We need to quarantine rabid government

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for December 10, 2025)

It has always bothered me how much of the news is concerned with what government is doing. In a way, I understand. When there's a rabid dog at your door, you need to know about it. Unfortunately, talking about it doesn't solve the problem. The rabid dog is still there, threatening us.

F. William "Bill" Schmidt, a man of impressive accomplishments whom I only learned about after his recent death at the age of 92, wrote: "Why is Government always the principal subject of public discussion? Because the existence of Government violates the Natural Rights of everyone; and everyone is struggling to understand this malevolent institution which inevitably creates conflicts and chaos."

He was right.

I don't want to keep hearing about what the rabid dog called "Government" is doing, but as long as it continues to threaten everyone's life, liberty, and property, and as long as society isn't allowed to do anything useful to address it, I suppose I need to keep up with its actions. I need to stay alert to the conflicts and chaos it is creating in society so I can avoid them whenever possible and brace myself for those I can't avoid.

I still don't enjoy hearing what the political criminals are plotting.

I'll never understand why so many people feel loyalty to this rabid dog, or believe it is necessary for their well-being. I don't get why people are willing to spend their lives feeding their neighbors to this diseased beast, and pretending it's for our own good. Nothing is more antisocial than this.

If you were in a personal relationship with someone who made you live under the same rules government imposes on you, you'd be a victim of domestic abuse. If a romantic partner spied on you, tracked all your movements, made you ask for permission to leave the house, controlled what you left with and brought back, didn't allow people to visit you without permission, made you show every nickel you have and where you got it before stealing a percentage of it from you, you'd be justified in fighting back. Even if the abuser said fighting back was against the rules. Such a partner would be no better than the rabid dog.

Yet, government does this and worse, and people casually chat about it as though it's okay and normal. Watching what government does is pointless unless you're prepared to quarantine and neutralize this rabid dog.

(Here's the link to Bill Schmidt's essay quoted above.)

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