Triumph of Reason: Government
by Groff Schroeder
History suggests that people eventually get sick
of anarchy and overcome their natural competitive instincts, cooperating
to address epidemic disease and open sewers, especially once experience
or science demonstrates their connection. Even so, some people would
still prefer anarchy. Others would prefer a monarchy, especially if
they get to be king. Still others would choose theocracy, as long
as their god rules. A powerful few do not care, as long as the government's
corruption provides easy wealth. |
Any form of government can be beneficial or pernicious
and no matter what the form, only the application of reason can maintain
it. If a government is good, reason plays critical roles in the identification
of threats to citizens and the creation of public works like sewage
systems that have historically eliminated them. If a government is
bad, reason can create propaganda to convince the People that open
sewers do not stink and that deadly societal problems like epidemics
on streets with open sewers are unavoidable natural events, or punishments
wrought by vengeful omnipotent beings. |
While good governments benefit from the People's use
of reason, bad governments must prevent it. On one end of the spectrum,
democratic republics give the People the power to control their government
through their votes. On the other end is totalitarianism, enforced
dictatorship so nefarious that it must pretend to be some other form
of government. It is extremely difficult to find beneficial examples
of totalitarianism, no matter what façade of government it
hides behind. |
Socialist governments have been both good and bad. Modern
Sweden's "democratic socialism," meets virtually every need
of citizens who happily pay extremely high taxes in return. In contrast,
1930's German "National Socialism" concealed an infamous
genocidal totalitarian state. While many believe that German National
Socialism was actually fascism, fascism's inventor, Benito Mussolini
said, "Fascism should more properly be called corporatism since
it is the merger of state and corporate power." Communism is
a subset of socialism and often the façade for totalitarian
regimes banning all religious practices, perhaps because there can
be no power higher than the government in a totalitarian state.
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Theocracies occur when government and religion merge
- politicians becoming the makers and enforcers of the will of god.
While theocracies often appear to start with good intentions, Lord
Acton put it most succinctly. "Power tends to corrupt and absolute
power corrupts absolutely." Unrestricted power, access to enormous
sums of taxpayer money and the opportunity for bribery can corrupt
even the purest heart. |
In Greece 2360 years ago, Plato wrote of the republic,
cooperative self-government based on the election of representatives
who obey the rule of law. The Greek republic fell to the Roman republic,
which lasted some three hundred years before the collapse of the rule
of law led to the assassination of Roman Consul Julius Caesar, and
a 1000-year military dictatorship. |
The founding of the democratic republic of the United
States occurred at the height of the enlightenment, a worldwide
awakening to art, engineering, literature and science. Its founders
made bribery impeachable and created three intertwined branches
of government, limiting the power of each through checks and balances
and the rule of law. Institutionalized bribery and infamous violations
of those checks and balances now trump the rule of law in America.
Only time will tell what form of government we will experience next.
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