Sometimes those who want to justify government claim that governing is the same thing as managing.
No, governing is not the same as managing, not when you're discussing political governance, anyway. You can manage something without governing it. Yes, the definitions are probably the same (or have a lot of overlap) in order to make governing seem less toxic, but in practice, they are very different.
Most managers can't kill you-- with impunity-- for not immediately allowing them to tie you up and throw you in a cage. Or for not handing over your property at their demand. If a manager tried to act like government you could kill him/her in self-defense.
If a manager acted like government he would lose his "job" quickly. He would probably be sued into poverty. Only the veil of illusory legitimacy surrounding government protects those bad actors from facing the same fate. Or worse.
If you can't manage something without acting like government, you're doing it wrong. Governing is embracing failure.
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It is really sad that some people can’t see the obvious differences between ‘governing’ and ‘managing’ that you quite properly distinguish in this post. Part of this is due to the inherent ambiguity in these definitions. I believe; like you, that those who intend to authoritatively ‘rule’ have purposefully chosen to refer to the systems they have instituted to accomplish this as ‘government’ precisely to capitalize on the fact that the concept of governing has typically been somewhat consonant with managing. The reality of “Government” however has always been in fact “Rulership” which far more accurately describes it true essence.
ReplyDeleteIt's why I often specify "political government" to avoid confusion with the other kind that's just management.
DeleteI benefited from the pointed distinctions. It's stuff people usually know, inherently, but parsing it out,explaining it, isn't something I would have been able to do so succinctly.
ReplyDeleteIt's what I try to do. I'm glad if I sometimes succeed.
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