[quote=“Peter Kropotkin”]
let us further look at this problem/solution situation…
Ronald Raygun famously once said, that
“government is the problem, not the solution”…
because people have a hard time understanding the differerence
between problems and solutions… just like they have a hard time
understanding cause and effect…
they have a hard time trying to decide if government is the problem or
is government the solution?
so is government the problem or is government the solution?
K: so we have had time to think about this…
let us understand this historically…
We have Raygun in 1981 say that government is the problem…
going back into history, this is a return to the age of the Robber Barrons…
from roughly 1880 to the start of the first world war… again, roughly…
there they had the belief that the best government was the least amount of government…
that notion evolved as the situation changed… people could see the harm and
havoc that arose from the “pure capitalism” that was in use during that time period…
as it was also the time period when the U.S became a international power…
and during a time of being a power, a govenrment that is the least
amount of goverment cannot fulfill the functions of government that is necessary
to sustain that power status…the final death blow to the “pure capitalism” was
world war 1… where the country had to moblize quickly and the only way to do
that, was by govenrmental control…the old ideal of the least amount of
government was in place during the 1920’s and look at the end result of that…
the great depression…and it became quite clear that this ideal of the least
amount of government is the best is dead… and it was dead for 50 years until
Raygun brought it back…but under the guise of the governement being the
problem… and “pure capitalism” being the answer… but the modern world
is such, you cannot have a return to the least amount of goverenment… or to
“pure capitalism”… you have an amount of complexity that precludes any
attempt to return to the old system of the least amount of goverenment…
now what would be a cynical look at this attempt to return to the least amount
of government? it would fall along the lines of criminals trying to reduce the
amount of police involvement in dealing with crime… by reducing the government
involvement, it allows corporations and powerful individuals to escape detection and
any possible punishment…by reducing the government involvement, you in effect,
reduce any governmental actions into your business which allows one to commit
crimes undetected… imagine what criminals would do if there was no
police department? now imagine what corporations would do if they had no
governmental oversight? same thing…and we reach what is the real
result of a reduce government oversight into corporations? and the real
attempt to reduce the government… to allow corporations freedom to act
however they want and kill and maim and pollute to their hearts content…
with no governmental oversight, this is what will happen…
just as we have checks and balances in government, we have oversight
and regulations to business and corporations…and for the exact same reasons…
it has nothing to do with “personal freedom” and everything to do with
corporations wanting to act in whatever fashion they want…
and that is the result of Raygun’s attack on government… it is simply
an attempt to hide corporate malfeasance under the guise of “personal freedom”
but that would be an cynical look at the government that function best
is the government that functions least…
heaven forbid we look at this cynically…
so, is the government the problem or the solution?
the government is the policeman on the corner and the
worker who fixes the street and the schoolteacher in a school…
you get clean water and your garbage taken away and
the sewage disposed of and that is government…
and anyone who tell you that the clean water you have or the fireman
who is ready to put out your fire…is the problem… is clearly confused
as to what government actually is…
to call for less government is to call for a “wild west” mentality
and we have passed beyond that, for we are a complex and integrated
society that must have rules and regulations for it to work…
for to demand less society is to ask for a return to that society imagined by
Hobbes…“life outside of society/government is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish
and short”…for this the end result of having less government…
so Raygun is wrong and bigly wrong…for his suppose solution is no solution at all…
government is not the problem… greed and lust and hate and anger and envy
are the problems… these lower instincts which lead us to actions that damage
and hurt society… and that is the base statement… does this action help or hurt
society at large? and by any definition or understanding of the question…
is the government the problem or the solution? the answer is government is
part of the solution to the problem… how do we make an environment
that allows the most people the chance to become who they are…
and the Greeks solution was the city… and the city means government…
and who are we to argue with the Greeks?
Kropotkin