Blogs > Liberty and Power > Government Like Slavery is Evil

Feb 27, 2012

Government Like Slavery is Evil




Around 1830 the argument about American slavery profoundly changed. It went from one where those supporting it defended the institution by saying it was a necessary evil to one where those advocating it claimed it was a positive good. Events such as writings of William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass, petitions to Congress calling for its end, the Virginia legislature’s very narrow decision to retain it, and Nat Turner’s rebellion made it impossible to continue sustaining the latter viewpoint. The necessary part was always unconvincing because the food and textiles produced by slaves were always going to be made but the real question was who would get the benefit from them. Articles in periodicals such as The Southern Planter, The Southern Agriculturist, and The Tennessee Farmer, compiled in a book by historian James O. Breeden Advice Among Masters: The Ideal in Slave Management In the Old South, clearly answer the inquiry, no matter what the topic communal eating, type of clothing, work off the plantation, recreation allowed, medical care, or any other one you could think of there were often disagreements on strategy but the advice was always the same, do whatever is best for the master and his or her bottom line. The notion that the system was good for the slaves because kept them in line and prevented them from harming themselves was rubbish and this is the very same idea that is being made of support of government today. This video clip of John Stossel posted on the Daily Paul does the very same service that Breeden’s book did. When you watch it carefully you quickly realize that all of the people here, and pretty much everywhere else. defending government are doing so out of their own self-interest. It is not being done to protect us or provide us with opportunity it is being done for them. When we think about government we need to remember that behind every rule, regulation, executive order, law, or tax lays the implied threat of violence. They need so much violence, just like the slave master needed force, because most of time they are either coercing an individual to do something he or she does not want to do because it is against their self-interest benefiting someone else or they are stopping a person from doing what he or she wants therefore committing the immoral act of denying them knowledge. We must also think about the fact that government turns every decision whether it is about economics, diet, health care, education, personal finance, safety, war, or any other matter into a political a political question and political answers are inherently flawed not about what is but rather about what is most popular. Ron Paul is the only candidate who understands these basic truths



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