Originally posted by milefile
Back when I was in college and the only real financial security I had was due to my parents, I was moving into a new apartment, which I did at least once a year. I couldn't get any telephone service turned on because I owed the telephone company money and couldn't pay. I was upset about it, and I misdirected my anger toward the phone company. I remember sitting in a coffee house writing in my journal about how unfair society was, how thinkgs like telephone service and electricity should be automatically provided in any dwelling. My rationale was that telephone service is a necessity of life for everybody, therefore everybody is entitled to it. I had some vague notion of a vast network of utility welfare where everybody had a phone no matter what; the government would pay for it. I knew at the time that I was describing what I then knew as communism, and would now call socialism, and it caused some cognitive dissonance, but my quasi-intellectual neediness clouded my ability to consider the issue in a more general way, beyond the fact that I did not pay my bill, that it was my choice to live beyond my means. I think about that inexperienced error in thiinking often nowadays, and when I see it in others it glows red and obvious.
The government should provide nothing more than the open space for individuals to find their own freedom. Government is incapable of "giving" freedom. Government should be comprised of volunteers, be grass-roots in nature, and a symptom of the culture from which it grew. Unfortunately contemporary governments are more in the business of employing professional politicians and imposing culture on localities who were doing fine on their own. The more local a government is the better. Federal governments are dubious.
The current trend in government, especially in Europe, is for politicians to make moral judgements and impose them on people who are not in agreement over them. The judgements are based on a distorted notion of "equality" interpreted as entitlement. All expectations that individuals are free to live in their chosen way, that these manifold and differing ways inherently cultivate competition and strife between groups and individuals, and that such strife is the engine of growth for our species, is being systematically eradicated from the culture. In its place is installed a convoluted, pity-centered system of sameness, a culture killing and excellence stifling system of misunderstood "equality" (a concept intended for numbers, not conscious beings). Any indication that one individual has surpassed any other individual in any way is frowned upon. Some equalizing method must be implemented. For example: "I didn't pay my phone bill so I have no phone. I spent my money on pot and girls instead. The government should supply everybody with a phone so I can spend my money on pot and girls."
Government should not be in the business of micromanaging. Government has a small number of uses such as defense and law enforcement. There are very few other instances where government can do any good. Government cannot engineer society. Government cannot control economies. These things, in the end, and whether government attempts to control them or not, are the result of individuals competing.
I am reminded of when W.S. Burroughs said "Control is controlled by its need to control." This seems to be the current trend. Comprehending this statement is what has turned me from an aspiring pity-based, self-righteoous social-moralist into an anti-government American. More and more I see examples of government sticking it's bloated head into peoples lives, meddling, interfering, and not helping anything but election results. More and more I see people who long to be patronized, who need to be controlled, and call such intervention in their lives "freedom". I am reminded of Neitzsche when he said "Ask not freedom from what, but freedom for what." The way people balk at this question is sad and frustrating.
What is the actual role of governemnt? To take money and spend it on stuff you'll either never even know about or don't approve of and to legislate and impose moral judgements on huge populations for whom they are either inappropriate, irrelevant, or downright offensive.
What is the ideal role of Government? To provide the environment which most allows it's people to thrive on their own.
