Governments, Conspiracies and You
Joe QuinnSigns of the Times
11/03/2006
There are approximately 6 billion of us on this planet, the lives and fortunes of whom are directed in various ways by a relatively small group of elected, or unelected, individuals who together make up what is called 'government'.
No individual or group alive today can lay claim to having come up with the idea that an individual or a small group should possess inordinate power over the majority of humanity. Almost all peoples throughout recorded history were born into a world where some form of government or another already existed, including those individuals who, during their lifetime, became part of this ruling class.
There are two possible explanations as to why some form of government or other - a ruling class in opposition to the masses of humanity - has existed now for countless generations.
The first explanation is that it is fundamental to human nature to look to a leader or leaders to take and enact decisions on behalf of the rest. The argument goes that, due to another fundamental aspect of human nature - the tendency towards service to self - leadership by an individual or small group is necessary to ensure that a structured society, even the most primitive, can succeed without descending into anarchy, violence and survival of the fittest, and that even those humans who wish that it were not so, innately understand this and therefore willingly embrace a hierarchy as a necessary evil. Leadership, or government, then, is a structure that is put in place essentially to protect the people from themselves while maintaining the structure of society for the benefit of all, and places power into the hands of the few who present themselves as most able to do the job.
Let us notice this important fact: by and large in recent history, those that have presented themselves, or have been presented by others, as being fit for the job of leadership, have been elected or selected as a result of their own claims, or the claims of their associates, as to their competence rather than due to any apparent and innate leadership qualities that could be verified by the citizens to be governed. That is to say, society is too large for direct contact and intimate knowledge of the leaders by all of the people, so we end up having to trust the leaders' claims or the claims of their associates, as to their eligibility to hold positions of power over us.
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posted by ... @ 11:26 AM
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