There are two things that “government” does best:
1) Gives malicious psychos a way to drastically increase the amount of harm they can do, and;
2) Transforms regular, decent people into malicious psychos (and then drastically increases the amount of harm they can do).
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That statement should be pretty dang self-evident to anyone even vaguely familiar with human history, but I might as well elaborate and expound on it a bit. Because this isn’t just an unhappy coincidence; it is what the belief in “authority” naturally causes.
First of all, how much harm can one malicious psychopath do, on his own? If he’s careful and sneaky enough, he might be able to victimize a number of people, maybe even dozens. And that’s bad (obviously), but it’s also statistically trivial compared to what malicious psychopaths can do—and what they have done, and continue to do—when they acquire positions of political power.
The primary difference is the belief in “authority”, not in the mind of the psychopath, but in the mind of the decent people around him. For example, suppose some serial killer publicly declared, “I want to see how many people I can torture and murder this week! So who’s with me?” Not only would damn near no one volunteer to help him, but a lot of people would immediately rush to stop him, by any means necessary.
However, if instead that psychopath started a career in politics, and gradually got to a position where he had a myriad of enforcers at his command, consisting of police and soldiers, who thought that they were merely “enforcing the law” or “protecting the nation” as they followed orders, the results would be heinous. And this isn’t hypothetical. Pick up any history book, and you will see example after example after example.
Even the most vicious regimes in history were mostly enforced by normal, average people just doing as they were told, following the orders of a perceived “authority.” And because the violence was called “law,” and because they had been taught to view obedience to “authority” as a virtue, and disobedience as a sin, they helped to carry out horrendous acts of terrorism, torture, oppression and murder. And this phenomenon has occurred all over the world, in different times and different places, among different races, religions and cultures, with the one constant being a widespread belief in “authority,” and belief in an obligation to obey “authority.” This point cannot be stressed enough:
Contrary to what many people think, or wish,
“government” does not act as a check against
the imperfections and flaws of mankind;
it acts as a drastic amplifier of the
imperfections and flaws of mankind.
And that is true on the individual level, as well as on a mass scale. And that brings up item #2: “Government” transforms regular, decent people into malicious psychos. Even without all of the historical examples, it should be very easy to predict this phenomenon.
The moment someone imagines himself to have special “authority”—the moment someone thinks that he has the right, or even the duty, to coercively interfere in other people’s lives—then he will automatically start treating others as his inferiors. This is true of all types of “law enforcers,” soldiers, tax collectors, “government” inspectors, and all manner of other busy-body bureaucrat.
In fact, it would happen to you too, if you were given power over others, and were convinced that you had the absolute moral right to exercise that power. By analogy, if you actually believed that slavery was legitimate and righteous, there is no chance that you would treat “your” slaves as equals. You might be more sadistic, or less sadistic about it, but if you truly viewed them as your property, there would be a 100% chance that you would mistreat them.
Likewise, if you are a thief or thug of the state, and you truly believe that others are obligated to obey you, you may be more or less power-happy and malicious about it, but you would absolutely mistreat and victimize people. And if those people complained or resisted, you would feel justified in increasing the abuse in order to obtain “compliance” from them. In fact, you would feel obligated to use whatever threats or coercion necessary to force them to do as you say.
And that, to be blunt, would make you into an evil asshole. So no, it’s not a coincidence that so many cops are obnoxious bastards on a power trip. It’s not a coincidence that so many “tax collectors” are grouchy, vindictive jerks. It’s not a coincidence that so many soldiers become sadistic murderers. People who imagine themselves to be agents of “authority” have only two options: either make other people obey them, or quit their job.
If what you do on a daily basis is forcibly control people who haven’t threatened or harmed anyone else, you will do whatever mental gymnastics you have to to try to justify your actions, and that will require you to blame your victims, and hurt and “punish” them for their disobedience, all while imagining yourself to be the good guy, and imagining them to be the nasty “criminal” for not mindlessly obeying you.
With all of that in mind, it is ludicrous for so many people to still look to “government” and “authority” to protect the decent people from the sadistic psychos of the world. The belief in “authority” makes sadistic psychos, and empowers sadistic psychos. All of history screams that fact, yet so many people’s authoritarian indoctrination makes them unable to hear it. They still think that the solution to people being imperfect is to give some of those imperfect people (some of the least perfect around, in fact) the right to rule everyone else. Then they are continually surprised by the results.
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(Larken Rose is a speaker, author and activist, having advocated the principles of non-aggression, self-ownership and a stateless, voluntary society for over twenty years. Donations to help support his articles, videos and other projects can be made by PayPal to "larken@larkenrose.com" or by Bitcoin to 13xVLRidonzTHeJCUPZDaFH6dar3UTx5js.)