Thursday, September 27, 2012

Don't Vote For the Beast - Use Your Vote to Tame the Beast!


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:
  1. The inherent inefficiency and inertia of large, complex entities
  2. 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  In addition to not adding a new policy without eliminating an outdated policy, managers do a periodic analysis of the existing bureaucracy to determine what paperwork and procedures need to be eliminated.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.



The problems associated with complex systems are not unique to the government of the United States.  In fact the founding fathers who created the Constitution built in some safeguards because they were already aware of the problem.  The 10th Amendment is one of those attempts to curtail the unrelenting tendency of government to grow into a curse upon free men and women.

“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

This Constitutional Amendment was intended to restrict the power and size of the federal government.  Over the decades the federal government has steadily centralized its power, while the 10th amendment has been mostly ignored.

For example, if the 10th amendment were respected, the Federal Environmental Protection Agency would cease to exist, and individual state agencies would protect the environment of each state.  Also, the Federal Department of Education would be eliminated, and local school boards would set the standards and supervise the education in each individual community.

As you might suspect ““The Beast”” and “The “Children of The Beast”” are adamantly opposed to such corrections.

It is a fundamental truth that all systems grow to the point where their internal inertia causes them to fail.  So it is clear that we are struggling with dynamics more profound than modern politics in the United States.  These dynamics are rooted into the very nature of reality, even showing up in complicated systems of the physical world of engineering and physics.  The more complex the system, the less efficient and more unwieldy it becomes.

“The Beast” That Was, and Is Not, and Yet Is
(Revelation 17:8)

Now, there is a riddle for you!  I remember a speech I heard by the flamboyant trial attorney, Gerry Spence.  He said, “I had a very successful career working for corporations and the government.  I won every case that went to trial.  Then I became aware that I was working for virtual, non-human entities that had no actual existence.  My clients were artificial, abstract ‘creatures’ whose only claim on reality was a concept or a contract defined by the laws of man.  I also noticed that when I won a case for a corporation or the government that real live human beings, with blood pumping through their veins and breath moving in and out of their lungs, were victimized by the ‘non-breathers.’  That is when I vowed never to have another non-breathing client for the rest of my career.  If you can’t fog up a cold mirror with your breath, I will not be your attorney.”

I think Gerry Spence solved the above riddle.  If it doesn’t breathe, it is “The Beast.”  If “The Beast” serves human needs it should be domesticated, cared for, and kept on a tight rein.  If “The Beast” intimidates human beings and expects the humans to serve IT, the time has come to bring out the cattle prods and force ““The Beast”” back into submission. 

Metaphorically, American citizens are struggling with “The Beast” that has forgotten who is serving whom. I wonder if the right to bear arms includes cattle prods.  J

Our elected leaders are expected to accept the responsibility of controlling “The Beast.”  Why do you think the Constitution has all those phrases, “The government shall not …”?

If, instead, our elected leaders begin serving “The Beast,” it becomes the responsibility of each individual citizen to ensure that “The Beast” is properly subordinated to ‘We the People.’  Many of our elected leaders are “Children of The Beast.”  Many of our citizens have become “Children of The Beast.”  They worship the glory and the power of “The Beast.” They accept gifts from “The Beast,” and they become dependent upon “The Beast.”  

A vote that strengthens the BEAST is a danger to us all.  Vote to Tame the Beast!


Read the full article here: http://beastchildren.blogspot.com/

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