I’m making the case for doing away with government and replacing it with something better. For now we’re focusing on the case for doing away with it. The something better part will come later.
So far, we’ve established the following regarding government:
- Its authority exists in its ability to exert lethal force though weaker force will do too.
- That authority is maintained by paying people to do the wet work. This usually is the police or military, but can also be hired assassins, other countries’ military and police, the mob, and who knows who else?
- That force is wielded by a sovereign authority—a person or group of people imbued with supreme, independent dominance over others.
- In the US, that sovereign authority appears to be the people. However, it is clear that behind that facade, it has and continues to be a select few people and businesses holding this supreme independent dominance over the rest of us.
You’ve heard the saying: Absolute power corrupts absolutely. The problem with that statement is that any power tends to lead to the consolidation of more power and once that happens, it’s hard to let go of that shit. Seriously. That’s why we have term limits in the United States! The momentum behind authoritative leadership swells and distorts until it becomes and out of touch with the everyday needs of those that authority is supposed to serve. I describe it as momentum because “evil” is a concept I find unhelpful.
This momentum, gets bigger and bigger and more and more out of control. And this is why the idea of modernizing government, making it people friendly, making it more efficient or reforming it doesn’t work. The momentum of government’s preeminent authority becomes so great, turning that ship is impossible.
This is why courageous popular uprisings, such as those in Bolivia, the Middle East, the US, China, and recently Hong Kong, are echoes of a bygone era where such tactics worked. Today, these tactics are impotent against the momentum of sovereign authority government wields. In fact, I will go further and argue that such demonstrations actually strengthen that which the people demonstrate against!
Efforts to reform, modernize, or inject compassion into government have the same effect. They succeed just enough to placate the petitioners. Meanwhile, it’s business as usual.
So momentum is yet another reason why it’s necessary to eliminate government. It has so much momentum, any change it actually enacts will have little impact on government’s trajectory.
The case for eliminating government is almost complete. The final argument I think will surprise you.