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Don't Vote For the Beast - Use Your Vote to Tame the Beast!
The Steady Drip
Sam Sewell
9/27/2012
Excerpt:
Most people see the conflict between limited government and big government as a political battle between conservatives and liberals. This conflict is much more profound than political theory can encompass.
“Children of The Beast”
By Sam Sewell
Introduction
"The average man doesn't want to be free. He wants to be safe." H.L. Mencken
Most people see the conflict between limited government and big government as a political battle between conservatives and liberals. This conflict is much more profound than political theory can encompass.
In this essay the metaphor of “The Beast” is used to represent big government, and “Children of The Beast” to reveal the nature of those who support, or are dependent upon, big government.
My analysis is offered in two sections:
“The Beast” is too big to be responsive to human will
“This system is like a steamroller with an unresponsive steering wheel; no matter who is in the driver’s seat it continues to crush the people.”
Aristotle The Hun
At every level of life we recognize that the more complicated any system becomes the less efficient its function. Complicated systems overwhelm the people who participate in them.
For example, let’s look at people and their possessions. Most of us have made the observation that as we accumulate “things” there comes a time when our things own us, rather than us owning our things. My wife has created a system that prevents her closet from taking over our house. She will not put a new piece of clothing into her closet unless she eliminates something that is already there.
Many businesses have a similar policy. In addition to not adding a new policy without eliminating an outdated policy, managers do a periodic analysis of the existing bureaucracy to determine what paperwork and procedures need to be eliminated.
Governments would do well to implement similar solutions. Most government programs have a constituency of voters who object to “their” special interest program being eliminated, resulting in a system that eventually overwhelms the citizens. Not only are government agencies inefficient, they often produce “schizophrenic” results, like attempts to reduce the use of tobacco at the same time that tobacco growers are receiving government subsidies.
This not just a modern problem! The same dynamics were present in large systems thousands of years ago. Bureaucratic inertia was as much a cause for the fall of the Roman Empire as barbarians at the gates. The ancient Jews had a solution to the problem that has escaped the attention of leaders of modern government systems.
Every fifty years all debts were cancelled, all slaves were freed, and all land was returned to the ancestral owners. There were several other provisions associated with the Year of Jubilee. This religious tradition was a way for an entire culture to be reset, or “rebooted,” in order to wipe out the accumulated bureaucratic inertia. We modern people can “defrag” our computers, but we don’t know how to “defrag” our federal government."
..............................................
View the complete post at:
http://thesteadydrip.blogspot.com/20...r-vote-to.html
The Steady Drip
Sam Sewell
9/27/2012
Excerpt:
Most people see the conflict between limited government and big government as a political battle between conservatives and liberals. This conflict is much more profound than political theory can encompass.
“Children of The Beast”
By Sam Sewell
Introduction
"The average man doesn't want to be free. He wants to be safe." H.L. Mencken
Most people see the conflict between limited government and big government as a political battle between conservatives and liberals. This conflict is much more profound than political theory can encompass.
In this essay the metaphor of “The Beast” is used to represent big government, and “Children of The Beast” to reveal the nature of those who support, or are dependent upon, big government.
My analysis is offered in two sections:
The inherent inefficiency and inertia of large, complex entities
The inherent evil of large, complex entities
The inherent evil of large, complex entities
“The Beast” is too big to be responsive to human will
“This system is like a steamroller with an unresponsive steering wheel; no matter who is in the driver’s seat it continues to crush the people.”
Aristotle The Hun
At every level of life we recognize that the more complicated any system becomes the less efficient its function. Complicated systems overwhelm the people who participate in them.
For example, let’s look at people and their possessions. Most of us have made the observation that as we accumulate “things” there comes a time when our things own us, rather than us owning our things. My wife has created a system that prevents her closet from taking over our house. She will not put a new piece of clothing into her closet unless she eliminates something that is already there.
Many businesses have a similar policy. In addition to not adding a new policy without eliminating an outdated policy, managers do a periodic analysis of the existing bureaucracy to determine what paperwork and procedures need to be eliminated.
Governments would do well to implement similar solutions. Most government programs have a constituency of voters who object to “their” special interest program being eliminated, resulting in a system that eventually overwhelms the citizens. Not only are government agencies inefficient, they often produce “schizophrenic” results, like attempts to reduce the use of tobacco at the same time that tobacco growers are receiving government subsidies.
This not just a modern problem! The same dynamics were present in large systems thousands of years ago. Bureaucratic inertia was as much a cause for the fall of the Roman Empire as barbarians at the gates. The ancient Jews had a solution to the problem that has escaped the attention of leaders of modern government systems.
"This fiftieth year is sacred—it is a time of freedom and of celebration, when everyone will receive back their original property, and slaves will return home to their families. " Leviticus 25:10
Every fifty years all debts were cancelled, all slaves were freed, and all land was returned to the ancestral owners. There were several other provisions associated with the Year of Jubilee. This religious tradition was a way for an entire culture to be reset, or “rebooted,” in order to wipe out the accumulated bureaucratic inertia. We modern people can “defrag” our computers, but we don’t know how to “defrag” our federal government."
..............................................
View the complete post at:
http://thesteadydrip.blogspot.com/20...r-vote-to.html