Those who worship the state – that is, government – often tell lovers of liberty that without mandatory human government, life would be miserable and short and brutish. “Just like primitive cavemen!” They tell us that “Taxes are what we pay for civilized society, including the chance to insure.” (quoting SCOTUS Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes).

Balderdash!

A recent video by Ron Paul, aggregated by Freedom’s Phoenix talks about the rapid growth of the predator class, especially among “religious leaders” (commonly called “pastors”), medical professionals, and the education establishment among others.

If the government’s role is to protect people from evil-doers, the governments are obviously failing.

Yes, the common wisdom is that mandatory, mandated, coercive human government is essential to society. That without government control of the various professions (such as engineering, medicine, legal representation, plumbing, haircutting and beauticians, to name a few) those professionals would prey upon people. That people would be defrauded, overcharged, given fake medicine: that they would die, that buildings would fall down, that bridges would collapse, that sinks and toilets would leak, that people would get ugly haircuts and hairdos. That without traffic cops, there would be massive slaughter on the highways. That without street cops, there would be mayhem, theft, robbery, and murder in our towns and cities. That without the Secret Service, FBI, DEA, and FDA, the States would be inundated with counterfeit money, con artists, dangerous drugs, poisonous foods, and worse. That without government-run schools and compulsory education, we would find our towns and countryside filled with ignorant, even illiterate, stupid people?

Well, readers of this column understand the truth. We have massive government. Growing more and more massive by the year. Every year, more and more everyday activities are regulated more and more, and in greater complexity, by government agencies from the UN General Secretariat to the White House to Congress to Statehouses to county courthouses and city halls and village office. And yet, NONE of the horrors listed above have gone away.

Indeed, the frequency and number of such things seems to increase at or more rapidly than the rate of growth of government or population or technology.

Is it not logical to at least wonder if it is the growth of government (and perhaps population and technology) that is fueling the growth of the various things that supposedly government protects us from?

And is it not logical to suspect that part of the reason for this, when looking at population increase and more and better technology is not in large part due to a growing lack of personal, individual responsibility – in large part fueled by the idea that “it’s not my fault – it is government that should do these things?”

And that brings us to the conclusion that giving government (or letting it have) more power will make matters worse. Instead of keeping dogs from attaching and killing and eating each other (and whatever else they can), we are generating MORE vicious, cannibal dogs and therefore will have MORE dogs eating each other. Or to put it another way, we are increasing both the opportunity for more human predators to prey on other humans AND the creation of such human predators.

So does this mean that we might should maybe consider that taking powers away from governments, and getting rid of a government here or there just might be a way to improve our world?

Nah, that can’t be right. Just ask any of our leaders – and let us talk about medical and religious predators in another column. They are obviously aberrations, right? Nothing to do with government.