What is Government?

[Savannahmann]

I read a number of books every month. I listen to podcasts, and one I was recently re-listening to. Dan Carlin's Hardcore History. http://dancarlin.com/

Specifically I was re-examining his four part production of the Eastern Front during World War II. Something about that was nagging me, there was something there my subconscious would not let me forget, even while my conscious mind had. Then I got the quote that set the light bulb off.

Dan Carlin says, and he's not sure if it is accurate, and makes that statement, that one of the founders said Government was like fire, a little fire, well regulated, does you a world of good. A fire that grows out of control does you great harm. Even if no founder ever said this, it is absolutely true, well regulated fire, and well regulated Government are very useful, and do worlds of good.

The NSA scandal has been detoured and hijacked by the Snowden distraction. I'll be honest. I don't care if he broke his word to the NSA and the nation. http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023078219 I don't care if Snowden is a traitor in your eyes, or your opinion, or your world view. What matters is the elephant in the room, the NSA, CIA, DOJ, FBI, and a host of other government and contracting agencies spying on us all.

With that knowledge, you can't pretend, claim, or otherwise believe that our Government is well regulated. There are frankly too many secrets, everything is a secret, and we're not allowed to discuss it, and we're not allowed to see it and form our own opinions, and we're not allowed to debate it. That goes for treaty negotiations regarding food, and that goes for legislation that the Congress is about to vote on, we're not allowed to see the details, despite the devil acknowledged as being in there somewhere. We're told not to worry, to just relax, and know that good people are doing great things for us.

The thread I linked to above, mentioned human rights, and I got to thinking about that while I listened to Dan Carlin talk about the Ostfront of World War II. We tell ourselves that we are a great nation, a moral nation, and a beacon of democracy. But are we? We haven't signed, and won't sign the ban on landmines despite the clear evidence that they are far too indiscriminate in harming innocents. We haven't signed or ratified most of the major international treaties, conventions, or agreements on basic human and civil rights. Our arguments are always the same. We don't need to sign those conventions, we have those rights set into our Constitution. Rights we then spend years arguing before our courts, arguing that they don't apply here, there an nearly everywhere. And I am wondering, what happened to the nation I believed in? Where did the dream go? Did it ever exist in reality?

There was a time when we were the leaders of the principles we now reject, the idea of human rights. The Atlantic Charter proves that we thought it was an important facet of the world, and we should push those ideals.

We've heard how the President and the Administration is struggling to maintain the balance between Security and Civil rights. That's the wrong way to consider the situation. The balance was supposed to be between liberty, and equality, with civil rights as the main force for balance. A nation where everyone is equal is impossible. Some of us are born with more innate ability in areas than others. Some of us are born with less ability in areas than others. There is no way to make a man, or woman, equal. What you can do is provide equal access, and equal opportunity. All emphasis on Liberty means that the world is a barely controlled sense of Anarchy. So obviously that won't work either. The balance comes from the civil rights. If you don't provide equal access, that is a violation of civil rights. If you don't provide opportunity, that is a violation of Civil rights too.

Civil Rights is the variable that keeps Liberty, and Equality in balance. It is the factor that is supposed to keep our Government, like the fire mentioned above, well regulated, and doing good instead of burning us all. We might not be burned during this administration, or the next, but soon the fire will burn all of us.

[Tx4obama]

1. "... if he broke his word..." ? He did a hell of a lot more than that.

Snowden STOLE classified records and equipment.

He committed several felonies.

[Savannahmann]

2. I was refrencing one particular thread

But again, what does that have to do with the larger, the enormously larger issue that is our Nation spying on us, and ignoring civil rights wholesale? Your complaint is a pea under a dozen mattresses, only a Princess would feel it. Mine is a boulder bouncing down the hill, chased by many other rocks, destined to squash us all.

[Tx4obama]

3. Our nation is not spying on us. Keeping a backup meta-database does not equal spying.

Also, the meta-data that is collected by a third party is not protected by the 4th amendment.

Your bouncing boulder is only a soap bubble pops when it is touched by facts and by the actual laws of our land.

[ZombieHorde]

4. Government is a rhetorical construct. It doesn't exist outside of our language.

Not even a little bit. It is strictly imaginary. There is no objective difference between government and anarchy. However, the belief in government (God, karma, Santa, etc.) does compel us to act in a certain way.

Imagination --> communication --> convention/belief --> action. This is the "structure" of all human "organizations."

There is no government. Not in the way we generally think and speak of it.