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WHY NOT?
bY-Jon
Hill
LET THE GOVERNMENT DO IT?
"The government ought todo something about that!"
is an often heard expression. "There ought to be a
law," many complain about situations with which they
are frustrated. " The government shouldn't let them
do that," say others. ·
Yet you hear: ''Cops are pigs!" and "1 don' t have
any faith in government anymore" and "What we
need is less bureaucracy and more action."
A wise man once said: "He who is governed best is
governed least." " Direction, restraint, control, rule,
legislate" are all mentioned in the dictionary defini–
tions of "govern" and "government." lf you are un–
able to control the speed of your automobile, you can
install a "governor" that will not allow you to exceed
a certain speed. Obviously, certain safeguards are
necessary for an ordered society in which the individ–
ual is free to exercise his freedom without fear of an
ungoverned neighbor. But have we gone too far in
government and so proscribed the freedom of the
individual?
The framers of the Constitution of the United States
of America and the proponents of the later, and most
important, Bill of Rights had in mind freedom of the
individual within an ordered society as opposed to the
whim of monarchy or the desire of a despot. Most
Western nations and many others around the world
have long histories of the struggle for individual free–
dom resulting in what we call " democracy." lt is best
stated perhaps in that succinct phrase: " government
of the people, by the people, for the people."
Yet it seems we have come almost full circle and
now live under government nearly as oppressive as
that which we rebelled against to gain our freedom.
Our inalienable rights seem most abridged on the one
hand and seem only effective in the case of criminals
and revolutionaries on the other. The whole world
seems mindlessly bent on maintaining the freedom of
civil rights and human rights for those who are dedi–
cated in open rebellion of word and deed to remove
said rights from all others! Our very freedom provides a
stumbling block for sorne and a tool for others.
The real problem is that the more we demand the
government do
tor
us, the less freedom of action we
have left for ourselves.
At the same time that we shout that the government
is responsible to the people, we also demand that the
government take over our responsibilities. We finance
the government. The more we demand of it, the more
we pay. One out of tour people works for the govern–
ment in England; one out of five in the United States!
We citizens complain, but pay the bill-and demand
more government action (which will inevitably cost us
more)!
The
PLAIN TRUTH June/July 1978
Nowhere in the definition of "government" is the
word "subsidy" or the phrase "social security" or the
concept of the government paying you for not farm–
ing, working, producing. Yet we have demanded
these things of government until individual freedom is
restricted on every side-and we wonder why.
Let the government ensure the Social Security of
old age interprets into a can of worms that makes us
sick today. We have become numbers instead of
names; our earning power is eroded by an ever increas–
ing tax that is supposed to, but does not, care for those
who were taxed before and are now living at and below
the poverty level on ''Security.'' We are told that by the
time you and 1become eligible to receive a portien of
what we have already paid, the cupboard will be bare.
We suffer from the burden of a massive bureaucracy
necessary to fulfill our original demand. We don 't like
the results of what we asked for .
Let the government ensure a mínimum wage; save
our environment; protect us from prejudice; lead us
not into temptation; employ our unemployed; protect
the criminal; protect the victim; loan or give us
money; guarantee us water, food, shelter and fuel;
protect us from products of more industrious and
clever foreigners; insure our bank accounts; maintain
the sovereignty of our ownership of property and
things; give everything back to the "original owners"
who were here before us; etc., etc., etc.-and above
all:
cut taxes!
lmpossible!
Somehow in all this we forget that
we are the
government!
Try substituting "1" for "government"
sometime and see if you really want to do all those
things. lf
you
do, why demand that the government
do it? We think of the government as sorne entity
apart, sorne overwhelming godlike power that should
do this and should do that-and that is exactly what it
has become!
Why don' t we just give up entirely and let the
government
think
tor us? Toa surprising extent that is
already happening!
God's form of government is quite different. He
puts the onus on the individual. He tells us the rules
for successful living and leaves it up to us to apply
them, forcing no one-except perhaps in circum–
stances brought about by ignorance or rebellion
against the rules. He demands self-government of
each individual and rewards the believing doer. He
allows absolute freedom of choice and lets each indi–
vidual build his own tomorrow. Think about it.
Why not let the government do it? Because each
time you do, you erode another piece of your dwin–
dling individual freedom!
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