The voice of reason

No one is reasonable all the time, myself included. I think it's important that we keep an eye on how we view the world and the ironies in our life and though process.

I was visiting with the family member a few weeks ago and this family member said, "We should do away with the government."

Now mind you, this family member is well taken care, this family member has lots of money, lives in a warm home, has nice automobiles and is generally very very comfortable. The irony in the statement of hers, is that if she looks at her life with a careful examination she'll see that her income is derived from a very healthy government pension fund. She also collects Social Security, her health insurance is covered by Medicare this in addition to her A Class state health plan, her son is a government employee, her mother receives Social Security, her mother has an FHA insured reverse mortgage and her son-in-law is an accountant who prepares tax returns.

There is no doubt in my mind that many people feel very abused by the government but alas many of them don't see the irony in their thoughts. Additionally in a society of some 300 million people it makes little sense to take on a libertarian notion. One only has to look at Somalia, Haiti and most of sub-Saharan Africa to deduce that libertarian notions, a society devoid of ordered government simply does not work. It is contrary to human nature to be left to our own devices. There should be a higher degree of control to ensure that people behave in a respectable civilized manner. Even then judging from the million or so people in our prisons, that doesn't always work.

I certainly don't advocate the kind of control that one would find under a totalitarian regime, I believe in an open society, I believe in a plural society, but in examining society one has to understand that many of one's compatriots, because of upbringing, background, education or lack of education may not operate from the same moral foundation as others. Certainly it's reasonable to understand that government has its problems, I see that and I understand that, but to throw the baby out with the bathwater really doesn't make much sense.