Monday, August 24, 2009
Quote of the day
"Personally, I think government is a tool, like a hammer. You can use a hammer to build or you can use a hammer to destroy; there is nothing intrinsically good or evil about the hammer itself. It is the purposes to which it is put and the skill with which it is used that determine whether the hammer's work is good or bad. If hammers were cussed as often and as vigorously as government, no doubt some Timothy McVeigh would have parked a loaded Ryder truck outside some hammer factory by now. Cussing government in a democracy is a peculiar thing to do: it is, after all, us." - Molly Ivins, You Got to Dance with Them What Brung You
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4 comments:
Yes, but what's the solution when you have, "The Hammer Of Borgus Weems?"
Hmmm. In a democracy, which the USA is, nominally, the government is nothing more nor less than the collective will of the people, expressed in an agency.
We, as a nation, seem to be functionally insane. I'm no psychologist, but it looks like a "personality disorder" to me. Perhaps not full-blown paranoid schizophrenia yet, but trending in that direction. Even the most rosy interpretation of the current debacle over health care indicates, on the part of at least Congress and the Press, a crippling pessimism.
This is something I've never been able to understand about the right in this country. They have this "us against them" mentality but the problem is the government is not something separate from "We the People." Its a very undemocratic assumption, and very irresponsible.
After I get my review of The Eliminationists posted the next book review I do will deal with this subject in depth.
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