Minor Issues Nothing Good Starts at the Top
Nov 1, 2025
Mark Thornton argues for bottom-up reform, using Hayek's insights to critique elite-driven drug policies. He highlights how grassroots movements have propelled cannabis legalization, contrasting local initiatives with state impositions. The discussion covers the failures of prohibition and the importance of property rights enforcement. Thornton emphasizes the role of collaboration in innovation and how non-enforcement can spark change. Ultimately, he advocates for markets and civil society as forces for integration and positive progress.
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Great Things Bubble Up From Society
- Major innovations and cultural achievements emerge from many people experimenting and failing over time.
- Top-down claims of state-driven greatness ignore the decentralized chain of contributors behind progress.
Why Top-Down Power Produces Harm
- Hayek's warning that "the worst get to the top" explains why state action often causes harm.
- Thornton uses prohibition to show how top-down policies produce negative outcomes and distort society.
Prohibition Targeted Marginalized Groups
- Early 20th-century prohibitions targeted minorities and immigrants under progressive reformers' banner.
- Thornton ties laws like the Harrison Act, 18th Amendment, and 1937 Marijuana Tax Act to social control motives.
