From: frode@toaster.SFSU.EDU (Frode Odegard)
Date: Thu, 13 Jan 94 20:42:42 PST
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: why govt's get bigger
Message-ID: <9401140439.AA25291@toaster.SFSU.EDU>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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Greg Brooks (gregguy@aol.com) writes:

> Governments act as any rational being acts -- in their own self interest. As
> the distillers of laws and collectors of taxes, however, they just have a
> better shot at self-interest nirvanna than the rest of us.

So you are saying that acting in one's own rational self-interest is
compatible with acting upon somone else by force?  Um, and how can you
epistemologically justify looking upon the government as being a
rational being, as having a consciousness?  It consists of many separate
individuals, does it not?

Finally, isn't self-interest nirvanna a contradiction in terms?  Nirvanna
means merging with something greater, extinction of the self etc.  But isn't
the only rational standard of value, the ultimate self-interest, the
preservation and flourishing of one's self, of one's life?

I'm very curious about why people think governments are allowed to grow so
oppressive - maybe this has something to do with whether people in a society
think big government is good.  It appears to me that most people these days
are of the opinion that government should 'help people' instead of protect
what our founding fathers saw as inalienable rights.  It also seems to me
like the whole concept of rights has been perverted, that political leaders
now believe that _needs_ make rights, such as the "need" for health care or
an information superhighway for all Americans.  For those who've forgotten,
this country was not founded as a democracy but as a republic.

			- Frode