Click here to go back to Articles and Views main page
A Consensual Revolution
first published: June,1997
It seems to me that we have been trying reform for quite a while now and it doesn't seem to work. In fact, we are sliding deeper and deeper into the abyss.
I advocate a consensual revolution.
Here I defer to one of my living role models, Harry Browne:
"We no longer are proud, self-reliant Americans. Government has turned too many of us into whiners, dependents, people clamoring for favors from the state.
"Fortunately, it isn't too late too change this.
"But the changes have to come soon. We are fast reaching the point where government will be so insolvent from over-promising that we can no longer unravel the mess without shortchanging and hurting millions of people.
"The changes have to be quick and decisive. Government doesn't keep its promises. So we can't depend on it for 5-year plans to phase out wasteful and destructive agencies- or 7-year plans to balance the budget. Like the famous Soviet 5-year plans, Congressional multi-year promises are never fulfilled.
"And each reduction in government has to be complete. Reducing an agency to a small fraction of its current size leaves intact the mechanism by which it can grow again. Like a weed it has to be pulled out by the roots- not cut back.
"In each case, there are only two realistic choices:
1. Get rid of the program and get rid of it quickly. 2. Or resign ouselves to living with it forever.
There is no middle ground."
-From Why Government Doesn't Work
About the Decline of the 60's DreamAbout the crashing of the 60's dream-
...Actually about its absence in today's youth. My view (as a "disenchanted youth") is that it is a foregone conclusion (in society, the media, the establishment) that the dream of the 60's died, it is dead, and it will not live again. More, it will not be permitted to live again. Movies like "JFK" and "Nixon" have perpetuated a view of an Establishment that Controls Such Things, a Control it strengthened in the 30's and 40's, locked it in in the late 60's (with the convenient death of most vocal activists and experimental musicians), and cemented it into Joe Voter's brain by the time he was 15.
So, it seems to me, the disenchanted among us have (almost absentmindedly) been constructing ourselves a life (and eventually a society) that interacts with the System only when necessary, and usually in an adversarial manner. We don't count on (or expect) Government Support, and we are exquisitely aware of the potential difficulty of our future lives. We are selfish (yet politically active and aware), independent, and cynical.
In my opinion, we are preparing for The Fall (of the big Gov.), and we operate under the presumption that the Government is increasing its hold, yet losing its actual power.
A certain percentage of today's youth possess gene #81743GbyT13, or the Vietnam Syndrome Immunity Gene. This allows them to believe that some day the citizens will run this country again, and the recklessly violent and tyrannical System that engineered Vietnam, Waco, and has experimented with thousands of its own citizens will Fall.
And while people can learn that their life will not necessarily be run by an elite group of white men forever, it can be a long and arduous process.
Hopefully enough of us will get together successfully enough (and soon enough) to pull it off in our lifetime.
Click here to go back to Articles and Views main page