Dear Friends,
It seems to me, when there is an unaccountable asymmetry of power, the side that wields the asymmetric power is despotic. Take the laws against perjury for example. They are only applied to the people, never the government and only to officials if it suits the bureaucracy. As the old adage states, if your government lies to you it’s just politics but if you lie to your government… it’s a felony. That is a classic asymmetry of power. The state has the power to jail those who lie to it but it can lie with impunity. That means the state rules the people. Now, this may not seem an astounding revelation, except, in the United States, the people are supposed to rule the state. This means the present paradigm in the US is an inversion of its founding principles.
The founding principles of the US were limited government. The branches separated to minimize the possibility of one becoming ascendant, and pitting faction against faction to further limit the power of faction. The whole system was set up to keep the power of the elites and people limited. Madison, Jay, and Hamilton laid these ideas out in the Federalist Papers. The courts were severed from the Executive Branch to cut off that potential avenue of despotic executive power. The founders worked diligently to create a system of governance where the government was ruled by the people, not the other way around. Today, judged by the asymmetry of power between the state and the people, that system has been perverted. This is shown by the increasingly vicious struggles for power.
The reason the Founding Fathers were so adamant that the government serve the people, instead of the people serving the government is that once there are rulers and ruled, we are back to the Divine Rights of Kings. That’s the very thing they fought against. They laid out the argument against rule by the powerful far better than I can. So suffice it to say that where government rules the people that system is effectively the Divine Rights of Kings, but in different words. The language changes but the despotism stays the same. How do we gauge the despotism? By the asymmetry of power. The greater the asymmetry of power the greater the despotism. The unaccountable asymmetry of a judge’s power is why the courts have become a political battleground. Many think a lack of abuse equals kindness.
The existence of unaccountable asymmetry of power is a reversion to the Divine Rights of Kings. Call it what you will, but if I put biscuit dough in a hot oven for twenty minutes I expect to get biscuits. Call them hoe cakes, short cakes, or scones but they’re still biscuits. Asymmetry of power is the same. It’s the dough and what you call the result is irrelevant. The same arguments rationalizing the Divine Rights of Kings apply to all asymmetries of power. The people don’t know what’s best for them, monarchy is efficient, and the ever popular if laughable, the kings are accountable for failure. I recall Hitler using that con in his book Mein Kampf. He then went on to be unaccountable once in power… go figure. So you see why learning to recognize that asymmetric power is a sign of despotism is important.
When you interact with your government, do you feel in control or like a little child being scolded? If you feel in control then there is a symmetry of power. If, on the other hand, you feel like a child being scolded there is an asymmetry of power. An asymmetry of power is indicative of despotism. Those who live in a sewer stop smelling it, remember to smell it. Don’t make the mistake of thinking a lack of abuse is kindness. The abuse could come at any time or never, depending on the whims of the powerful. Don’t be fooled by the rationalizations for the asymmetry of power. That’s why we must not only be on guard for asymmetric power, but fight it where we see it. Hold the elites to the same standard they hold us to… or we accept despotism. Those that don’t trust us can’t be trusted.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
