So, Bernie wins the Nevada caucuses going away, featuring young people and Hispanics. Oh dear. And we thought Hispanics were sensible moderates. So they are, writes Steve Sailer, but

they tend to be kind of poorly informed and not that interested in politics, but basically open to voting themselves some benefits at other people’s expense in a no-hard-feelings but-this-is-good-for me-and-mine way that I don’t take personally either.

But really, why oh why are all those youngsters going again for the crazy Marxist dream? And why is the sensible Hispanic culinary union worker going for free everything?

Fortunately, I just found out by reading Mircea Eliade and his The Myth of the Eternal Return. I finally understand what he is talking about.

It’s really pretty simple. We humans cannot bear the truth of existence, that life is suffering “brought on by cosmic catastrophe (drought, flood, storm), by invasion (incendiarism, slavery, humiliation), by social injustice, and so on.”

We moderns cannot bear suffering either, because they are still gonna getcha, whether it’s through old age, the Rooskies, the Bernie Bros, the Islamic terrorists, or the Gay Mafia.

Yeah, whatabout the guy put away for 16 years for stealing and burning a Rainbow flag!

And if all that doesn’t scare you there is always the cosmic catastrophe of Climate Change.

Yes. We humans are afraid, afraid of what might happen, always have, and we look to prophets and politicians and Heroes to save us.

We are just like Falstaff in Henry IV, Part One, wishing the battle was over.

“I would ’twere bedtime, Hal, and all well.”

Don’t we all!

So all our religions and ideologies tell us that our all sufferings will soon be over. The Messiah will come and save the Jews. Believe in Jesus Christ and you will have eternal life. Let Barack Obama bend the arc of history towards justice and all will be Hope and Change.

And if you are a twentysomething with a man-bun and $100,000 in student debt and never had a job, Bernie will make it all right. Why wouldn’t you vote for him?

We all have our Faith. Some of us believe that Freedom will transform the world; others believe that a return to traditional virtue will solve our problems. The global elite thinks that the enlightened rule of supranational governance will release the world from the nightmare of nationalism. American Commoners believe that Trump will Keep America Great. Gentry liberals believe that intersectionality will heal our divisions.

Back in the day, according to Eliade, humans thought that suffering was brought on by

the magical action of an enemy, from breaking a taboo, from entering a baneful zone, from the anger of a god... The primitive... cannot conceive of an unprovoked suffering; it arises from a personal fault... or from his neighbor's malevolence... but there is always a fault at the bottom of it[.]

But that was way back, before modern science and Darwin. Now we believe that suffering is provoked by social injustice, greedy bankers, cruel employers, capital accumulation, and selfish billionaires grabbing more than their fair share. Or “haters.” I wonder what it is about haters. Are they evil spirits that cast a spell on helpless victims?

And failing that, there are those colluding Russians!

But don’t worry. Using their infallible knowledge about the arc of history our diversity and inclusion counsellors and progressive politicians will lead us to salvation. Just like in the old religions.

And I suppose that the notion of sacrificing billionaires to the government Molloch is no different than sacrificing a first-born son to the gods in the old days.

As for me, I fear the suffering that would come to me and mine with a Bernie presidency and the ascendancy of the Bernie Bros, one of whom took a shot at Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) back in 2017.

But I have a solution. I think that all Bernie Bros and Antifa members and Extinction Rebellion activists should be forced to recite my Four Laws twice a day.

1. Socialism cannot work because it cannot compute prices (Mises).
2. The administrative state cannot work because the Man in Washington does not have the bandwidth to run the economy (Hayek)
3. Regulation does not work because “regulatory capture” (Stigler).
4. Government programs cannot work because you can never reform them (Chantrill).

It’s odd how everyone wants to teach the other guys a lesson, wants the other guy to sacrifice so that they can be free of the anxiety of suffering.

But, for me it is different. Clearly, my plan to have those Bernie Bros recite my Four Laws would change their lives for the better and would keep their minds off assassination. Of course, it would be humiliating for them at first, but I am sure they would get over it and come to bless their tormentor.

Failing that, I suggest we teach the Bernie Bros a good lesson in November.

Christopher Chantrill @chrischantrill runs the go-to site on US government finances, usgovernmentspending.com. Also get his American Manifesto and his Road to the Middle Class.