The God of the Machine - Tranche 18
Posted by mshupe 1 year, 5 months ago to Government
Chapter IX, Excerpt 2 of 2
The Function of Government
For a civilized economy, extending through time and space, there must be an agency to witness long-term contracts. This is why savages have no occasion for formal government. This function is performed by a constitution, which establishes a limit beyond which government has no legitimate power. The governor has no part in getting up steam, producing energy; and as a mechanism, it is a release instrument. The moral faculty is in the individual.
The first thing a government does is to issue an edict or law. No edict or law can impart to an individual a faculty denied him by nature . . . it cannot bestow intelligence. There must be an enabling clause which appropriates money or material from taxes laid upon private resources. Government is necessary for economic relations over time and space . . . in so far as the individual inhibitory faculty is not exercised. The creative processes do not function by order, but death can be ordered.
Government is an agent, not an entity. Rights are by definition inalienable; only privileges can be transferred. There is no collective good. Good is obtained by reception and mastery of the forces of nature, and through voluntary association. The greatest good of the greatest number is a vicious phrase. Man has natural and social relationships, which are also of the spiritual order. It is the spiritual possibility which the collectivist society forbids expression.
The Function of Government
For a civilized economy, extending through time and space, there must be an agency to witness long-term contracts. This is why savages have no occasion for formal government. This function is performed by a constitution, which establishes a limit beyond which government has no legitimate power. The governor has no part in getting up steam, producing energy; and as a mechanism, it is a release instrument. The moral faculty is in the individual.
The first thing a government does is to issue an edict or law. No edict or law can impart to an individual a faculty denied him by nature . . . it cannot bestow intelligence. There must be an enabling clause which appropriates money or material from taxes laid upon private resources. Government is necessary for economic relations over time and space . . . in so far as the individual inhibitory faculty is not exercised. The creative processes do not function by order, but death can be ordered.
Government is an agent, not an entity. Rights are by definition inalienable; only privileges can be transferred. There is no collective good. Good is obtained by reception and mastery of the forces of nature, and through voluntary association. The greatest good of the greatest number is a vicious phrase. Man has natural and social relationships, which are also of the spiritual order. It is the spiritual possibility which the collectivist society forbids expression.
"Government is an agent, not an entity." The evil inhabitants of government can whip a man and make him work. They cannot whip him and make him think or create.
It is distressing to think that America, the land of Individual Rights, is following the same path to dissolution and destruction as every other government or empire regardless of type or philosophy.
"...Government is necessary for economic relations over time and space . . . " Those who have inhabited the halls of government, whether voted in, hired on, or by force of arms have never been able or willing to limit themselves to performing just this function. Sooner or later arrogance, greed, and power lust presage the decline.
The tether line on the actions of government employees needs to be explicitly spelled out and a specific mechanism designed to be triggered whenever their actions exceed the limits imposed on them.
Congress should be controlled in their ability to off-load their responsibilities to unaccountable unelected bureaucrats and contractors.
The power of the currency should be in private hands with only the proviso that the money be commodity based (gold and silver) so anyone holding that bill can easily determine its value.
G. Edward Griffin had a plan on how this might be accomplished in his book The Creature from Jekyll Island.
Even if we only end up with is a framework for a future Constitution based on Individual Rights, we will have opened the door for recovery after the coming collapse.
John Adams wrote in 1815 “But what do we mean by the American Revolution? Do we mean the American war? The Revolution was effected before the war commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments of their duties and obligations. … This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people, was the real American Revolution.”
Could the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution have been written if the ideas and ideals articulated by the Founders weren’t in “the minds and hearts of the people”? I would say no! The energy provided by the support of the people was integral to that “greatest government structural document ever devised”.
That energy is sadly missing in America 2023 along with the ethics and epistemology necessary to rekindle it.
Yes, you are correct. An attempted Constitutional Convention would be a dangerous thing – aborted in the womb – with no chance of success as you and I would define success viz. based on Individual Rights as the highest value.
Based on her discussions in this chapter, and specifically her comparison of government to a brake or governor, I would suggest that in terms of physics, government might be seen as friction or entropy. Not productive, but inescapable (at least above the level of savages).
Unfortunately, our "representatives," in at least two branches of government, don't seem to realize this. They have no problem extending their reach well beyond the limits imposed by our constitution. The fact that these acts are beyond the "legitimate" bounds of government seems to make no difference.
Can I get a pony with that, too ;-)