Can our species survive?

There are times when I think our species is hopeless. In my fellow humans, I see high energy, bountiful creativity, and splendid innovation. I see that in our personal dealings, almost all of us treat each other with respect and fairness. We are superbly capable and talented beings, yet we have one flaw that is very likely to destroy our species if we don't recognize it and dispense with it.

We, as individual beings, are so willing to live in subjugation to others. We eagerly subject ourselves to territorial governments that abuse us no end. We also humbly accede to a variety of mystical claimants seeking our obedience and worship.

Perhaps we are haunted by deep ancestral fears that made it a matter of necessity for us to pack together to hunt and for protection. Perhaps those fears, played upon by seekers of dominant power generation after generation, have instilled an insecurity that we can't quite get rid of. Fears that were originally quite real are no longer, yet we seem to have allowed those deep-seated anxieties to blind us to the fact that we no longer require "leaders"... no longer need to subject ourselves to the power of the state or the mystical assurances of religions.

Consider how many governmental entities whose laws, regulations, and directives we subject ourselves to. The city and its various agencies, the county, multi-city and multi-county district boards, and the state, with more regulatory agencies than a human could remember. And, hovering above all Those tax-seeking, privilege-granting councils, committees, commissions, authorities, and boards is our uber-dominant federal government, with more life-changing powers over us than can even be imagined much less knowingly complied with. For each of us, it is only a matter of time and fortune until we find ourselves penalized, fined, charged, tried, bankrupted, jailed, or imprisoned, even though we never stopped trying to avoid such problems.

American slaves

How do we Americans react to living under this multitude of hammers hovering over our heads? How do we react to having half of everything we earn taken from us... to pay for the creation and enforcement of the very entities that threaten us? For the most part, we quietly submit. We may complain, or more likely nervously joke about it, comforting ourselves that we are all in the same fix. We expound about the rare advantages that we can hypothetically derive from living as slaves. We explain it away with examples of how the hammers also protect us from "others" who might deliberately be bad, or point out that it could be worse. More often, we spout some platitude blaming those who voted the "other way", or hurry off to busy and distract ourselves with less troubling activities. Our nation, once admired around the world as upstart, rowdy, and freedom-loving, who revolted against the most powerful nation on the planet... and succeeded... has gradually become something completely alien.


We've given up on reducing government

We've come to accept the governmental fatal alternative... do you want this, or this instead? The two major parties play that alternative for all it's worth. As proof that we've been seriously suckered, notice how often people complain that our government should stop doing something... and do something else instead. Seldom do we insist that our government should simply stop doing something. Many anti-war groups don't just want an end to war; they want the money that is being spent on war to be spent on other government programs. Many of those pushing for re-legalization of drugs will not be satisfied with just that... they promote new government programs on the opposite side of the issue.

The fatal alternative

The fatal alternative has become ingrained in American thought. Rather than being concerned about what government has no right to do, we've come to accept that we should just want the priorities changed.... cut this so you can increase that. Worse, many of us have come to accept that what our government does reflects what the people want.

I listened recently as a young woman complained that Americans hold science as much more important than the arts. After delving into her thinking, it became clear that she meant that government spends a lot more funding science than the arts. Either she believes that governmental priorities reflect what the people want, or that the people are to blame for government priorities. I tried explaining that government prefers science because it can lead directly to an increase in power, which is what government is all about. That says nothing about the priorities the citizenry place on science versus the arts, but the young woman (and many, many others) have come to believe that it does. We still like to believe that government reflects the desires of the people. When it doesn't match what we want, we may assume it's because other people we don't know are driving government priorities.

Notice how easily the war issue fatal alternative changed politically... "stay the course" versus "get out now" has been shifted to surge or no surge... even to surge versus bigger surge. Government will never reduce itself voluntarily. It will never stop violating rights, taking more of our earnings, or becoming even more intrusive and manipulating... unless Americans make one hell of a big fuss. Our governments will continue to increase in size and destructiveness until we STOP IT. Choosing one set of programs over another will not even slow the growth. Choosing one set of power-hungry crooks over another will not even slow the growth. In fact, what we Americans have been doing for many decades... electorally throwing out the bums and inserting new bums may actually make the problems worse... because we have to give the new bums a little extra leeway to implement their changes. Each election we pat ourselves on the back, and government surges ahead again... bigger and worse than ever. It's the political equivalent of "turning the other cheek", and it doesn't stop the beatings.

Remarkably, despite having allowed ourselves to become placid slaves to our own governments, Americans are still the hope of the species... the people most capable of tossing off the oppressive yoke of a government so out of control that we have no idea what to expect next. Before that can happen, though, we have to SEE what the problem is and then have guts enough to actually do something about it. I wish I could be confident about that happening.