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Politics : The Castle -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: i-node who wrote (252)	11/11/2002 9:46:38 AM
From: MSI	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 7936

Where obfuscation is useful, it becomes the norm, and only clear-minded citizens can connect the dots. Such government programs and officials survive and thrive due to the presumption of honesty and correctness of government by naive citizens, who ignorantly fail to even mildly acquaint themselves with accountability issues. "Don't question government!" is the subtext of most Beltway communications, with "We know more than you do, this is all too complicated for your pretty little head", etc. In this case, it's the naive citizen following "National Security! Ve haff State Secrets! ", ect. which gained so much currency and produced so much power for officials after the development of nuclear weapons. Those actual military secrets are a miniscule part of the massive classification procedure. The Sheeple follow, because (a)it's too much trouble to clear away the fog and add 2 + 2, (b)it's too much fun to go along with the lies and live on the government dole, and (c)it's too painful to realize one is in an occupation along with thousands or even millions of others espousing programs that are the problem rather than the solution. "Parasite" is a strong word, but gets the point across. Jefferson wrote "the natural tendency of things is for government to gain ground and for liberty to yield," so let "no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution." "Government even in its best state is but a necessary evil," Thomas Paine wrote, and "in its worst state an intolerable one." Like many Americans today, Paine believed that government added insult to injury by using tax dollars in ways that were actually harmful to the public. A healthy disrespect for politicians in particular and government in general is quintessentially American. George Washington too had a healthy disrespect for politics and politicians, viewing them as necessary evils whose powers must always be minimized. Special-interest politics, which is to say all politics, "are likely, in the course of time...to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the Power of the People, and to usurp for themselves the reins of Government." Another Jeffersonism - one of Jefferson's biggest complaints against the tyrannical King George III. "He has erected a multitude of New Offices," wrote Jefferson, "and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our People, and eat out their substance." To Jefferson, such behavior justified the American Revolution.