As stars above a certain mass collapse into black holes, so every government above a certain size becomes authoritarian in nature, no matter how enlightened and compassionate its masters claim to be. Democracy slows this process somewhat, but does not prevent it.
Political power has gravity. It inevitably reaches beyond its legal boundaries, finding ways to exceed its constitutional limits by using private capital. The more power we allow to accumulate in a centralized authority, the stronger this gravitational field becomes.
Big Gov simply has too many ways to command and cajole private resources to enforce the ruling Party's ideology. The notion of restraining a State that spends trillions of dollars it doesn't have is absurd. It can use that money to wield power beyond any limit legislators impose.
Big Money doesn't have to be threatened into obedience, although the mega-State can and will do that. Big Money will eagerly volunteer to assist the ruling Party and win the favor of the mega-State, with its endless piles of subsidy money and vast coercive powers.
The State will use its money and power to interfere with elections, as we see with increasingly frequency. Loyal constituencies are easily purchased. The list of topics voters are permitted to vote upon grows ever shorter. The ruling Party rewrites election laws in its favor.
Government IS coercion, by definition. Accumulating huge amounts of coercive force inevitably produces an authoritarian mindset. The masters of the State inevitably decide their power is an absolute good, so anything that reduces their power is evil and treasonous.
You see this kind of thinking everywhere in American politics today. Anyone who proposes a reduction in State power is evil, selfish, greedy, callous - a monster whose only possible motivations are pure malice, or loyalty to vile corporate interests that do not serve the Party.
Officials in a Leviathan State MUST learn to see themselves in messianic terms, to soothe their consciences as they seize money from those who earned it and wield ever-increasing compulsive force. They must see their power as sacred to escape any notion that it might be profane.
After all, obedience is the fuel that drives the engine of power. No one is powerful unless they can make others obey. Disobedience dilutes power, and if the State is to wield power beyond the law, merely DISCUSSING disobedience becomes unacceptable. Speech must be controlled.
Just as there are no big, honest governments because corruption inevitably follows the accumulation of power, so there are no big, libertarian governments. The authoritarian mindset and its associated behaviors inevitable set in as the State devours money and liberty.
Those who support the growth of the State always promise they will never become tyrants, and sometimes they even believe it, although later in the process they usually drop that pretense and begin explaining why Authoritarianism Is Good, Actually, If Good People Are In Charge.
No one can be allowed to disagree with the consensus of experts, or the crusade for social justice, or saving the Earth, or the fierce urgency of now, or the arc of history! Dissent becomes unacceptable and disobedience unthinkable. We live in a constant "state of emergency."
These are all phenomena to be seen on the event horizon of a once-republican State collapsing into authoritarianism, its gravitational reach for power having long ago transcended the limits of constitutions or elections. You will never be given a chance to vote against it. /end
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
