from NY to Israel Sultan Reveals
The Stories Behind the News

Posted: 27 Oct 2009 10:45 PM PDT

Power and freedom are both quantities that can only co-exist at
the individual level. Power at the institutional level is inimical to
individual freedom, because power at the institutional level is most
commonly represented in the form of control.

Some control is of course necessary, it is why government
exists as a necessary evil. It is why we must have courts and police
officers, armies, inspectors and assorted other functional arms of the
system. But that necessary evil is a balance between freedom and
authority. And at the point where the necessary evil becomes an
unnecessary evil, the balance tilts toward tyranny.

What is an
unnecessary evil? If a necessary evil is the use governmental authority
that fulfills a vital function, an unnecessary evil is governmental
authority that fulfills no vital function, or government for the sake of
government. This was once the American view of government that treated
government with justified suspicion, particularly centralized government.
Today it has become a minority view. Instead the compulsive expansion of
government is seen as a necessary good... and the more functions that
government takes on, the better.

And so the balance between
government power and individual freedom has tilted sharply in the
direction of government power. That is the inevitable result of extending
centralized power, which in government always comes at the expense of
those over whom the government holds power... the
citizenry.

America's Founders understood that the more power is
collected in a single place, the less freedom there can be. Since
government power is expressed as control over the lives of those who live
under it, they were profoundly hostile toward the expansion of that power.
The Declaration of Independence rejects any notion of government for the
sake of government, as opposed to a government of the and by the people,
and the Constitution reflects a healthy suspicion of the motives of the
very government it was there to emplace.

They were not anarchists,
they understood quite well that government was necessary, but they
understood also that power corrupts, and that men with power tend to
gather more power to themselves, a process that throughout history has
brought down even the highest minded republics and nations.

The
Constitution was meant to frame a strict structure for the United States
government, one that would prevent not only future Caesars and Napoleons,
but would prevent ambition and arrogance from wielding unjustified power
in the name of even the best of intentions. And that is exactly what
happened.

Americans did not wake up one morning to a coup, or saw a
crusading general seize power and declare himself President for Life.
Instead what took place was the subtle erosion of the restrictions on
government authority, and a redefinition of the purpose of government,
broadening its areas of responsibility in the name of the public
good.

Today in the name of the public good, the government
regulates what you may eat, where you may live, how you may travel, where
you may build and where you may pray, everything from the great industries
to the intimate details of your family life. All in the name of the public
good.

For now the government has not yet regulated what you may say
and where you may say it, mainly because the tattered shreds of the old
Constitution still stand in the way, but if government authority continues
to expand, that freedom like all others, will be nothing more than a
barrier of sand against the onrushing tide.

The Founders understood
that human appetite for power was unlimited, and that were numberless
rationalizations for it. The growth of socialism across Europe and America
was done in the name of the public good, yet once its proponents gained
real power their tactics showed a ruthless ugliness that was only limited
by the scope of their authority.

The Soviet experiment, in contrast
to the American experiment, demonstrated what true socialism implemented
under absolute authority looks like. The experiment has been repeated in
numerous nations across the world. The results have been the same each and
every time. But there should be no surprise in that, as giving absolute
power in the name of any ideology will result in the same exact
effect.

Socialism is only as humane as the limits of the authority
of those who implement it. The less limits there are, the more ruthless it
becomes. That is because socialism is the theory of government absolutism
writ large. And that is an inevitable recipe for tyranny.

As
America moves toward socialism, and away from traditional constitutional
government, in the name of the public good... it is worth remembering that
power does not co-exist with freedom. Despite whatever public good is
being met, the expansion of government leads inevitably to a decrease in
freedom.

The more government
expands, the less freedom the people who live under it have. The more
power is concentrated within government, the more unrestricted its use
becomes, which is why the separation of powers is such a vital part of the
American system of government. Many of America's Founding Fathers were
gravely worried over that concentration of power within the Federal
government, and its potential for expansion. That worry has long ago
become reality.

Modern Americans have been conditioned to believe
that freedom is a function of government, when freedom is in fact the
absence of government. That dangerous misconception creates a distorted
view of the intended place of government. No government can give freedom.
Freedom is not given by government to the people, it is created through
the absence of coercion, not through legislated rights. By embracing the
socialist premise that government actions protects and creates rights,
American democracy has reverted to a pre-Constitutional understanding of
the relationship between government and the individual. And in doing so
Americans have stopped being citizens who shape our government and become
subjects who are shaped by it, for our "own good".