Government is an unnecessary evil. Every government, not just the ones you dislike. The governments you are encouraged to hate are no worse than the one you look to for advice on which ones to hate. In fact, they are less harmful to you since they aren't able to rule or tax you.
People who try to justify government often admit it's evil. Thomas Paine, in his pamphlet Common Sense from 1776, wrote, "Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one."
This doesn't hold water. If something is evil, it's not necessary, and if it's necessary, it can't be evil. It's like arguing for a square circle. It's one or the other, and government is always intolerable.
"Evil" is any act which intentionally violates life, liberty, or property, or which relies on the superstitious belief in political "authority" to encourage or permit others to do so on your behalf.
Government- the intent to govern someone other than yourself- is evil to the core. Therefore, it can't be necessary. If you can't get what you need without resorting to governing others, you're either not trying hard enough or what you believe you need isn't truly necessary.
The act of eating is necessary, so it's not evil. Theft of food so you can eat is evil, as is all theft, including taxation. It isn't necessary. There's an ethical way to get anything which is necessary. It may not be easy, but it's always possible to avoid committing evil.
Government is unethical. A person's morals- their situational ethics- might allow for government, but if that's the case, their morals aren't ethical. Any law which violates individual rights might be considered moral in a particular time or place; such was the case with slavery and is still the case with government, but it can never be ethical.
If any government can't survive without committing acts of evil, such as spying on the people it aims to govern, it needs to go the way of the dodo. Forever. This is true if it can't exist without stealing property using the euphemism of taxation. Or, if it tries to criminalize self-defense. Or anything else government does as a matter of routine. If anything deserves to go extinct, government does.
No one should attempt to de-extinct it like the Dire Wolf, either. Let it go, and good riddance.
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Thank you for reading.
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Congrats to the ENM News, for publishing this excellent article. It ought to be syndicated everywhere, including to the New York TImes.
ReplyDeleteTheir little heads at the NYT would implode.
DeleteActually, my hypothesis is that they would be unable to see the words. Or to understand them if they could see them.
You know who James Monroe was, right? He was President during the Era of Good Feelings. One of his most famous sayings was, "If men were saints and angels, there would be no need for government," or something like that.
ReplyDeleteYep. But these people invariably chose to be on the side of having government anyway, even though their own point dismantled the justification for it.
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