bprice@bmcg.UUCP (07/11/84)
It was just asked--"How do you justify placing restrictions on government that
you do not place on business" The question requested no value-judgements on
the relative merits of business vs government.
The "value-free" answer is quite simple, really: government is established as
THE repository of force. By establishing a government, the society denies to
every other body the right to initiate the use of force or other coercion. In
so doing, society delivers to government all right to use force, either as
initiative or as response. The exceptions arise from the possibility of not
being able to find a policeman when you need one--self-defense is allowed, but
only when no official ("permissable") counterforce is available, and never in
excess.
There is still great danger--the society, by neglect, deceit, or otherwise,
might allow the government to be coopted by special interests. ("Eternal
vigilence is the price of liberty.") Such special interests could be
business (like the telephone monopoly), religion (vide the current perversion
of "freedom of religion" in the US), just plain power-grabbers (like ecofreaks,
gays, and members of the democrat party), to mention just a few. To be sure,
having control of the force monopoly of a country is very tempting to many
people. Seldom is such control used well--usually, it is abused: such abuse
can be for many reasons. The most obvious is the Bert Lance reason: monetary
profit. Sometimes it is the LBJ reason: the enjoyment of power for power's
sake. Or it could be the Jimmy Carter/JFK reason: to force the adoption of
one's personal beliefs by "the peepul".
Once in a while, we see such phenomena as Eisenhower: to do an impossible job
well. More often than cynics wish to believe, we see a Washington, Jefferson,
or Reagan: to make this "noble experiment in freedom" work and last.
I see that this reply has gone from meta-politics thru politics, into reality.
Thus it's time to consider it finished.
--
--Bill Price uucp: {decvax!ucbvax philabs}!sdcsvax!bmcg!bprice
arpa:? sdcsvax!bmcg!bprice@nosc