By Ihr Hase
The Individual Versus The State
The real opposition with government is not a left/right issue it is an “up/down” one, about more or less individual liberty, it is the difference between Liberalism and Statism, the power of the individual against the power of the state. As demonstrated previously, the left/right issues only serve the purpose of taking liberty from individuals in exchange for empowering the state, the end result being the annihilation of the individual. Where do you place value, is the question, do you value the liberty to live your life without depriving the life or liberty from others or would you rather the state oppress your life through legislation?
Liberalism is the label of individual liberty expressed in government, a society of individuals that can agree that liberty is the rule of the land, and the government is assigned few and nominal tasks. This is not a lawless society, but a society that has laws the entire population can draw back to the basic human rights. This is to say; not violating another’s rights is not violating the law and violating the law means separation from society. The republic (1) is the embodiment of this society, as described in the United States Constitution, very reminiscent of the primary republic of ancient Rome, after the monarchy was overthrown, known as Res Publica Romana.
Merriam-Webster: Republic
Main Entry: re·pub·lic
Function: noun
Etymology: French république, from Middle French republique, from Latin respublica, from res thing, wealth + publica, feminine of publicus public
Date: 1604
1 a (1): a government having a chief of state who is not a monarch and who in modern times is usually a president (2): a political unit (as a nation) having such a form of government b (1): a government in which supreme power resides in a body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by elected officers and representatives responsible to them and governing according to law (2): a political unit (as a nation) having such a form of government c: a usually specified republican government of a political unit
2: a body of persons freely engaged in a specified activity
3: a constituent political and territorial unit of the former nations of Czechoslovakia, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or Yugoslavia
As we can see the definition b (1) is the only objective entry, a government that rules according to the law and the power resides in the hands of the citizens who have the right to vote. The laws of this ancient republic were written in stone, the civil rights could not be tampered with and were respected by the governing Senate and Plebeian Council, this is the “republican form of government” guaranteed by the Constitution (2). The Bill of Rights (3) is the enumeration of the rights the government should never trespass against, these first ten Amendments to the Constitution truly list the boundaries of a government for the United States and advocate the power of the individual to hold this government accountable if it were ever to overstep it’s boundaries. This is why the founders are referred to as liberals, because they created a government that was held to respect the rights of the individual, individual liberty, therefore they created a Republic.
As we look to the opposite of Liberalism we will find the gradual decline into a tyrannical government system known as Statism, the left and right versions of this are negligible because the individual looses liberty either way. Statism is represented in total by the Oligarchy, defined below as a government by the few, despite the concurrence with the corruption that is mentioned, oligarchic government is a small group that exercises control over the population.
Merriam-Webster: oligarchy
Main Entry: ol·i·gar·chy
Function: noun
Date: 1542
1: government by the few
2: a government in which a small group exercises control especially for corrupt and selfish purposes; also: a group exercising such control
3: an organization under oligarchic control
The laws of an oligarchy do not hold the governing powers accountable, this is a very Machiavellian form of government, where the ends justify the means, where the rule of law is the rule of the time. Representative Democracies are often oligarchies, where the representatives are elected, empowered by the majority and require a majority of representatives to change the law of the land. Remember that no law, not even a basic human right, is safe in this form of government, if the right to speak against the government is not popular then speaking against the government is illegal. In order for the oligarchy to enforce it’s power on the people, it must control all aspects of the average person’s life, where what you see, what you read, verily what you know is subject to litigation. This form of government is reminiscent of the monarchies of old, where the few decided the very fate of the individual, where the whim of nobility was applicable as the law.
Democracy, the God of the Oligarchy
Currently, an oligarchy is a government of complacent consent; the “herd” mentality is praised over the individual to propagate a tyranny of the majority, where the 51st percentile decides the level of freedom for all. It is the idea that the best for most is the best for all; this is the representation of the annihilation of the individual, truly considered a high crime in a republic where individual liberty trumps the state.
Merriam-Webster: Democracy (5)
Main Entry: de·moc·ra·cy
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle French democratie, from Late Latin democratia, from Greek dēmokratia, from dēmos + -kratia -cracy
Date: 1576
1 a: government by the people; especially: rule of the majority b: a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections
2: a political unit that has a democratic government
3 capitalized: the principles and policies of the Democratic Party in the United States
4: the common people especially when constituting the source of political authority
5: the absence of hereditary or arbitrary class distinctions or privileges
Objectively the democracy is the rule of the majority, so by design people would have to organize in voting blocks to gain a majority in society in order to have true representation of their beliefs. What normally happens in this case is a compromise of morality, a choosing of the “lesser of two evils”, one who agrees with the most important issues, but mainly not with many others. On the national level these voting blocks will take a singular issue and bind together in a Nationalist or Collectivist voting block, completely compromising their ideals for one issue that they value, usually in a herd this size we are talking about the emotional response to the opposition party. The best current example is the enormous amount of people who voted Democrat because they were not Republican, and really not considering anything else.
The representative democracy is what the oligarchy truly stems from, where democratically elected representatives are granted the supreme power of the people but volition of election. The idea is that the people can vote the person out in the next election, but while they are in office their power is that of the people, surrendered at the voting booth. Representative Democracies often polarize the voting blocks to generate infighting, allowing the government to act unnoticed, by choosing a left or right issue to be the cornerstone of the party platform. The people who voted for the “winner” feel empowered and often disregard the rights of the people that did not vote for their candidate, attributing complaints as “sore loser syndrome”. The reality is the representatives are not bound by their campaign promises (examples: Bush Sr., Clinton, Bush Jr., Obama) and only have to placate the majority of their constituency to secure re-election. The majority can be fooled by supporting campaign promises in word and by supporting legislative measures, but working with other representatives to have the majority vote against these pieces of legislation.
With a democracy, you are always doomed to the path of oligarchy; even with the best intentions in mind, giving any power to the government is taking away from your individual liberty and therefore your personal role in the society as a whole. One should always question the placement of public trust, it is a powerful tool and the abuse of it has a catastrophic result on the population, genocide, one that in almost all cases, comes to fruition.
Politics Illustrated
Now, with all the information provided we can correct the political diagram found earlier to demonstrate the reality a little better than what we are used to seeing.
This diagram (6) is supported by all my logical claims, the references and real world examples, as the correct view of politics, the left (Collectivist) and right (Nationalist) issues, the Liberalism (Autonomy) and Statism (Democracy) battle for power and the forms of government that these political stances generate (Republic, Oligarchy - Social Democracies, Fascist and Communist Regimes).
1 republic. (2009). In Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Retrieved April 12, 2009, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/republic
2 US Constitution Article IV Section 4
“The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government”
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution_transc...
3 US Constitution Bill Of Rights
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/bill_of_rights_tran...
4 oligarchy. (2009). In Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary.
Retrieved April 12, 2009, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/oligarchy
5 democracy. (2009). In Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary.
Retrieved April 12, 2009, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/democracy
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