Dear Friends,
It seems to me, there are several ways to discern if a state is legitimate or not. The first and primary is, does the state work for the benefit of the entire population, or a segment of it? The second is, does the state have the actual consent of the governed? The third is, do the elite follow the dictates of the Constitution to the letter? Finally, is the state or any of its elites above its own law? If any of these questions are answered incorrectly, that state is illegitimate. A government that violates any of these dictums is effectively a criminal state. The people have an obligation to overthrow a criminal state in favor of a state that will follow all of these legitimizing orders. The problem is, almost all governments violate several of these requirements, if not all, an are effectively police states today.
Since the time of Aristotle, the idea that the legitimacy of a state, rested on its ruling for the benefit of all the people. In his Nicomachean Ethics Aristotle broke “right” forms of government from “wrong” forms of government. A right government, such as monarchy, aristocracy or polity, contrasted to wrong forms of government, like tyranny, oligarchy and democracy. The distinction being, the right forms rule for the benefit of everyone, while the wrong forms rule for the benefit of the rulers. Simply put, a government that rules for the benefit of a segment of the population, and not the whole of the people, is a criminal enterprise. It’s a swindle. Thrasymachus said, the people are marks, and it looks like he was right. Moreover, those that rule in such a way are hypocrites.
Democracy is often confused with polity. They seem to have the same meaning. The distinction however is important. In democracy, everyone votes for their own narrow self interest. While in polity, people vote for the best interests of the whole of the nation. Someone smarter than me once said, democracy will work until the people realize they can vote themselves largess from the treasury, then it can’t but fail. That phrase highlights the difference between polity and democracy. That’s why the US founding fathers set up a republic. To balance the forces of democracy, oligarchy and tyranny, so that the state wouldn’t become a wrong form, while maintaining the consent of the governed. With mail in voting, consent can be conjured up, as a phantasm, demon or a narrative.
An elite that can’t follow its own constitution is an elite that’s too criminal to run register, let alone run a nation… or the world. People arrogant, self righteous and utterly lacking self awareness, are the dross that rises to the top of any political institution. They’re the same people who sentence a youth to prison for a DUI, and have to be put to bed by the police every night, because they’re driving around hammered. Like dozens of judges, senators and other elites across our great nations. A state run by criminals incapable of following a constitution’s limitations, let alone those who can’t even follow their own laws, hypocrites of the highest order, will create oligarchies, that will devolve to tyranny sooner or later. A state in violation of its constitution is illegitimate by definition.
Power attracts scum like a magnet does iron filings. Every capital city across the planet buzzes with shoo flies. Parasites seeking to exploit the power of the state to their personal ends. Bending the state to a wrong form. People who are more inclined to work for their largess, aren’t attracted to power, but opportunity. In capital cities, the only opportunity is to suck up to power. That’s why nearly every state is illegitimate today. Almost none if any serve the people, few have the actual consent of the governed, I don’t know of a government today that follows its constitution, while the elite are everywhere above their own laws. Which means hen’s teeth are more common than legitimate governments. By this measure, perhaps Iceland, Singapore or Andorra are legitimate? Maybe… but probably not.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
