WHEN DOES GOVERNMENT STOP GROWING?
NOVEMBER 22, 2010. If history is any judge, government keeps growing. It’s a tree whose nutritional needs are fed by money—and it can create money, so it feeds itself.
I’m not aware of any organism in the natural world that manufactures its own food.
Of course, eventually everybody looks around and realizes that the invention of money out of thin air has reached an impasse.
Suppose, as national governments face bankruptcy because no one takes their money seriously, they will be forced to cut services and pensions. Will that stop their growth?
Or will they find other ways to expand their functions?
Such as criminal arrests, prosecutions, new laws defining a wider range of what is criminal, and then more arrests and prosecutions…
Governments never seem to catch on to the idea that they aren’t like businesses. A company, of course, wants to expand. But a government—at least the republican form of constitutional government—is supposed to be acutely aware of its mandated limits. It’s supposed to operate within a narrow context.
However, it doesn’t work out that way. Government links its own survival to the notion of getting bigger.
In America, the judiciary was tasked with assuring that constitutional limits would prevail. That idea went the way of an extinct species a long time ago.
Now we have government as a protection racket: “If you the citizen will depend on us, we’ll protect you. If you can’t see your need to rely on is, we’ll invent new ways you have to, until you see the light.”
As this process develops, the idea of freedom and what it means begins to disappear. Well, it would, because freedom isn’t about government protection.
Dependence replaces freedom. Dependence needs a public relations team. The idea has to be dressed up and explained in a way that motivates and even inspires people—because it doesn’t work so well when you come right out and say to people, “We want your dependence.” It doesn’t have a proper ring to it. It doesn’t sell.
So the PR “humanitarian” element comes in. “It’s good for everyone if we all rely on each other. We all need each other. We’re a great big village of eight billion people. No object or person exists apart from every other object or person.”
People like this. They believe it’s true. It feels like a religion.
“You see, it isn’t about government getting bigger and enforcing dependence and redistributing wealth. No, no. It’s about government acting in line with a universal law. Interdependence. We’re all in this together. Government is just a part of the equation. Government, therefore, is humane.”
Government is, well, a church. It’s an aid operation.
We must all save everybody, and government is our best vehicle for doing that. Sure.
There will be the usual parent-child disputes and misunderstandings. Of course. That’s natural. You may not like what government does on Tuesday, and then next week, on Thursday, you may not like what it does. But all in all, we recognize we’re in this together, and if we try to cut government out of the equation, through some misguided sense of independence, the parent will have to slap our wrists, to remind us of the universal principle…
The government tells us that even with a money crunch, even with a reduction of services, it will somehow find new ways to help us. It won’t desert us.
And after all, who cares about freedom anymore? That’s a worn-out concept. It doesn’t have zing left. It’s flat, like an old bottle of carbonated water. Once upon a time, it was bracing. But these ideas don’t last. They come and go. Isn’t that what it’s all about? Trends. Fads. Here today, gone tomorrow. Freedom was a gimmick. It sold, and then it didn’t sell. So we have to find something new and shiny. Marketing operates that way. You hype a product for a while, and then people tire of it. So you have to change the packaging. Or you put nuts in it, and sprinkle it with sugar. You make it low-fat. Then low-carb. Then gluten-free. Instead of sugar, you say cane sugar. Then you discontinue the line altogether. You shift to another product.
Take the war in Afghanistan. At first, it was about going after Bin Laden. Then it was the Taliban. Then, when we went back in, it was about building a sustainable government. Then it was about helping the villagers. The soldiers were really social workers with food stamps. Freedom? American freedom? A minor PR point.
Government is marketing.
JON RAPPOPORT
Jon is the author of LOGIC AND ANALYSIS, a unique 18-lesson course for home schools and adults. To inquire: qjrconsulting@gmail.com