Blagojevich makes an interesting point about government
December 14, 20080 comments
I had the news on in the background tonight, and some of the people familiar with the law enforcement side of the Blagojevich case were given an opportunity to make some statements. The overriding theme was that the corruption here was so bad that even the most seasoned field agents were shocked at how deep and thorough the corruption was. Almost on the level of a veteran homicide detective being so shocked that he feels like a rookie cop seeing his first murder scene level of bad news.
It occurred to me that the government of Illinois is largely useless as an institution, given how many high-ranking people have been periodically culled from its ranks. I wouldn't say completely useless, but useless in the sense that one would describe a drug that treats a serious illness like AIDS, but that barely works in 1/5 of reported cases. The need for government there is far, far less as demonstrated by the fact that society can function so well in Illinois despite having a thoroughly corrupt, borderline necrotic government.
Without the ability of normal people to create spontaneous order around them, society would not be able to function in Illinois on the level that it does. The average person doesn't need government to feed them, clothe them or even protect them. They are able to go about their daily routines without much of anything from their government, and this is particularly relevant since those in command positions in their government are often more interested in graft than public service.
This is not an argument for anarchism, but simply an observation that the case for large, strong government bureaucracies to keep things functional has been vastly overstated for quite some time.
It occurred to me that the government of Illinois is largely useless as an institution, given how many high-ranking people have been periodically culled from its ranks. I wouldn't say completely useless, but useless in the sense that one would describe a drug that treats a serious illness like AIDS, but that barely works in 1/5 of reported cases. The need for government there is far, far less as demonstrated by the fact that society can function so well in Illinois despite having a thoroughly corrupt, borderline necrotic government.
Without the ability of normal people to create spontaneous order around them, society would not be able to function in Illinois on the level that it does. The average person doesn't need government to feed them, clothe them or even protect them. They are able to go about their daily routines without much of anything from their government, and this is particularly relevant since those in command positions in their government are often more interested in graft than public service.
This is not an argument for anarchism, but simply an observation that the case for large, strong government bureaucracies to keep things functional has been vastly overstated for quite some time.
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