War is Hell(ishly Boring)

Okay, so I've been hearing that a story needs at least 4000 words to be featured. The story was supposed to be more than 3100 words, but it just didn't get there before my brain shit itself and made what was the first chapter. So to break the 4000 word barrier, here is my very brief theory on government.

A government, particularly one that aims to serve the people, is bound under rule of law, just as its citizens are. A free nation is not ruled under the premises that the ends justify the means, or under the assumption that government is able to give us everything we want. In crises, people have the tendency to look towards the government for guidance, ignoring the fact that the guidance they provide is in the form of legislation that will only prove to expand the government and lead to a much larger problem.

"A government big enough to give you everything you want, is a government big enough to take away everything that you have." -Thomas Jefferson.

Well said, Tommy. A government that convinces you it can produce happiness will only produce tyranny, as an end to the power that the populace happily gave it. The only people that can be subdued are the people who allow themselves to be subdued. Big government exists to satisfy big government. And the bigger it gets, the bigger it wants to be. And so it will expand, and expand, and expand until it believes it can control every person on Earth to its liking.

Of course, no big government ever succeeded in this. Every time one tried, it only succeeded in destroying itself. Empires rise and fall, and new ones follow in their path, leading to the same end: destruction. Big government is destined to die. It grows, and it grows, and it refuses to stop growing until it grows too large, and falls, as every empire has fallen. When a government takes this path, there's almost no chance that a person or group that takes power will turn it around for the sake of the people. It will grow, until it dies.

Some might think that these big governments falling is good, as if it will solve the problem. But the issue is that when a big government grows, it expands its power to every aspect of life. When government grows without check, it gets a stronger grip on institutions such as banks, schools, and businesses. When that government falls, so do these crucial parts of our society. It's the tyrannical government that burs down, but it is the people that are left with the ashes.

All empires in history took this course. The Romans, the Ottomans, the British, the Soviets, the Germans, the French, the Persians, the Prussians, the Japanese, the Spanish. All empires fell, as all empires will fall. And so it was that the people who hung on the promise of security from the empires that claimed they could provide it, were met only with the collapse of said empires, and security never came. They had loaned away liberty to an empire that promised security, and when that empire died, as all empires surely will, they found that the liberty and security died with it.

This isn't just a hypothesis or a theory. Unchecked government becomes big government. Big government becomes an empire. And empires are destined to die. It has been the fate of all empires past, and it will be the fate of all empires to come. It needs to be that way. An empire that isn't predetermined to fall will grow until it envelops the lives of all who live within it. In big government, power is not a means to an end. Power is the end. In this scenario, it is the people's duty to destroy this empire, for this empire will certainly destroy the people. That is the job of every empire: to destroy, to expand, and to control.

Security is one of many things big government promises. Many improvements to life are promised, but the promises are never kept. The government only begins to expand once people start counting on it to expand. People go to the government with a list of problems, expecting the government to take care of them. A limited government can't do this, as it would mean interfering with people's lives. But these problems will continue to come up over and over until the people see government interference as a positive change. And from there, the government will continue to expand until the inevitable happens. The government can only expand when we the people ask it to. A government that can give us everything, can take everything away.

In order for a government not to grow to this kind of size, people need to purge from their minds the illusion that government can solve their problems. The government must follow a stricter rule of law than the people do. Laws preventing the uncontrolled expansion of the government should be just as enforced as laws preventing murder. And most importantly, we need to remember that our rights are not given to us by our government, but we are born with them. A government that we falsely trust to give us our rights, is a government that we can absolutely trust to take our rights away.

Thank you, and have a good day, you free motherfuckers.

Oh yeah. And ponies.