Paine on Government  

Thursday, October 15, 2009

One of my favorite quotes lies in its shortened form in my random quotes, but I came across it today, and you can imagine the impact the full quote had upon me.

Society in every state is a blessing, but government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer.

- Thomas Paine, Common Sense - 1776
In other words, any time you let a government handle a crisis, you will always have been better off having handled it yourself, and if the government does a bad job, you will always be worse off than if you had done the same bad job.

By the way, when Paine refers to "Society", he is referring to people helping each other voluntarily, not the government stealing their money and giving it to others, as the socialists would have you believe.

This quote, also from Common Sense, brings to the fore the whole purpose of the Tea Party movement:
We have it in our power to begin the world over again.
And we don't even have to begin the whole world over again ... just the Constitution.

One of the platforms that was used to build the Federalist Party Platform called for a final sunset on all legislation, and then anything that would be needed from there would be re-passed. What a great connection between Paine and the modern conservative movement. He should truly be among our heroes!

RWR



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Sage's avatar

Sage · 797 weeks ago

And he wasn't even invited to the Constitutional Convention! It may have been one of the reasons that Patrick Henry is purported to have said, when asked why he refused to come, "because I smelled a rat". Go figure!

2009-10-16T00:41:26
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Ol' BC · 797 weeks ago

We are and have been for some time living the consequences of which we were warned in Paine's quote. All indications are that it is about to become exponentially worse.

2009-10-16T01:09:33
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Sal · 797 weeks ago

If you haven't already, I'd suggest reading Our Enemy The State, by Albert J. Nock. He breaks in down very well what the state is all about, and why it always ends up the same.

2009-10-16T21:39:04
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Ogrrre · 797 weeks ago

I believe it was John Adams that said "If men were angels, there would be no need of government." So, government is necessary. Unfortunately, the people who want to be in government, either elected to office, or appointed, are those who, as a general rule, are unfit to serve in that capacity. Take our Pretender in Chief ... PLEASE!
As for the abortion question, if Roe v. Wade were reversed, the only thing it would do would be to return the question to the various States for them to decide on an individual basis ... as it should be.
Also, RWR, I think there should be a Constitutional provision that no bill proposing a law may be more than 100 pages long, and that every legislator, no matter which house of Congress, MUST read it in its entirity before being allowed to vote on it. Also, each appropriations bill must deal with appropriations for only one department, and there shall be no earmarks or special requests.

2009-10-23T22:29:58
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RightWingRocker · 797 weeks ago

Also, RWR, I think there should be a Constitutional provision that no bill proposing a law may be more than 100 pages long, and that every legislator, no matter which house of Congress, MUST read it in its entirity before being allowed to vote on it. Also, each appropriations bill must deal with appropriations for only one department, and there shall be no earmarks or special requests.

100 pages? HA!

One page ... maybe five ... ten freakin' MAX ... and with Constitutional reference, period.

You are being too nice.

RWR

2009-10-24T07:54:12

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