Quote from Scataphagos:
Think about all of the governments you've ever read about or currently experienced.
In virtually every case, it's a matter of "government first, government most important... the people's [apparent] function is to support the government".
America in the 18th century was a grand experiment. "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness"... Rule of law, limited government power and influence in people's lives. The Founding Fathers tried their best to assure our way of life could be defended and maintained. They gave us a Constitution... and guarantees granted by a Bill of Rights.
Yet, over the last 200 years.... the Power desires and the nature of government have chewed at and eroded all of the Constitution's promises and guarantees.
Therefore... what we have today in the USA is similar to all government-centric societies in the past and present.
Without revolution, America will become just another oligarchy with a huge proportion of peasants.... depending upon the government for handouts and subsistence.
Just look at human history.
Human history records approximately six thousand years of failed governments. Humans have tried everything imaginable to find a system that "works" to the satisfaction of the people. The leaders are never satisfied with ever-increasing power and the people are never satisfied if they have to be participative (a relatively new concept) and work at maintaining what liberties they have.
Then, when all is lost, people finally wake up to the fact that change happens, and it isn't always good.
It appears nothing much has changed in 6,000 years other than the manner by which some countries go about electing leaders who intend to grab as much power as possible, given the opportunity.
Man appears to wish to be ruled by a god who will give them everything, require nothing, and magically provide all things with no effort on anyone's part other than to eat, drink and be merry. When they get bored with that, then they will inevitably return to the mischief and debauchery we now see in so-called "civilized" nations. While the people live in various stages of wishing, dreaming and denying reality, the evil ones who exploit man's inherent discontent organize, plan and execute their own dream of enslaving the world.
Didn't the pharoahs of ancient Egypt set themselves up as gods? Certainly they did, and on top of that left a few enormous pyramids plunked down on Egyptian soil to immortalize their reigns. Evidently they believed they would return, or at least were worthy never to be forgotten for whatever exploits they achieved, primarily making slaves of all the people other than the nobles and the priestly class.
That pattern still exists and is in full scale operation today.
America was founded by men of vision. The Federalists believed that the common man could not govern himself and thus the representative form of government would be charged with the responsibility of making the laws, running the executive branch, and filling the positions of the judiciary. Originally, the senators were to have been elected from the members of the House of Representatives. That system was changed in 1913 upon ratification of the 17th amendment to the Constitution and provided for direct election by the voters.
Anti-federalists were skeptical about any formal chartered government that could grab power from the people at will or by whatever method seemed expedient. While they were skeptical of a federal system, there was hardly any other to be had then or since, and it was hoped the Bill of Rights would restrain the central government from infringing on the rights of the people in sovereign states -- which themselves had a form of government.
Either way, history has proved that anarchy cannot work, democracy is mob rule and falls into anarchy, someone rises to power by virtue of money, organization, gaining of the people's confidence or by the sword. While swords are a bit out of date for today's hi-tech warfare, the killing power symbolized by the sword is still valid. Submit or die. That has been the ultimate motto of human government for recorded history and whatever remains unrecorded or lost.
Someone runs the country, be it a small city state, an island kingdom, a small nation, a great nation, or an empire. Every one of these has tried various forms of government, or at least has lived and died by one form that was replaced by another after its capture by a new ruler. The usual method is war.
Now, what has changed other than the times and the technology? Absolutely nothing.
America is now an oligarchy on its way to an imperial or quasi-imperial state and then a melding into the global governance organization of elitist rulers. The pharoahs are back, perhaps they left their pyramids to signify that the system of god-men would prevail over any other form of human government. Certainly there are rulers running around today who think they can play gods.
Roman emperors underwent the same transformation. The Caesar was once an honorary title, but in the reign of Augustus, successor to the murdered Julius (in which Augustus, known at that time as Octavian, played his part in the assassination plot) the title Caesar became the supreme ruler, and eventually the various caesars required the people to honor them as gods by offering incense to them.
So man wants to be god, but to have a grandpa "god" who gifts him with whatever he wants or needs. A bit ludicrous when played out on a theatrical stage, but fully acceptable in the politics of real life. What started with Nimrod has never ended. It will.
The ideal situation to end a troublesome government is the same one with which this nation began: secession. However, that brings about armed revolt which would, at this juncture in time, totally destroy what remains of America's resources.
Someone asked me on a recent radio program, where I was the guest, if I had the answer to this problem. If I did, the government would have to kill me before I could use my knowledge. But no, I do not have the answer to human foibles. Nor do I own any time machines to go back to the days of the founding fathers and warn them of the evils, which most of them recognized at the time anyway. Benjamin Franklin is noted for his cynical statement about the kind of government chosen by the Constitutional Convention for this nation when he replied, "a republic, madam, if you can keep it." The "if" clause expresses his doubt, since Franklin was a keen observer of human nature and all its ills.
Six thousand years of failed governments have told us one thing: no humans are fit to rule nor are free men likely to keep their liberty beyond a couple of generations without having it diminished and finally abolished.
Mankind is corrupt to the core, and to prove it, give them the opportunity to grab a bit of power or make a load of money and see where their nature runs. Upon what, then, can people base the hope for freedom? In this life, probably none unless science can genetically engineer a drone class that doesn't have any thinking ability. However, our federalized education system is effectively doing almost the same thing, but some mutations come out thinking anyway. They wonder where liberty has gone and why. More lessons in history and human nature soon reveals the ugly truth about us, the people of planet earth.
Thomas Jefferson said it best: "If Man cannot be trusted with the government of himself, how can he be trusted with the government of others?"
If man is evil, government will be evil, and that is precisely what history proves.
http://www.thepriceofliberty.org/03/10/08/dorothy.htm