Heresy and Treason ...
" In that spirit [ sixteenth century deliberate and decisive break with the institutional and spiritual continuity of the old Church; ie. Luther ], we anticipate " a deliberate and decisive break " with the institutional and ideological continuity of the nation-state. By the end of the first quarter of the next century [2025], millions of upright individuals will have committed the secular equivalent of sixteenth-century heresy - a kind of low treason. They will have withdrawn allegiance from the faltering nation-state to assert their own sovereignty, their right to choose not their bishops or their house of worship but their form of governance as customers. The privatization of sovereignty will parallel the privatization of conscience of five centuries earlier. Both are the mass defection of former supporters of dominant institutions. As Albert O. Hirschman, an expert of "responses to decline in firms, organizations and states," has written, this type of exit is difficult because " exit has often been branded as *criminal* for it has been labelled desertion, defection and treason. "
" Sovereign Individuals will no longer merely accede to what is imposed upon them as human resources of the state. Millions will shed the obligations of citizenship to become customers for the useful services governments provide. Indeed, they will create and patronize parallel institutions that will place most of the services associated with citizenship on an entirely commercial basis. For most of the twentieth century, the productive have been treated as assets by the state, in much the same way that the dairy farmer treats milk cows. They have been squeezed ever more vigorously.
Now the cows will sprout wings. "
- "The Sovereign Individual" p. 245, 1997
_
When no one votes, who will be the "elected" ... ?
Who will *obey* such "elected" *leaders* ... ?
When there are no longer "customers" for government-provided
services, who will pay for such services ... ?
When government can no longer exert sufficient violence to extort
"protection" payments in order to provide services, what services
will be provided ?
Q. What if "they gave a government and nobody participated" ... ?
A. Envisage an Oval Office behind glass
- a sort of "moving wax museum" - a tourist attraction for show
- under a sign reading:
" This is how American government operated. "
" Sovereign Individuals will no longer merely accede to what is imposed upon them as human resources of the state. Millions will shed the obligations of citizenship to become customers for the useful services governments provide. Indeed, they will create and patronize parallel institutions that will place most of the services associated with citizenship on an entirely commercial basis. For most of the twentieth century, the productive have been treated as assets by the state, in much the same way that the dairy farmer treats milk cows. They have been squeezed ever more vigorously.
Now the cows will sprout wings. "
- "The Sovereign Individual" p. 245, 1997
_
When no one votes, who will be the "elected" ... ?
Who will *obey* such "elected" *leaders* ... ?
When there are no longer "customers" for government-provided
services, who will pay for such services ... ?
When government can no longer exert sufficient violence to extort
"protection" payments in order to provide services, what services
will be provided ?
Q. What if "they gave a government and nobody participated" ... ?
A. Envisage an Oval Office behind glass
- a sort of "moving wax museum" - a tourist attraction for show
- under a sign reading:
" This is how American government operated. "
posted by JamesB at 11:11 PM
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