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May 26, 2005
About Politics
In response to Alex’s poll:
What would you change about the government given any means that you desire, outside of murder… What about your government truly offends you?
There are three things about our American government that really, really offend me. The first is just the sheer size. I don’t know anything that’s as huge and poorly-structured as our government that works well, and as a programmer, I think I have some notion of size. Big things are usually worse than small things, unless they’re built up slowly and deliberately on top of smaller things that are complete. That’s not what happened with our goverment: it started out very small, and then it just grew and grew in a messy, non-evolutionary sort of way. Nobody in our country knows all the laws. We are probably breaking them all the time, and we have no idea.
The second thing is the level of enforcement. I think we have too many laws, and I think they’re enforced too much. They’re so many laws, there must be decisions being made as to which laws are going to get push, and I’m certain that decision is made by two groups: lazy cops, and evil lawyers and corporations. This is why the little guy keeps getting fucked: it’s more important that you not speed than that you not cheat on your taxes, because it’s so much easier to give someone a speeding ticket than to figure out who’s committing fraud. And everyone wants to fuck the government, because of how huge it is and because of the little man who pulled ‘em over. The system’s so huge, every cop comes with this attitude built-in. They’re probably humans when they’re not at work, but who’s watching them?
The third thing is I think the most important thing. Our government doesn’t have a philosophy, so we create laws left and right with different aims trying to fix the same problems in conflicting ways. In this way, we wind up with all the downsides of both capitalism and communism. The people would at least eat and have land if they were serfs, or be slaves to each other under the thumb of a dictator. Instead, we get to be fucked in the mind, slaves to piddly corporations in every aspect of our lives, and forced to pay a giddily war-like government for the privilege of being here to be fucked by it. Every potentially meaningful change in any direction gets hopelessly diluted into nonsense by the time it gets implemented. The net effect is that we’re fucked harder than any other people.
Oh I have a fourth thing. We have the lowest representation ratio of any first-world country, meaning we have less of a say in our government than any other free nation. I hate that too.
What would I change? I’m not sure where to begin. I’ve basically come to the conclusion that meaningful change is impossible in America for the foreseeable future. The most meaningful thing any of us can do is leave. The difficulty of leaving in comparison to “makin’ a diff’rence” here is also indicative of just how powerful a statement it is, not to mention how much good it will do.
What was the first sign of government decline that kicked you in the teeth?
I can’t recall specifically one thing. I remember being astonished to learn that nobody had trusted the government since JFK when I was younger, and then later on being astonished to learn that nobody had trusted the government before him either.
I remember being astonished when I realized the solution to the problem was direct democracy. I remember being astonished to learn that nobody had really been thinking in those terms (later I found the anarchist thinkers and found them). I remember feeling like I had all the answers. Then I remember talking to various fuckholes about this problem—to which anarchism is obviously right—and getting blank stares and confusion. That may have been the clincher.
What political figure (if any) has represented your views the best?
The political figure who represents my views the best is me.
After me, Mikhail Bakunin comes close, to the best of my knowledge. Though I rather liked Howard Dean.
Where is a place on Earth that you believe you would be safe?
This is all my opinion. I’ve researched some (as you know ;) but it’s too big a question to be really correct on all of it.
I think that New Zealand is probably quite safe. Anywhere that is small and friendly is probably safe. I have a strong suspicion that Europe is safe, specifically the Scandinavian countries. Any place that’s neutral is probably also safe. I bet France is safe. America seems to hate it, yet it’s first-world, so they must be doing something right.
I bet Canada isn’t safe, because of proximity. Third-world countries probably aren’t safe, with the exception of Vanuatu which is probably extremely safe albeit not at a Western quality of life. Great Britain is probably either extremely safe or extremely unsafe (due to political ties, overpopulation, and general paranoia). Germany is probably safe.
I bet any arctic/subarctic country is safe. Greenland is way safe. Iceland is probably rather safe. Most of South America is probably not safe, excepting maybe Brazil (I really don’t know). Most of Africa is not safe, excepting for Gabon, but due to proximity I probably still wouldn’t live there.
Israel might actually be safe. Most of the near east is not safe, excepting maybe for Armenia, which rocks. Saudi Arabia might even be safe, if you can stand a monarchy and state religion. China is definitely safe, but also almost definitely closed. Siberian Russia is probably very safe still, and very intolerable. Russia itself is not very safe.
America is so worried about safety, it’s becoming unsafe.
Posted by FusionGyro at May 26, 2005 10:57 PM
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