It is fashionable to hate government at all levels. I may be one of the last overt fans of the “deep state” so detested by just about everyone. These latter-day Marxists and Rousseauians are sure that if the state would just go away, the natural goodness (or Darwinian selection) of humanity would prevail to set up a far more perfect world. Where men are men and nobody tells anybody else what to do. And notably, where the speaker (whoever or whatever he or she may be) is on top .
Petty regulations are very annoying. But one person’s “petty regulation” – like no playing loud music in the backyard at 3:00 a.m._ is another person’s “necessary civil common sense.” Typically the real problem is when rules useful in a crowded urban setting are applied to open rural areas .
There are also many kinds of overlords. With no consensual government, monopolistic corporations like 1890 steel mills and coal mines dictate life in company towns and company stores. The biggest organization is always the de facto government. Mobs led by demagogues take over social mediation – often based on revealed (to the demagogue) religion. And so on – to true dystopia .
Me – I like a rule-based stable bureaucracy. It provides employment for the less aggressively greedy and for all its minor irritations smooths most life for everyone. I don’t want it filled with acolytes of the last party to win elections. I myself have strong doubts about Rousseau or Marx.
But I guess it’s a clever meme phrase, in an age that grasps clever memes as if they represented wisdom .
HuntingtonHarborThoughts 