The following discussion clip is from the Occupy Wall Street demand discussion list.
Here is the lead in post from flavian:
Why fight me ? Because I want freedom ? Real freedom ? The kind we never had before ?
“To be GOVERNED is to be watched, inspected, spied upon, directed, law-driven, numbered, regulated, enrolled, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, checked, estimated, valued, censured, commanded, by creatures who have neither the right nor the wisdom nor the virtue to do so. To be GOVERNED is to be at every operation, at every transaction noted, registered, counted, taxed, stamped, measured, numbered, assessed, licensed, authorized, admonished, prevented, forbidden, reformed, corrected, punished. It is, under pretext of public utility, and in the name of the general interest, to be place[d] under contribution, drilled, fleeced, exploited, monopolized, extorted from, squeezed, hoaxed, robbed; then, at the slightest resistance, the first word of complaint, to be repressed, fined, vilified, harassed, hunted down, abused, clubbed, disarmed, bound, choked, imprisoned, judged, condemned, shot, deported, sacrificed, sold, betrayed; and to crown all, mocked, ridiculed, derided, outraged, dishonored. That is government; that is its justice; that is its morality.”
Nanook::
Oops! You left out a word: RESPONSIBILITY! ( I think another follow-up to your post used the word “immaturity” ) NONE of the controls you listed would be needed if humans took the “responsibility” to follow the “rules”. And why do we need rules, you might ask? Simple. To COORDINATE the actions of MANY PEOPLE using the same resources. And why do we need coordination, you might ask? Because life is complex. For example, you can’t just drive a car anywhere, anyway you want. If you did, you’d conflict with the “freedom” of other people by crashing into them and end up hurting both them and you.
There are some important observations, however, that can be drawn from your list.
Human culture has always followed an AUTHORITARIAN model. Even with the democratic addition of majority voting, once the vote is taken, there is only ONE path people all have to follow. And many people in government are power hungry and apply the laws as if they were police with unlimited power. It doesn’t have to be that way.
I used to live in the quiet, well to do town of Weston Massachusetts. I was amazed one day after being pulled over by a police car. The officer came to the car and asked for the usual – license and registration – which I provided. He then said, “I APOLOGIZE for the inconvenience of pulling you over. First, I want to say, seeing you are a Weston resident, that the Weston police see themselves as public servants. So please try to see my actions that way. The reason I pulled you over is that you have a tail light out. I’m not going to give you a ticket for this. You do understand that this could be dangerous for you, right?”
I was totally flabbergasted! But consider how all your concerns: watched, inspected, spied upon, directed, law-driven, numbered, regulated, etc. would change if people cooperated with the rules to begin with and government employees really tried to be helpers, rather than rulers and punishers? ( The reason humans abuse power is discussed on A3society.org under 7 Deadly Sins )
You also brought up whether the government has the RIGHT to do this. They do! Why? Because, collectively, as a society of people, we have given them that right, in return for creating order and a better society for all of us. The big question now is, with government using their power to create a new set of aristocrats, should we take the power back like the people of Europe had to do from all their aristocrats?
