The Beast, Machine, or Government.
I used to say there is no government, only people, but I think now I was wrong.
There is a “government”.
There is an “It”.
It is a set of ideas that have become it’s own mindset. It’s like a standalone brain without a soul, not even a heart. It’s called the beast in some circles, I mostly call it the Machine. It has a mindset and a purpose: It thinks “A” that it can solve problems by making laws, and “B” that human beings cannot be trusted.
This basic premise attracts certain people, who find a problem, then gets paid by engaging it. Workers in the System then shore up job-security by making the work seem important. What started as a standing national army, now proclaims it must protect us against fatty acids or lead in our wallpaper. There is no way to stop governmental growth, because it has no natural enemies excepting friction and gravity. As long as the people accept paying taxes and pay little attention, the system will multiply itself until it collapses under it’s own weight.
“Democracy”, Churchill said was “flawed, just not as much as any other system”. In essence: There is no perfect system, because life is change and systems are static. A merciful and good sovereign king is hard to find these days, hence United States.
Democracy’s natural enemy is time. Because eventually the leaders become politicians who figure out how to get votes by taking from small groups and giving to larger ones in exchange for votes.
The idea of taxes that must be paid, rather than services that must be rendered gave the Beast the upper hand. In the beginning of the United States burgeoning towns wishing for stability may have hired sheriffs, but if the people didn’t ante-up, there was no Sheriff to be had. If there was one and the townsfolk liked the job he did, they paid him freely, presumably wanting him to keep doing what he was doing. Soon upholding the law was regulated and paid by the government.
As towns grew and cities sprung up, Government attracted more and more humans that were attracted to regulation. To the mind, regulation itself is always preferred, so the power to regulate was assumed by the Government eventually making laws proporting to protect people against themselves.
The though-form that became the American Government protected itself by devising an ingenious shield of anonymity: A metaphor could be the following story in the Hindu tradition: “A wizard charms a spirit into the physical world by promising that on Earth you can do anything – be anything you could possibly imagine. After the spirit reincarnates into a body the wizard shows up again and excitedly asks the newborn: Now that you are here, what would you like? Strawberry or Vanilla?” The average human immediately start debating which is best – forgetting the 64 other flavors that may also be available, or perhaps a hang-glider ride instead. By splitting up the function of a government into two opposite parties the annonyminty and growth of government as a whole was secured. Now one party could blame each other as they went along in history: A good scrap always draws attention, so the voters were kept busy arguing amongst themselves, while the shadow of the Beast grew longer and bigger.
As long as taxes are feeding the Machine, the Machine will keep growing and taking more control. It has to. It has no human soul, hence incapable of faith. It sees life as chaotic and humans as flawed and so it prepares to make them better by growing and regulating their behavior as much as possible.
Today a hand possessed by governmental thinking signed a law dismissing our right to self-determination. It promoses free healthcare to huge amounts of voters , paid by a small minority of tax-payers.
The Achilles Heel of Democracy has been struck.
It was only a matter of time.
