A Knuckle Dragging Neanderthal Asking a Simple Question

by: Les Carpenter
Rational Nation USA
Birthplace of Independent Conservationism

"Society in every state is a blessing, but government, even in its best state, is
but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer or
are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country
without government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the
means by which we suffer." --Thomas Paine, Common Sense, 1776

Just imagine... this "knuckle dragging Neanderthal independent conservative" reading, and actually understanding, Thomas Paine. Who would have thought?

So progressives, what is your excuse?


Cross posted to LCR

Comments

  1. Jersey McJonesTue Apr 05, 01:42:00 AM EDT

    Paine is wrong.

    Government is a product of society. It is not necessarily good or evil. It simply is a projection of the civilization that produces or creates it. It may seem burdensome, but burden is not per se evil. It is a trade: the more advanced and civilized the society, the more governance it will have. Government is the bones of the body public.

    Power, though, like money and sex, can and usually does corrupt. It's not so much some overall power of government that causes problems, but particular powers can be particularly corrupting. For example, the power of the modern American executive branch to pretty much endlessly wage undeclared wars.

    There are no blessings. That's just silly superstition. Things do happen for a reason, and those reasons are reasonably explainable. We live in a society that is a product of society, history, and change. We have presidents who can endlessly wage wars because we voters are stupidly paranoid enough to believe that we are at constant existential threat from others, each other, and abroad.

    Thomas Paine, anarchist that he was, never imagined things as they are today, let alone how to manage the same sort of hyperbolic rhetoric he himself embraced in such an advanced society.

    That quote is trite today.

    JMJ

    ReplyDelete
  2. Les CarpenterTue Apr 05, 08:02:00 AM EDT

    YADA, YADA, YADA...

    ReplyDelete
  3. SilverfiddleTue Apr 05, 09:25:00 AM EDT

    The left has no excuse, Les. Jersey proves that progressive statism must reject the founders, because the founders' classical liberalism is completely incompatible with modern progressive statism.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Les CarpenterTue Apr 05, 09:33:00 AM EDT

    Agreed Silver. It's a shame really, what modern progressive statism has done to classical liberalism.

    I'm not sure where the greatest responsibility lies. But my best money is on the institutions of higher learning.

    A close second, the lamestream media.

    ReplyDelete

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