Dear Friends,
It seems to me, the elite have decided that the people have no right to replace their government, but government, has every right to replace the citizenry. That’s why seeking a redress of grievances is now called insurrection. Anyone who wants different elites is a traitor, even as elites who want different people to rule, are brave pathfinders. In this way, the elite feel perfectly justified in replacing us, with people that would be better suited to their enlightened oligarchy. This is of course, a reversing of the right roles. Making the new premise… the people exist for the government, instead of, the government exists for the people. A daring innovation in human organization. This new foundational concept of the role of government, is the reason we are seeing our governments acting as they are.
The fundamental question is, does the state exist to serve the people, or do the people exist to serve the state? Wise philosophy, (Aristotle, Christianity and Confucianism) have had the premise that right government serves the society, wrong government serves itself. Our leaders have flipped the script so that right government serves itself while wrong government, dangerous populism, serves the interests of the people. While you and I may think the new paradigm is self serving of the elite, they see it another way. They view their role, as farmers of the world and thus the human race. A farmer will prune that which needs pruning, breed better animals through eugenics and pen the livestock for their own good. Otherwise, we would get into all sorts of trouble, and be subject to other predators.
Is the state a guide for the people or are the people a guide for the government? Us self interested grazing masses believe our opinion should matter. Especially where our future is concerned. The experts disagree. They, in their well educated opinions, believe that our opinions are too ignorant and biased to count. Their learned and educated opinions, on the other hand, are to be followed with religious fervor. Given that mindset, how could it be possible for government to act differently? Moreover, how could a State, run by experts, practiced in their field, take orders from the moron masses? That would be idiotic. Plus, the hoi polloi would demand their own interests be served, not the interests of the ruling elite. Obviously, that is a situation (populism) that cannot be tolerated.
Our rulers are as entitled to rule, as we are beneath the protections of humanity, justice and common sense. The idea, that just government serves at the suffrage of the people, is history. The people now exist at the suffrage of the government and thus the elite that run it. Government is paramount, the people, a secondary consideration. As it is in China, North Korea, Cuba, was in Nazi Germany, the USSR, etc… The elite see society as a body, the people are the body and the government is the brains. If a hand offends the brain, it is cut off and cast away. If a gall bladder endangers the brain, it is removed, and thrown to the dogs. The body exists to serve the brain in both the corpus and in society. So how could the body ever replace the head? It would instantly die. Except… the analogy is faulty.
Society is not a body, governments can be replaced, and we know this because of the empirical march of history. Not once has the removal of a government resulted in the immediate death of the nation, country or city state. The extermination of the people, on the other hand, has always resulted in the obliteration of the government as well. So we can conclude that in societies, the people are paramount, while the government is replaceable. Conflating the two is not only a fallacy, it is a dangerous mind virus. It’s a derriere hair thinking it is all important. That egoism leads the elite to every sin imaginable, pride, greed, envy, sloth, gluttony, lust and wrath. Their wrath is on display for all to see in the treatment of the Jan 6 protesters, who sought a redress of grievances… the lack of election integrity.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
