03-14-2017, 12:22 PM
(03-14-2017, 03:57 AM)Galen Wrote:(03-14-2017, 03:46 AM)Kinser79 Wrote: The rituals of citizenship are more or less regarded as irrational now.
Exactly, because they offer no or limited upside and a huge downside. We have an out of control government that treats citizens as tax livestock. This is a perfect recipe for people to walk away and I would suggest that the rise of the informal economy in recent years is a symptom of the process I describe.
We have exchanged that for a government in the service of people that it designates to be collectors of the biggest rents possible, much like feudal magnates, who see the rest of humanity as livestock at the most flattering and as vermin to be exterminated at the harshest. We have a government full of people who see a Marxist critique of capitalism and think 'can we make it even more exploitative for our sake?'
In such an order, there are but two classes: the elites and subjects.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.