“A society of sheep must in time beget a government of wolves.” (Edmund Burke) According to Liz Dodd’s “My Turn” article from the Wednesday’s Empire, we should embrace our government. Also in her article, Dodds extols the virtue of bringing your own bags to the store. Fine, I have no problem with that — go for it. What I do object to is her “love letter” to the government begging it to help her become a better person. Really? Does she not understand that the government is made up of flawed humans, who in time become corrupt and greedy from their power? Dodds also pleaded with the local government to “rescind this silly plastic bag tax voter’s initiative,” and was disappointed when the Assembly didn’t flat-out pass the initiative without the people’s input. I wonder how Dodds would feel if the government passed a law she didn’t agree with, like forcing everyone to have a gun in their home and practice shooting it once a week.
Dodds believes that we should welcome the government into our lives. Her following statement truly made me apoplectic; “When we Americans set ourselves off against our government, we abdicate the main means we possess of controlling our own fate.” Actually, its quite the opposite. Dodds might do well to heed the words of George Washington; “Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force! Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.
Marcy File
Juneau
Comments (10)
Add commentTaxed Enough Already
Here, here Ms. File! I could not have said it better myself. Did we not start with the plastic bags because paper bags were depleting the forests? We should go back to paper at least it is biodegradable and would provide jobs for loggers and bring resource revenue into our cities instead of taxing the already overtaxed citizens.
A wise and frugal Government,
A wise and frugal Government, which shall retrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.
Thomas Jefferson
Man, if I could dredge up
Man, if I could dredge up quotes or soundbites instead of making arguments, I'd have it made! Or I'd be unable to think for myself. One of those.
In reality, the purpose of government IS to make us better people. It is a way of providing social order so that people don't act and react with reckless abandon, so that we all get along in our society and have options for recourse should we feel slighted. It has also, since the times of Cyrus II and Asoka (and likely before), been responsible for developing infrastructure, encouraging the arts and sciences, and providing services for its subjects.
If you want to know how to create an oppressive government, though, it usually involves giving one person or a small number of people a ton of power, and putting them in charge of a bunch of people with guns.
Government is NOT the problem
The government is we ourselves - we create it and must control it. Government is supposed to ‘govern’ for the benefit of all. Problems arise when too much power is controlled by special interests, which then uses that power to favor and enrich itself at everyone else’s expense.
Government is NOT the problem (in spite of Rick Perry’s claims), but that we have let special interests gain control. The solution is not to kill government, but to regain control. And, that takes effort by those wise enough to see the problem - and the solution.
Pers...
I love how you say that, social order. That could otherwise be phrased as control. Well, we know where you stand.
FYI, if people didn't have guns, there would be no final recourse against a corrupt government with a military.
Olenorsk, very good comments.
I'm not against government, I am however against the current status quo. I am against oversized government. I am against campaign contributions from the corporate realm. I am against campaign contributions from unions. I am against government funding business as it leads to corruption which is rampant in both parties. I am against the federal government strong arming state governments removing their State Sovereignty. I am also against the two controling political parties fighting the formation of new political parties and keeping them off the ballots. Fixing these issues would be a great start in getting a handle on government.
That's right, wren. It is
That's right, wren. It is control. The government prevents (or attempts to prevent) you from stealing, from taking revenge on others for perceived wrongs, from driving on the wrong side of the street, from dumping your trash wherever you choose, etc.
So yes, it is a form of control. A society without these control mechanisms is an anarchist society, and while I absolutely adore anarchist thought, it's about as viable as communism in that it only works in small communities full of willing participants.
Also, as to guns: get real. The idea that we need guns to keep the government in check is a redneck fantasy. If the government decides to use its military force to oppress us, what good do you think your semi-legal AK-47 is going to be against a Comanche helicopter armed with smart bombs, or an Abrams tank, or a cruise missile, or a AEGIS cruiser, or a B-2 bomber, or any of the other military hardware we have?
The irony is that people who promote "small government" to prevent it from oppressing us are largely the same people who also fetishize the military, the arm of government that typically does the oppressing.
Pers...
Actually Pers, I'm going to remove what I originally had posted here. You're not worth arguing with.
I would like to suggust you move to a socialist country since that is where your heart is. You have no sense of patriotism, no sense of freedom, no sense of what the US Constitution stands for and no sense of personal responsibility. You are the definition of socialist, no longer worth my time.
I frankly don't care if
I frankly don't care if you're a veteran or not. The fact that you think having been in the military (which, contrary to popular belief, is not a sacrifice unless you've been conscripted--it's a job that you get paid and receive benefits for, like any other) makes you better than me is probably the most un-American view you can have.
It's good to know you believe some animals are more equal than others, though.
And no, everyone's AK-47s would not fend off the evil government forces. It's pure fantasy. The most powerful military force in the world could easily subdue a bunch of uncoordinated, poorly trained citizens. This kind of paranoia is 100% irrational.
p says government's purpose
p says government's purpose is "providing services for its subjects".
That right there says it all. When you think of citizens as "subjects" freedom is gone.
And by the way, you show what a small man you are by your disrespect for our military. I feel sorry for you.
what a sideshow!
I don't know what's more pathetic---The self-proclaimed "patriots" pounding their chests over intangible accomplishments from the comforts of anonymity, some dividing line they're desperately searching for to separate themselves from those they refuse to agree with; or those who have been corn-holed into arguing that government will actually save us from anything, especially ourselves.
As has been pointed out, documents like the Constitution are merely agreements which We the People made with ourselves at the time, through whatever intermediaries decided to show up. I seem to remember reading about efforts to leave out certain populist firebrands, and then having to rehash the omission, after an uprising or three, with the Bill of Rights---But hey, nobody's perfect, especially a bunch of people cobbling together a government.
The tragedy is that we've been successfully divided and conquered already, squabbling over things like plastic bags and anything else under the sun, while the Powers-That-Be do what they want; exercising control over the world's resources and the health of our ecosystems and renewables, every bit as much as the control they exert over the world's governments, with little or no accountability.
Our government has become a sock puppet for multi-national corporate interests: Two hands arguing in useless deadlock while the mind that guides them both strives unceasingly for the same goal---Control of the world's resources and the labor necessary to turn those resources into wealth.
Obama's no different in this respect from any other president, all the sometimes-entertaining hollering about socialism aside---He continues to feed platitudes to his base while keeping the reins off industry as much as possible, bending to the oil companies and the banks to the point of embarrassment.
I'm going to laugh my but off if we end up going back to a good ol' boy from texas, though...Hopefully it'll be a wake-up call if we do---That we're being played off against each other like pawns in a game of control, while the principles of democracy get ground underfoot.
Love our government? I think you missed the point of Ms Dodd's letter; that we are, or should be, our government. Fortunately we still have that in writing, if nothing else.
Jamison Paul