There is no purpose for government outside of the protection and maintenance of the people. The concept of government grew out of hunter-gatherer tribes dividing tasks so as to make the best use of resources. A brave hunter is a wonder to have, but a wise hunter who brings back game meat without injury is a leader.
Commerce between tribes was dependent on the strong and the brave who could protect the tribe from robbery or larceny. Commerce between tribes' sole purpose is to expand the bounty of the tribe and never at its expense. What point is there to commerce between tribes if it brings poverty and unemployment?
A military's goal is to protect its borders and the safety of the people, end of story.
We have reached a point in this country where literally everything has become illegal. If your seat belt isn't on or you go too fast or smoke a cigarette, you are breaking the law. Argue with a store clerk or question a policeman and you could find yourself behind bars. Your car can now testify against you in court and the police can taser you or shoot you dead and then face few, if any, consequences. A corporation may spend millions of dollars to influence public opinion but private citizens who protest in or near a public building are considered a threat to public safety.
I've posed the argument before that a benevolent monarchy is better than a malevolent democracy. A bad king knows well what happens to tyrants. A king's party is typically made up of only one class and that class is usually small, cowardly and easily frightened by the first mob that comes along with pitchforks and torches and will abandon the king.
Totalitarian governments use laws to control the people; a benevolent democracy uses law to protect the freedom of the people. In ancient Athens a law was set aside if it was found to not serve justice. It was a crime to steal bread even if hungry, but it was also a crime not to give a hungry man bread if he asked for it. In the former Soviet Union if prosecutors could not prove wrongdoing they would argue the defendant was mentally ill and a threat to the state.
In a totalitarian state the government never seeks to explain itself. When the Chernobyl nuclear plant melted down the government media focused on the heroic efforts of the construction workers. Who was responsible for the accident became an unimportant detail. When BP's oil platform blew out BP and the government lied about how much oil was gushing out into the gulf. BP and the government knew that the pressure that blew up the well was around 10,000 PSI. So the 5,000 barrels a day story was a ridiculous fabrication with no other purpose but to cover up the severity of the disaster.
A government and a corporation working side by side to defend each other, that and that all by itself is all you need to know. It is the death knell of representative government.
"All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state." (Benito Mussolini)
No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manner of thine own
Or of thine friend's were.
Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.
(John Donne)
We are so divided in this country and our goal should be unity. Our goal should not be to demonize but to educate. I was asked what I thought of President Obama and I explained that I wasn't thrilled with him. Immediately they answered me with the usual right wing rhetoric that he's a socialist and soft on terrorism.
"How is busting unions at GM socialism? How is giving the insurance industry thirty million new customers socialism?" I asked. "A socialist would have pursued socialized medicine and the Congress and the administration never for one minute discussed that possibility. They decided in favor of the corporate solution."
"Fascism should rightly be called Corporatism, as it is the merger of corporate and government power." (Benito Mussolini)
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