Illustration:
Explanation: I actually had a hard time coming up with an illustration for this topic. Not because there were too few examples, but because there were so many it was hard to pick one. It is almost axiomatic that More Government leads to Less Liberty. Liberty is about not being told what to do. It is about being free to choose your own path, and responsible for the consequences of those decisions. Liberty is a cross-roads where only your choices determine the destination.
Any time Government expands its power, it can only do so at the cost of some of your Liberty. The absolute of Liberty is Anarchy- which is Liberty gone so amok that it no longer even resembles Liberty. The absolute of Government is Despotism.
We gave up some of our Liberty (like, Liberty to shoot one another over a fence-post, for example) to our Government to allow it to enforce the societal contract. It, in return, was supposed to protect us, and to make itself as little a burden as possible. That was the entire part of the Republican Federalist system the Founders Established. Instead, it grew. It grew slowly, at first. People who were alive for the Founding kept things in check. Their children as well. Then, everything changed. First, the Civil War effectively abolished the 10th Amendment. Without discussing the "reasons" for the war, it is undeniable that, until that point, it was accepted by virtually all parties that States had the power to remove themselves from the Union. The Civil War changed that. From that point over, we have had an ever growing Government, and ever less Liberty.
Now, Government tells us what we can and cannot eat. It tells us where we can and cannot build homes, or businesses. It decides if we are worthy of self-protection in the form of gun ownership. It restricts our movements, it mandates certain purchases, and all the while it grows larger, ever larger.
One day, it will be to late to kill the Leviathan. This beast we have created and allowed to run amok will, one day, strangle the last of our Liberties. That can be stopped, but we must first accept that is happening, we must understand the reasons, and we must stand up and shoulder the Responsibilities that Government has oh-so-generously taken from us: at the cost of our Liberty.
It is even more pervasive than you describe above. Americans now have government dictating what type of washing machine we can buy. Government is involved in everything from hair dryers to booster seats.
ReplyDeleteWe are being forces in incremental ways into a "one size fits all' society.
And no one seems to notice. Or care.
At this point in my life, I no longer want to see how this experiment turns out.
We are past the point of reforming anything. Dissolution is the only answer.
ReplyDeleteWow. And I thought I was a pessimist.
ReplyDeleteI don't think we're to the point of no return just yet. But I think we're getting there faster than most want to admit.
Name one thing in your life that does not have any government regulation associated with it. This is much harder to do than it should be!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. And, frankly, there isn't one currently, because I always need to breathe.
ReplyDeleteThat said, that doesn't mean that every regulation is a bad one. I don't think we're to the point (yet) where dissolution and re-constitution of the State is the sole remaining answer.
I think part of the problem goes back to your basic premise of the Tenther. Regulations at the local level are much more subject to reasonable interpretation and are consequently easier to protest since it is usually possible to attend a local meeting (town council, Board of Supervisors, etc.) and it is far easier to get your neighbors to join in such activities.
ReplyDeleteRegulations at the Feral level are almost always too all-encompassing to make sense at the local citizen level, but have the immense enforcement power of an entrenched bureaucracy that believes in its divine right to regulate, behind them.
Its not so much pessimism as looking at things as they truly are. That Williamson piece at NRO does a very good job at describing the situation. Essentially, DC is bought and paid for. I think its better to dissolve the union and work out some new arrangement.
ReplyDeleteThe only other true alternative is a constitutional convention, but that is too dangerous to contemplate.