INCITE
Incite -- (v) 1: give an incentive; 2: provoke or stir up; "incite a riot"; 3: urge on; cause to act
Saturday, July 17, 2004

 
Quote for the weekend...
Written by: Beck

"Politics ought to be the part-time profession of every citizen who would protect the rights and privileges of free people and who would preserve what is good and fruitful in our national heritage."
               -- Dwight David Eisenhower, 1954
This speaks to me.  You see, I (obviously) am a major politics watcher.  As such, I'm always a bit surprised when I discover that many people--most people in fact--couldn't give two shits about politics.  In one very real sense, politics should be the most important thing to a free citizen living under democratic rule.  Politics defines the entire framework under which you live your life. 
 
In a free society, however, citizens are free to live their lives however they please without interference from the state beyond a bit of paper work here and there.  In fact, in a free society, a productive citizen shouldn't worry themselves about anything but being productive and finding happiness.  Politics, then, becomes the last thing which that person should care about, the assumption being that the state is in good hands and will take care of itself.
 
There's a fallacy in that assumption, however.  The fallacy assumes that inasmuch as everything today more or less works well, there's no cause to change or meddle with anything.  People go about their daily lives in confident anticipation that the status quo will continue to assert its inertial sway over everything.  The truth of the matter is that people with an active desire to run the state seek that power precisely because they've the sort of personality which delights in meddling in that which they do not understand under the vague notion that they can somehow improve things for everyone.  They are, almost to a man, completely mistaken in this belief.  Nonetheless, we've been ruled by that sort of person for over 200 years, and they have made an absolute mess of it.  And it's not going to get better on its own. 
 
An entirely different type of ruler--a different mindset, a different personality archetype--shant be coming along any time soon.  The sort of person who would deliver good government is precisely the sort of person least likely to seek public office.  As such, we're left with no alternative but choosing between lesser evils and doing whatever we can to influence & direct their meddlesome influence.  Which brings us back to Eisenhower.  "Politics ought to be the part-time profession of every citizen who would protect the rights and privileges of free people and who would preserve what is good and fruitful in our national heritage."


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