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Politics : Don't Blame Me, I Voted For Kerry -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Cogito who wrote (79794)	10/9/2006 5:18:03 PM
From: one_less	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 81568

"Are you suggesting that in the United States, the only reason we accept the government's authority is because we will be shot if we don't?" Try an insurgency in New Jersey and see what happens.

To: Cogito who wrote (79794)	10/9/2006 6:59:32 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 81568

In your zeal to disagree with me, you've veered into a very strange place. Are you suggesting that in the United States, the only reason we accept the government's authority is because we will be shot if we don't? No. But I would suggest that the US government's power to rule is based on force. In a Democracy, the government's ability to rule is based on the consent of the governed, by definition. Every type of government's ability to rule is based on force. In a democracy it is presumably force supported by the majority but you will never get universal consent, and sometimes you don't even get a majority (you might get a plurality, or you might get a strong special interest imposing its vision over a less active or powerful majority). Even when you get 99% you impose the decision by force over the other 1%. In any country with an active revolution, civil war, or insurgency the force will have to be a more open part of the equation, it will be applied more often, on a larger scale, and in more obvious ways, but that doesn't mean democratic governments are based on force.