Tags
Conservatism, Democracy, Empiricism, Historical Development, Ideology, Liberalism, Philosophy of Governance, Pragmatism
The persistent mantra of the call for limiting the size and power of government that has so captured the imagination of a certain segment of the American body politic sounds very well to those of us who would do what we will in our own personal and economic spheres, but no amount of suasion is very likely to have significant effect, aside from the occasional lip service when the country’s mood requires it, to the actual trajectory of growth of governmental power.
The sad fact is that the law of government is that it must grow, not less than it is the nature of rabbits and of entropy to increase. The simple reason for the growth is the natural reluctance of those in authority to relinquish it but rather always to increase the power they hold. What bureaucrat, after all, has ever volunteered to reduce his budget or his reach?
If we are to examine the trajectories of governmental institutions throughout history, we likewise find that once a governmental system has emerged from the infighting, it promptly will commence to establish and shore up its power position. We see this pattern, for example, in the emergence of strong monarchy in Europe in the Middle Ages, just as we do in the rise of empires of the East and of the ancients.
Only when a governmental power is overthrown, by war, disaster or even revolution does it give up the growth of its reach, only to be replaced by the next emerging government which next begins its own power-agglomeration cycle.
The Myth of Sisyphus 
jonolan said:
Largely true, but the nation and its true people benefit during those times of culling. It takes time, sometimes generations, for the vermin to repopulate enough to be a problem again.
Indeed, if those segments of the population that the Statists use an excuse for government growth can be wholly or mostly exterminated or subjugated, the issue can be resolved for very long periods of time.
The problem to-date has been a reluctance to cull the supporters and primary recipients of the bloated government.
Sisyphus said:
A cogent point, but, it would seem to me, difficult to implement in practice.
jonolan said:
It’s been implemented in practice myriad times throughout Man’s history. It’s not difficult, just painful more often than not.
Sisyphus said:
The trouble with all those implementations is that we are still far from having implemented.
jonolan said:
That’s not a trouble with those implementations. That;s a trouble with Americans. We have gotten the government, in both low quality and high quantity, that we deserve.