[mobglob-discuss] Mencken "On Government" (fwd)

[Tom_Childs at Douglas.BC.CA]

...if only the great masses could take these sentiments to heart...maybe we
could turn around this absurdity we're faced with.    -tc
  ----- Forwarded message: -----
Delivered-To: librarians at tao.ca
Date: Wed, 24 Jul 2002 13:32:37 -0500
From: Earl Lee <ewayne at mail.pittstate.edu>
To: Don Wood <dwood at ala.org>
Cc: Annie Laurie Gaylor <fttoday at mailbag.com>,
        Institute for First Amendment Studies <ifas at berkshire.net>,
        "librarians at tao.ca anarchist librarians" <librarians at tao.ca>
Subject: Mencken "On Government"

H.L. Mencken's essay is even more relevant today, in the wake of 9/11,
than it was when it was first written.  Everyone can benefit from these
sentiments:

The great pox of civilization, alas, I believe to be incurable, and so I
propose no new quackery for its treatment.  I am against dosing it, and
I am against killing it.  All I presume to argue is that something would
be accomplished by viewing it more realistically--by ceasing to let its
necessary and perhaps useful functions blind us to its ever-increasing
crimes against the ordinary rights of the free citizen and the common
decencies of the world.  The fact that it is generally respected--that
it possesses effective machinery for propagating and safeguarding that
respect--is the main shield of the rogues and vagabonds who use it to
exploit the great masses of diligent and credulous men.  Whenever you
hear anyone bawling for more respect for the laws, whether it be a
Coolidge on his imperial throne or an humble county judge in his hedge
court, you have before you one who is trying to use them to his private
advantage; whenever you hear of new legislation for putting down dissent
and rebellion you may be sure that it is promoted by scoundrels.  The
extortions and oppressions will go on so long as such bare fraudulence
deceives and disarms the victims--so long as they are ready to swallow
the immemorial official theory that protesting against the stealings of
the archbishop's secretary's nephew's mistress' illegitimate son is a
sin against the Holy Ghost.  They will come to an end when the victims
begin to differentiate clearly between government as a necessary device
for maintaining order in the world and government as a device for
maintaining the authority and prosperity of predatory rascals and
swindlers.




-- 
Tom Childs - Audio/Visual Resources
Douglas College Library
New Westminster, B.C. Canada
T:  504527-5187
E:  childst at douglas.bc.ca
W:  http://www.globaljustice.ca
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