant tumors infecting the American body politic:

Regulated society. Slowest growing of the three tumors, regulations manipulate and control people's otherwise peaceful behavior. Because people can learn how to cope with its debilitating effects, regulation impoverishes and destroys over long periods of time.

Welfare state. Socialist programs such as Social Security and Medicare start out slowly but its aggressiveness accelerates over time to reach a size that can take society down quickly. As the tumor grows, resources required to feed it require borrowing and debt. When the debt becomes too large to pay back, money is debased to extend the tumor's life. A chaos endpoint is only a matter of time.

Warfare state. In JH's view, this is the worst tumor of all. This cancer generates forces that convince people that the warfare state is necessary to preserve life and liberty. Even though the tumor is destroying society, people feel that they have to embrace militarism in order to protect against external dangers that the tumor itself produces.

Like personal medical situations, when diagnosed with these cancers, society collectively goes into denial. People become angry and refuse to believe that they are sick, arguing that these three pathologies are actually healthy and life-nurturing attachments to society.

As every cancer patient learns, however, denial of reality does not change reality. The diagnosed are facing immenent death.