"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." ~ H.L. Mencken
How Government Owns People: Australia
Submitted by Melinda L. Secor on Mon, 2015-09-21 01:00
"Maybe in the next half-century, the Australian government will employ everybody in the country. Why not? It makes for a very efficient bookkeeping (surveillance) system. Everybody is on board. Everybody is tracked. Everybody is in the collective, at the bottom—except for those who rule from the top."
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Rappoport brings up interesting stuff. If everybody owns everyone, nobody will have to work for anybody. What a gay life (pun intended).
In my dotage I've come to see my life as having been filled with various "fixations". Were I a politician, I would definitely fit what "you-the-people" think of as a flip-flopper. (I ceased years ago wishing to be included in a "we-the-people" collective mentality. Perhaps "you-the-people" is unfair -- I should start using "they-the-people" so as not to include you, presuming you might be of the same sentiment).
I've been ultra-liberal, ultra-conservative, ultra-religious, ultra-agnostic -- you name it, I've practiced it. In spades.
Since last time I ever participated or voted in a political election (1964 -- over a half century ago, for Barry Goldwater) I've steered a relatively steady course toward anarchy, with some tacks along the way. Of course I had to go through the wailing and gnashing of teeth stage and whining over "our-country-is-declining-into-a-police-state". Later I came to see that the moment I think in terms like "our-country", I've lost my bearings to the course toward liberty. All rulership collectives (dubbed "countries", "nations") harbor the seeds of totalitarianism.
Lately "jurisdiction" has been my fascination. There are two ways jurisdiction can be in force: consent, and force of arms. Nobody has enough firepower to subdue and/or rule an entire population, so the science of rulership must weigh heavily upon consent. The early emperors -- our true "forefathers" -- understood this.
Étienne de La Boétie also understood this. His treatise is as valid today as it was nearly 500 years ago. It's probably time for more of us to take charge of our own lives and well-being and of those we love.
And above all, abstain from beans. Sam