Limited government: myth or future fact?

Editor’s note: we continue to be on a limited schedule due to travel and work. Please bear with us!

As anarchists, we here at The Price of Liberty are opposed to any and all mandatory human government. From a “one-world” or transnational state and government to a local “homeowners’ association” or special services district. (Yes, most homeowners’ associations are de facto governments.)

But even so, we understand that limited mandatory human government is far more preferable, far better, than what most of us (and most of mankind) have endured and endure today.

There were multiple times in history when men have attempted to create and sustain limited government. This is little more than tolerating something that is inherently intolerable. Many ways have been sought and tried to limit the power of government, to prevent the rise of the all-powerful state. However, humans are perversely ingenious and are inventive when it comes to enslaving their fellows. And in convincing the slaves that they are still free.

Sometimes the process of decay into tyranny is rapid, even if government is incredibly limited at the start of the process. In ancient times, that happened in Israel, when the loose “tribal” government of the 12 Tribes and judges was replaced in a matter of weeks or months by a monarchy, which within 40 years had become nearly absolute monarchy. On the other hand, the Roman Republic took half a century or more to decay into a democracy and then an autocratic government and monarchy, and a century or more to become an absolute monarchy.

In more modern times, the Weimar Republic took only a single election cycle to become a one-party-state dictatorship. And of course, the States and the FedGov decayed much more slowly from a very limited republic (the Confederation) into what we have today. The signs were there, from as early as the Whiskey Rebellion, and especial the War of the Rebellion (the War Between the States). As matters continued to worsen, the power of government expanded exponentially: Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, FDR, and so on. Leaving us with today’s mess: a servant turned vicious master, in which we pay lip service to the ideals, and cling to the letter of the law (constitution) in matters of ceremony and procedure while completely trashing the actual provisions. Provisions designed to ensure that government was limited. But provisions that have obviously failed.

We propose that until and unless we change matters drastically, there is NO limited government in the future of the Fifty States. It is a myth that limited government exists now, and we will continue to see more and more power, more and more control, in the hands of monsters in human form. Monsters who (mostly) love their families and wouldn’t harm a fly, but see an obligation to kill, oppress, exploit and/or enslave outright anyone they want to.

There is no real hope in the future, either, for limited government, at least not in the long term. Perhaps, in the short term we can establish a new human government system that will be limited for a time. But we know it will corrupt sooner or later.

Better to seek freedom from government entirely; to agree to voluntary cooperation and participation in which all men and women have the ability to protect themselves from the predators and parasites who drain us daily. Both financially and spiritually.

How do we do that? “You shall know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Teach, proclaim, plan, cooperate, and never, ever surrender.

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