CRITIQUE OF VIOLENCE

Studying causes of surge in violence in India recently

Lalgargh seige, Punjab burns over Vienna shootout, Jammu/Kashmir Amarnath land row, Lawyers violence in Chennai court, Nandigram, B'lore mob-stoning over Rajkumar's death, JP cement factory in my village smashed after people had conflict with the management.
Issues are not new, response in the form of mob-violence is.
Whats the fundamental cause?

Liberalization: No doubt 1990 was a +ve turn of events. Congress is still reaping middle class votes. But how did it have the other side-effect and why?
In socialist India, state was the only provider. Of jobs, infrastructure, even bread and ration, education and so on. Inefficient,yes.
....and also it was the occasional oppressor. But coercive monopolies and limited exposure to the western world did not allow any substantial comparison. Therefore, common man was grateful for whatever little he was provided for. And ignored long term grudge of some spurts in state oppression like emergency. Then there was more subtle and brutal oppression in the form of huge taxes on businesses and license-kota raj.

What happened post 1990? Legacy PSUs remained, but were competing with more efficient private players.
So what was the interpretation by the contemporary intellectuals, of the prosperity private players brought....
Lack of state interference brings freedom, they said. Freedom equates to efficiency. Efficiency brings productivity and eventual prosperity.
Why a set of individuals with similar intelligence succeeded spectacularly in private enterprises, while government enterprises faded?
They never tried to answer basic question, what makes a free enterprise efficient?

As there was this doubt, that grew into uneasiness and further into the feeling of antagonism. Also, the intellectuals never answered another fundamental question, if private enterprise is efficient, why we need government?
Therefore, what we see today is increasingly violent culture that refuses to distinguish between state and statism. Infact, it refuses to recognize reason for laws and rules. These to them are arbitrary whims. And since ethical roots to political freedom(liberty that is) were never provided...
Lack of respect for even genuine rules in the name of freedom is now impacting private sector as well. Corporate scams like Satyam and breaches involving delay or suspension of payroll by mid-sized companies. Also there is a culture - from teenage to adolescence - that considers any attempt to penalize the irrational behavior(howsoever erratic) as an attack on his/ her freedom.
Therefore, lets try to understand why we need Government and Laws.

Man, unlike animals, to survive and excel requires long term planning.
At any given day, his current state is the condensation of what he has done in all preceding days. He may have spent energy in earning savings and investing it on property. Learning skills for the project he is doing now. Courtship of his current spouse. These achievements through years of industriousness, require unflinching mental and physical effort. Effort that identifies, creates and sustains value.
Therefore, physical force ought to be disallowed from his interactions with other people. Physical force leading into direct threat to life, liberty, property and pursuit of ones goals. And a single breach can ruin years of work he has put in. Naturally therefore, everybody has a right to self-defense.
But such right cannot be governed by individual's opinion(correct or mistaken). If it were so, anyone against whom injustice has been done, will acquire right to punish anybody and everybody he suspects, rightly or wrongly. Anarchy, as is seen these days, will be the consequence.

Therefore, there is a need for a SINGLE AUTHORITY, to which individuals living in a geographical location delegate their right to self-defence.(Having no single authority in a given area will again cause mob-rule of "might is right" and anarchy). That authority needs to have an objective criteria for defining breaches to individual freedom, and a clear definition of actions to be taken(Including clauses limiting its own powers to breach individual rights by initiating force or unpropotional response). That authority is what we call government. And the objective criteria containing corresponding actions is constitution and laws. Integrated to this setup is the mechanism of review of non-objective legislations.

In the economic activities of the contemporary complex society like ours, often the individuals need to enter into a contract to protect their interests in mutual trade. In such a situation, its in individual's interest to get the contract enforced. Then in case of breach(or wrong interpretations) by one of the party, appropriate proceedings can be initiated. Government, for the reasons mentioned, is an institution that has legal monopoly over the use of force.(Not initiation, but its appropriate retaliatory use in case defined individual rights are violated). Therefore its the only agency that can enforce the contract legally. But since it CANNOT INITIATE FORCE, therefore it cannot force individuals to get the contract registered for enforcement. Hence, it should be left upto the individuals to get the contract enforced legally. Enforcement of contract is the only link between government and Economic activity in a lassie-faire Capitalist society.

Capitalism is a system that upholds reason, rationality and individual ability. Therefore fundamental elements of religion(faith and irrationalism) and socialism(altruistic ideal of using individual for collective good against his choice) are incompatible with such a society. But removing these elements, without providing a correct substitute has only resulted in a culture dominated by irrational emotionalism and anything goes subjectivist mentality.
Right is NOT ABSENCE OF wrong. Discovery of Right system required Huge intellectual effort through tri-millenia and bloody wars last century. So lets endeavor to identify, recognize, value, create, uphold and strengthen a political system that subordinates RIGHT TO MIGHT.