Profane MuthaFucka's Journal: Come on people, it ain't that hard

Before an ignorant git decides they are opposed to raising taxes, what must they decide? That taxes are bad in some way.

Before a prison is built, what must be decided? The prison is needed. And why is the prison needed? Because not having the prison is harmful. Not having the prison has a bad consequence.

Before a citizen approves a millage to pay for educational facilities, they first must decide that education has importance.

So then, what is a characterization of all of these political decisions?

Authority

[smittyoneeach]

However, my contention is that in each of the cases cited, there is a perceived need, and some limitation on resources available.
The truth that there isn't enough money to buy everything,
or enough space to move away from criminals,
or enough time to let people figure everything out on their own
sets the stage for someone to assert authority,
bind people into various groupings, and
leverage the pooled resources to accomplish stuff.
Occasionally, these ends meet some generally accepted criteria for 'good'.

Re:

[smittyoneeach]

You first have to ask yourself whether you ascribe to a Locke or Rosseau theory.
Do we pop out of our mothers with fundamental rights (my take) or does some fine abstraction called a 'state' give them to us?
The former leads to minimalism and individual responsibility as a guiding principle. The latter is the direction the electorate has chosen. Stand by for weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Re:

[smittyoneeach]

Oh, you can stop playing the political game, all right, but it ends in some form of slavery. And the empirical fact that some are OK with that is not, in and of itself, evil.
It becomes evil when those who want to be slaves of the state insist on taking everyone else with them.