The State
posted by jenni on April 16th, 2012 at 1:07PM
posted by jenni on April 16th, 2012 at 1:07PM
The state is not your friends and family. They are not the ones who created the idea to force you to show a passport just to go to Vermont, they are not the ones who make you pay 15% on top of almost everything you purchase to help pay for roads, they are not the ones who told your parents that if they didn't send you to school it would make them bad parents. Yes we may know people who enforce these ideas, but the people who work for the state are entitled to their opinions about why they do what they do, they just somehow justify enforcing the states ideologies onto everyone. It makes them a part of the state, but not the root of it. But we are all part of it. Every time we get into a car, buy taxable foods, every day simple things make us a part of it. The root of the state is the state, which I am not sure if it makes sense, but somewhere along the road of humanity we got lost and ended up in a society built on lies and false democracy's. There are many people who are unhappy with the current situation and fight for what they think should be changed, and whether one agrees with that change or not one cannot deny that it is a beautiful thing to see people care enough to break out of their daily lives and do something about it. As Voltaire once said "I may not agree with what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it" That is my answer! I wasn't sure if I was going to have one ;)
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posted by dennisn on April 16th, 2012 at 2:34PM
That's not really an answer. It's a circular argument, "the root of the state is the state". This is why I try to focus on specific concrete examples.
So, to get back to a real issue, if we take public education for example, even though you still seem to have forgotten to answer my question, I will wildly assume that you would be in favour of violently forcing me to pay for your own brand of schooling. This is what we mean by "the State is our friends/family." Who put that idea into your head -- that it is okay to shoot me if I don't want to pay for your schools? You can argue that the State brainwashed you, except that would sound a bit odd because I'm explicitly pointing it out to you now. This is also why I brought up the idea of responsibility -- are you responsible for your current ideas and actions? Regarding gunned-thugs standing menacingly on artificial borders, YOU might not want to support that, but other people do -- and they support those thugs and borders because they honestly feel it's for your own good. So, this is how "the State is our friends/family" applies from YOUR perspective. How do you feel having other people force you to pay for killers who stop you from freely going to Vermont? (Have you asked your parental units what they think of borders yet? :) Regarding Voltaire's quote, it's not enough to simply defend my right to say whatever I want. It does me no good to be able to preach about the evils of violently funded public schools from inside a cage, or buried six feet under-ground. |
