Dear Friends,
It seems to me, a lesson the elite never learned is that if you want people to respect you and your things, you have to respect them and theirs. We can extend this logic to Rights and laws. If the elite (the aristocracy) want us to take their laws seriously, they need to follow them themselves. Moreover, if they want us to take their authority seriously, they need to take our Rights seriously. The logic rotates on reciprocity. A concept the elite apparently fail to understand. The elite think they lead by force of arms but in fact lead by example. The violence they wield is only to counter their example. Because if we followed them in their corruption, the world economy and civilization would collapse. Which is like pushing the brake and gas at the same time. A more efficient way might be to be a good example.
Respect is a two-way street. Those who give respect get respect. Just as those who hold others in contempt are held in contempt. Many however confuse respect with fear. We don’t respect a hornet’s nest, we fear it. So we spray it with bug spray. Respect is holding someone or something in high esteem. We respect a hero, a sage, or a hard worker, but we fear a mafia Don, gang banger and polar bear. Our elite are of the variety that believes fear equals respect. What they fail to understand is, what’s the first thing you do once stung by a hornet? Spray the nest. Fear is a sure path to destruction. Because we destroy that which we fear… that’s why there are so few mountain lions in the US and the Cassowary is all but extinct. We reciprocated their ferocity.
Reciprocity and the Golden Rule are fundamental moral obligations. The elite in government, however, feel no moral obligation for reciprocity or the Golden Rule for that matter. Without consequences for their actions bureaucrats can be as malevolent as they wish. Why follow constitutional limits on their authority when, if the courts do rein them in, an unlikely scenario, all they lose is the usurped power. Only to be re-usurped later with a more lenient court. The same logic goes for our Rights and their own laws. They need not follow their own laws because they are above them. Like the bureaucrat who lies to Congress under oath is never punished, and the cop who violates your Rights is never charged with a crime. The worst that can happen to them… is you don’t go to prison.
The elite lead by example whether they like it or not. We follow our leaders. The more ambitious someone is, the more they dress, talk, and act like our leaders. When the leaders of a nation then are hard working, honest and smart, that nation will slowly become hard working, honest and smart. If on the other hand, the leaders of a nation are lazy, corrupt and stupid, the people will eventually become lazy, corrupt and stupid. One way to tell if your leaders are leading you to indigence, crime and foolishness, is by examining society. Are people becoming more lazy, corrupt and stupid or harder working, honest and wise? Do people have a feeling of hope… or grim hopelessness? Does the government need to censor to convince us our eyes are wrong? These are signs of a corrupt elite.
When the elite lack respect they garner our contempt. Just as when they abuse their authority they lose our respect. Violating our Rights generates a feeling that we need to reciprocate, and as they use fear to control us, we start thinking it’s time to pull out the bug spray. A lazy, corrupt, and stupid elite will ban political enemies, censor, and use law as a political tool to prove how corrupt they truly are. The societies they rule will be rife with sloth, grift, and all sorts of absurdity. In other words, those places will be a reflection of the elite that run them. Their example will lead, their lack of reciprocity will generate a lack of respect, and the arbitrary violence they wield will generate hatred. Machiavelli had something to say on this subject: a wise prince allies with the people over the aristocracy…
Sincerely,
John Pepin
