[Neurons] 2021 Neurons #57 BAD IDEA --- MORE GOVERNMENT

[Michael Hall]

From: L. Michael Hall

2021 Neurons #57

September 4, 2021

How Self-Actualization                               

Can Save Politics #11

 

WE NEED MORE GOVERNMENT 

 

Here's another bad political idea.  It is a really bad idea, and always has
been, to think that "we need more government."  More government, no matter
what form it has taken over the centuries and millennia has never been
socially good for people.  Even if Kings were "benevolent," they had all
power and there was no appeal if you felt that power was unfair.  Even in
modern times, the more government means more bureaucracy and that inevitably
means more regulations and more inefficiency.  Bureaucrats, like everyone
else, want to feel important and needed, so what do they do?  They seek to
have more and more oversight of things and that means they create more
regulations so that they have more control.  None of that is good.

 

Reagan put it succinctly when he noted that "government is the problem."
Now if the citizenry of a country were all primitive, uneducated children,
then maybe, just maybe, in that situation, we would need more government.
But where you have education and an educated citizenry, then you have the
context wherein there can be a government "of the people, by the people, and
for the people."  But it does take an educated people, and a level of
maturity in the people, to be able to create an effective self-determining
government.  

 

It is an immature and overly dependent citizenry that would even want more
government.  The idea of capitalism is that government provides enough
safety and protection from enemies, foreign and domestic, so that people are
free to pursue their interests, develop their different potentials, and
contribute to creating value in a free marketplace.  That means
entrepreneurship.  That means the development and self-actualization of
individuals to pursue opportunities, to assume responsibility for
themselves, and to create their own destinies.

 

So who would even want more government?  Answer: Those who want to be taken
care of.  And what does that sound like?  Doesn't it sound like immature
children who are afraid of life, of risks, of responsibilities, of maturing,
and of growing up?  They want a governmental mommy and daddy to take care of
them- and that would be a socialistic government so that they don't have to
think for themselves.  But, of course, that goes against healthy human
development.

 

It is human nature that we mature and learn to accept responsibility.  Our
bodies, our minds, our social relationships, etc. are all designed to
mature.  If we have learned anything from Developmental Psychology, we have
learned this.  Erickson explored the cognitive development and the
psycho-social stages of development.  Fraud explored sexual development over
the life-span.  Fowler explored the development of belief.  Even cultures
grow up and mature.

 

Who else might want more government?  Well, people employed by the
government, of course!  Politicians, bureaucrats, the permanent government
employees, lobbyists who want more and more support from government, some
who have become addicted to government handouts, and those who have
mental-emotional compulsions for being dependent.  This is the problem with
more and more government programs- people become dependent on them.
Eventually they are treated as "entitlements" which creates its own
pathology.

 

More government is a bad idea that has lots of negative consequences.  It
means more taxes to pay for the bigger government and that goes against
entrepreneurship and self-determination.  It undermines the middle-class.
More government feeds dependency and undermines independence and
self-efficacy.  More government means more intrusions and more control over
our lives.  The very idea of wanting more government is a thought virus- a
virus that needs a good vaccination of critical thinking and compassionate
capitalism.

 

The further you go to the right on the political spectrum, the more you find
larger personal liberties and smaller government.  Why is that?  Because men
and women who are healthy and self-actualizing are willing to accept
responsibility for themselves (and to others) and don't need to depend on a
nanny state.  A much better idea for politics is small government and large
personal development.

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 




 

 

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D., Executive Director 

Neuro-Semantics 

P.O. Box 8

Clifton, CO. 81520 USA                             

               1 970-523-7877 

132607 NeuroSemantics Executive Learning Front Cover

 

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