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Tuesday 1 October 2024

The Topple Is Coming

 



What happens when government gets too big is not a matter of theory, but of observed reality.

It multiplies oppression, multiplies the burdens on people and multiplies corruption. This is because as it gets bigger, getting ahead becomes a matter of controlling government policy and holding official positions. Cronyism takes over, offices become bought and paid for positions, and other forms of corruption take hold. Those best able to exploit this are also those who are most likely to exploit the people and this leads to a cycle of decay in a society.  

This has been observed in all societies where the government bureaucracy has gotten too big, it makes society unbalanced, like a top heavy 4wd. And what happens when a top heavy 4wd turns too fast or goes sideways down a hill? It tips.

Think of government bureaucracy like a roof rack on a 4wd. It's a necessity for any capable go anywhere 4wd. But it needs to be in a small ratio compared to the truck or the 4wd will be put in danger.

This is why our governments are passing increasingly intrusive laws. This process is well and truly underway. What we saw in Rome, and many other societies, we see today:

“So far the machinery of the new government in its several parts has been described. We must now consider in outline what was its total effect upon the inhabitants of the Empire. The inability of the ruler to assure good government to his subjects was made conspicuous by the frequent creation of new offices, whose object was to curb the corruption of the old. The multiplication of the functionaries in close touch with the population rendered oppression more certain and less punishable than ever. Lactantius declares, with pardonable exaggeration, that the number of those who lived on the taxes was as great as the number who paid them. The evidence of official rapacity is abundant. The laws thundered against it in vain. Oftentimes it happened that illegitimate exactions were legalised in the empty hope of keeping them within bounds. Penalties expressed in laws were plain enough and numerous enough. For corruption in a province not only the governor but his whole officium were liable to make heavy recompense. And the comparative powerlessness of the governor is shewn by the fact that the offcium is more heavily mulcted than its head. But a down-trodden people rarely will or can bring legal proof against its oppressors. Nothing but extensive arbitrary dismissal and punishment of his servants by the emperor, without insistence on forms of law, would have met the  evil. As it was, corruption reigned through the Empire with little check, and the illicit gains of the emperor's servants added to the strain imposed by the heavy imperial taxation. Thus the benefit which the provincials had at first received by the substitution of Imperial for Republican government was more than swept away. Their absorption into the Roman polity on terms of equality with their conquerors, brought with it degradation and ruin.”[1]

What we are seeing in our society is the exact thing we should expect with government becoming such a major employer and part of the economy. Holding the reigns of power is now necessary to ensure economic viability in multiples areas of our society. This means that more and more people will compete to control these offices and powers and use them to support their particular ideology or tribe. You can bet, unless a particularly skilled and brilliant government comes to power, one that no one can see on the horizon, that this process will continue to get worse.

 

List of References



[1] The Cambridge Medieval History Volume 1, edited by J.B. Bury. P.51.

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