Consent of the Governed

“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.”

It seems to be the prevailing thought that the study of history cannot possibly help to better society in the technologically advanced world in which we now live. It is easy to dismiss writings even from as few as 200 years ago when we can now receive up to the minute news on a device that we can wear on our wrist that tells us the precise time of any location on the planet, all while allowing us to communicate with anyone on the planet with just the touch of a few buttons. It's truly remarkable that it took thousands of years to go from papyrus to printed paper and in less than 100 years we have all but eliminated the need for paper due to the introduction of the computer.

So why should we study history or care about what those in our past have to say about anything of importance? For one, the ancestors who came before us were smarter than we are. While we have expounded upon topics and ideas that they could only imagine, it is highly arrogant and obtuse to think that the collective knowledge of the 3 or 4 generations that currently reside on earth comes anywhere close to thousands of years of the world's most intelligent minds. A cursory review of the great minds from each individual region of this planet results in a lifetime of study.

Perhaps more important to the assertion that history is important to our time is the cyclical nature of humanity. The quote that opens up this post requires no stretch to see how it applies as much to today's current events as it did to the times in which it was written. Thomas Paine, arguably the "Father of the American Revolution" distributed that line in his pamphlet titled "Common Sense." Paine was distressed to think that the government instituted to protect its citizens not only failed to prevent the harms it was expected to prevent, but also was an active participant in harming its citizens.  Those same citizens who financially upheld their government were the ones being irreparably harmed by it. Thomas Jefferson echoed those sentiments in the writing of the Declaration of Independence.  

"That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men...That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness."

What is most important to understand when we read those words is often lost when we study the men who wrote them. We, understandably, get ensnared by the fallible men and their misgivings. The support of slavery, the excessive vices, and the indiscriminate relationships outside of marriage have been more recently the focus of modern studies of early American history. What remains, despite the moral and ethical misgivings of these men is the idea that the United States was and always has supposed to be the bastion of individual liberty and freedom. The morals and ideals of America were supposed to be the lighthouse that directed a world filled with tyranny and oppression to the Zion of hope. For a time, however brief, that may have held true, but recent events reveal a time that far more reflects the darkness of the early 1770s than the hope intended.

The government of the people, by the people, and for the people is now filled with grandiose presidents that promise the world, but deliver only on division and uncertainty. We have a congressional body that exempts itself from the harmful policies that they enact and they get away with it because the American people allow them to do so. Nearly half of the country doesn't even vote, and yet expects the government that they consent to (willfully or not), to operate in their best interests. Our previous president spoke with the skill of the greatest orators to walk the earth, but was content to continue executing many policies that do nothing but harm the American citizenry, both domestically and internationally. Despite his status as an "outsider," our current President's legacy will most assuredly be that of a fear-mongering populist that has successfully turned the American population into a vitriolic battlefield where it is wrong to even consider that someone not representing your party could actually be right.

In the 1770s it took a tyrannical king, a lackadaisical parliament, and an irate minority to turn the tide towards liberty and independence. The governmental body which was supposed to protect and defend instead was seizing citizens' property, denying basic rights, and murdering its constituents. While our democratic republic still retains its structure, the characteristics that now define it represent an oppressive oligarchy more so than a democratic institution. Recent Supreme Court decisions, actions of Congress, and executive orders from the President all lend credence to an oligarchy in action.

If there were but one reason, one hope, one liberty that could be protected by citizens who understand the source of their recognized rights and why our past is worth studying, it would be the natural right to life. And yet, not a week goes by where citizens aren't being harmed by the government instituted to protect them. Domestically, federal laws and programs have led to the mass incarceration of American citizens.  Law enforcement directives have pitted the men and women who desire to serve and protect against those who they are serving and protecting.  Internationally, in the course of the last decade, tens of thousands of bombs have been dropped on children, hospitals, and citizens, and then we act surprised when the international opinion of the United States declines in rapid fashion. Sadly, and most glaringly, millions of unborn children have been indiscriminately murdered in this country because despite all the moral conviction that proves life begins at conception, we as a people have been persuaded to think otherwise and to allow for the government that should protect life above all others to stand idly by in support of this atrocity.

The sad reality is that the quality people in our government who affect real change are few and far between. The overwhelming machine that now constitutes the Federal government is nearly impossible to overcome. Even more damning is that the heartless, soulless, and moronic majority that make up our career politicians have sold your liberties to the highest bidder.

In order to preserve our inalienable rights, the founding fathers created a government. For us to continue to affect the change they began, we as citizens must act outside of the government. Society must realize that government is not necessary to protect and preserve the freedoms that all deserve. The best government will always be the one that protects life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all individuals with the least intrusion into their lives, but we must begin realizing that more government always equals more problems.  The charity that exists outside of coercion will always be the true avenue through which change is affected and society is improved.  For the good of all of society, we should always earnestly seek to improve our government, while also realizing that society can and should accomplish things without turning to government.  We are all best served by preserving and understanding the course of history that has brought us here to 2018, and never forgetting that government exists at the consent of the governed and not the other way around.