"A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have."
Big Government. The words even sound ominous. To me, it conjures up dark visions of Orwellian societies. Or maybe that movie Blue Thunder. Mainly, though, whenever I think about how large and overbearing our government has become, I think about the differences in how people acted when I was a boy and young man in the 70's and early 80's and how people act now. I attribute that change to the constant growth of government and its intrusion into every aspect of our lives.
Everywhere I go, I see the unmistakable signs of the 'sheeping' of our society. Parents no longer try to raise their children, they leave that to the schools and the government. No one tries to discuss problems or disagreements anymore, they either avoid the subjects altogether or call the police, a.k.a, the government. If someone slips on the floor of a store, they immediately sue, since surely it is someone else' responsibility to watch where they are going! If its rains so much that it threatens to flood, people wait for the 'government' to tell them to get to higher ground. If a windstorm trashes a neighborhood, the majority of people will stand around with their thumbs up their butts waiting for the 'government' to tell them to start picking up the debris. No one practices personal initiative anymore. Let people's lives get just a few degrees away from their norm and the sheeple either run around in circles bleating loudly or huddle together in a corner, waiting for someone to tell them what to do. All of these things are right in front of our eyes, yet society just puts on their 'happy-happy-joy-joy' glasses and continues along, secure in the knowledge that if something bad happens, the 'government' will take care of it!
I personally have been able to take care of myself for quite a few years now, and on those occasions where I do screw the pooch, I am entirely capable of dusting myself off and picking up the pieces of my mess. If I happen to need a hand up, I ask for one. Not a handout, nor a lifetime of someone sticking their hand up my arse and working my life. I don't want someone telling me that I can't exercise my constitutional rights. I don't want double standards. I don't want my so-called 'elected officials' trying to legislate every aspect of my life. I am a reasonably intelligent human being, able to work out my own problems, plan my own finances, and plan my own future. I neither want nor need the 'government' treating me like I am a child. I want my government to do what the constitution mandates along with the those handful of jobs that you simply have to have a government perform in this day and age of interlaced world economy. No more and no less.
How about you?
That reminds me, I have an e-arc of Ringo's first book in a new series (Live Free or Die) at Webscriptions.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you think are those "handful of jobs that you simply have to have a government perform"? Just curious
ReplyDeleteWell, for better or worse, you need a commerce department that keeps track of the ebb and flow of world commerce. Unless the whole world embraced hands-off free enterprise, you need a department like that to monitor which countries are trying to boost their exports while strangling imports. *cough* CHINA *cough* Also, because of world commerce, you need some kind of agency to keep track of world monetary and economic flow, as much as it pains me to say it. These are just examples, and there are a few more others will be able to think off. Now, I do NOT think that these agencies need to be the bloated bureaucracies that exist today. As a matter of fact, you could probably take most of the existing agencies that are used for these things currently and slim them down by about 80% and they would probably do the job handily.
ReplyDelete