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Our government, at least under this administration and other recent administrations, seems to have forgotten that they exist to _serve_ us. Maybe it's not trea

Our government, at least under this administration and other recent administrations, seems to have forgotten that they exist to _serve_ us. Maybe it's not treason, but it's definitely an abdication of their responsibilities as public servants.

webXL 10y ago
"When government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny." It's not so much tyranny that we fear these days but rather the consequences of ceding more and more power to such a corrupt and inept bunch.
- 1stop 10y ago
  Or the realisation that WE are that corrupt and inept bunch. It's not like government workers are a 'special elite' class...
  - webXL 10y ago
    Not in our minds, but these people see others with power and think if only they had that power, preferably centralized (who likes redundancies??? DRY!), they could do something really special. They are The Anointed[1]. They've cracked the code somehow. But they get to the helm only to discover there's 10 other hands on the wheel, and no one can see the effect until well after the next election cycle. [1] https://www.amazon.com/Vision-Anointed-Self-Congratulation-Social-Policy/dp/046508995X https://www.amazon.com/Vision-Anointed-Self-Congratulation-S...
  - simbalion 10y ago
    This is an excellent point. This may seem off-topic, but I realized some time ago during the debates about minimum wage increases, it wasn't the managers of fast food joints being the loudest opposition, it was lower-middle class people who don't want to give up their $1 cheeseburgers, no matter what the societal costs. If you create distance between a person and the consequences of their evil, they become more likely to tolerate their evil.
csydas 10y ago
Let me pop-on my tinfoil hat first here... I don't think this has been the case for a long time. The US government is subservient to its own interests, and no other - like any other government, its citizenship benefits only as a coincidence of the actions of the government, not as an intentional boon to the citizens. Appeasements are made to keep a docile citizenship, and otherwise the condition of the country is made "just good enough" for those in positions of power to live the way they want, on the tax payer's expense. The system of checks and balances is a farce intended to give the illusion of control, but ultimately those with money or good connections (often one begets the other) live by a special set of rules. The idea that the general public has the power to somehow control the Federal Government or even local State Governments is simply inaccurate - the Federal level is protected by its own allegedly self-correcting system which basically means that they decide their own fate, and the State level avoids problems simply by throwing more money than the citizenship can muster at any problem. Individual public servants may enjoy helping their fellow person; bus drivers, postal workers, maintenance crews, I do not doubt they take pride in the work they do to improve the places they live and the people they serve. But the organizations themselves, the structures that these human workers live under, are machines designed to benefit a small elite few privileged enough to be part of the oligarchy. This is how governments work - they're a soul-less tool used by an elite few, given legitimacy from the citizenship through the elective process, a largely ceremonial event at this juncture. Even a direct democracy still surrenders power and riches to a small few - the white salary from the contract may say one price, the perks and benefits though add up to something else completely different.
- arca_vorago 10y ago
  I would posit something even scarier... My theory is that the US gov isn't even serving it's own interests. Allow me to explain. While it may seem like the corruption and cronyism that has grown rampant in DC and WallStreet is a result of organic self interest, almost every larger geopolitical and geostrategic move we make is focused on the immediate short term, with a complete ignorance of future blow back. At first this just seems like self interest combined with incompetence, but after years of trying to understand the bigger picture since I participated in the Iraq war, I have come to a different conclusion: The Supranational oligarchy, in particular the British oligarchy of London City and the vestiges of monarchy around the globe, have infiltrated and subverted our government at the very highest levels in order to bring us down from within, and pave a path for the solution side of the hegellian dialectic to be to join global government. I actually have plenty of references and citations to back this up, but to be frank I question if the turn key totalitarian surveillance state has already been given to much power, if that dissenting will become dangerous to life at some point when they install a dictator, break all the encrypted comma stored in Utah and Texas, and start walking the cat back. As Hitchens said, The American Revolution is the only revolution left that still stands a chance. I think McCarthy, for all his antics, was actually onto something, but he went after low totem pole people and should have focusing at the very top of agencies. An NSA equivalent to the star chamber and a CIA formed by the teachings of the British by WallStreet lawyers (which are almost all lackeys for London), would then start to fit the current picture state of things much better than simple Machiavellianism run amok.

webXL 10y ago

"When government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny." It's not so much tyranny that we fear these days but rather the consequences of ceding more and more power to such a corrupt and inept bunch.

1stop 10y ago
Or the realisation that WE are that corrupt and inept bunch. It's not like government workers are a 'special elite' class...
- webXL 10y ago
  Not in our minds, but these people see others with power and think if only they had that power, preferably centralized (who likes redundancies??? DRY!), they could do something really special. They are The Anointed[1]. They've cracked the code somehow. But they get to the helm only to discover there's 10 other hands on the wheel, and no one can see the effect until well after the next election cycle. [1] https://www.amazon.com/Vision-Anointed-Self-Congratulation-Social-Policy/dp/046508995X https://www.amazon.com/Vision-Anointed-Self-Congratulation-S...
- simbalion 10y ago
  This is an excellent point. This may seem off-topic, but I realized some time ago during the debates about minimum wage increases, it wasn't the managers of fast food joints being the loudest opposition, it was lower-middle class people who don't want to give up their $1 cheeseburgers, no matter what the societal costs. If you create distance between a person and the consequences of their evil, they become more likely to tolerate their evil.

csydas 10y ago

Let me pop-on my tinfoil hat first here... I don't think this has been the case for a long time. The US government is subservient to its own interests, and no other - like any other government, its citizenship benefits only as a coincidence of the actions of the government, not as an intentional boon to the citizens. Appeasements are made to keep a docile citizenship, and otherwise the condition of the country is made "just good enough" for those in positions of power to live the way they want, on the tax payer's expense. The system of checks and balances is a farce intended to give the illusion of control, but ultimately those with money or good connections (often one begets the other) live by a special set of rules. The idea that the general public has the power to somehow control the Federal Government or even local State Governments is simply inaccurate - the Federal level is protected by its own allegedly self-correcting system which basically means that they decide their own fate, and the State level avoids problems simply by throwing more money than the citizenship can muster at any problem. Individual public servants may enjoy helping their fellow person; bus drivers, postal workers, maintenance crews, I do not doubt they take pride in the work they do to improve the places they live and the people they serve. But the organizations themselves, the structures that these human workers live under, are machines designed to benefit a small elite few privileged enough to be part of the oligarchy. This is how governments work - they're a soul-less tool used by an elite few, given legitimacy from the citizenship through the elective process, a largely ceremonial event at this juncture. Even a direct democracy still surrenders power and riches to a small few - the white salary from the contract may say one price, the perks and benefits though add up to something else completely different.

arca_vorago 10y ago
I would posit something even scarier... My theory is that the US gov isn't even serving it's own interests. Allow me to explain. While it may seem like the corruption and cronyism that has grown rampant in DC and WallStreet is a result of organic self interest, almost every larger geopolitical and geostrategic move we make is focused on the immediate short term, with a complete ignorance of future blow back. At first this just seems like self interest combined with incompetence, but after years of trying to understand the bigger picture since I participated in the Iraq war, I have come to a different conclusion: The Supranational oligarchy, in particular the British oligarchy of London City and the vestiges of monarchy around the globe, have infiltrated and subverted our government at the very highest levels in order to bring us down from within, and pave a path for the solution side of the hegellian dialectic to be to join global government. I actually have plenty of references and citations to back this up, but to be frank I question if the turn key totalitarian surveillance state has already been given to much power, if that dissenting will become dangerous to life at some point when they install a dictator, break all the encrypted comma stored in Utah and Texas, and start walking the cat back. As Hitchens said, The American Revolution is the only revolution left that still stands a chance. I think McCarthy, for all his antics, was actually onto something, but he went after low totem pole people and should have focusing at the very top of agencies. An NSA equivalent to the star chamber and a CIA formed by the teachings of the British by WallStreet lawyers (which are almost all lackeys for London), would then start to fit the current picture state of things much better than simple Machiavellianism run amok.