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Why is Government "Evil?" (page 1) | |
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It cannot be denied that the title of this web site is controversial. Most people agree that government as a whole is inefficient, corrupt and divisive, and that politicians are liars and untrustworthy, but they do not attribute any moral failings to it. When something clearly evil happens, the excuse "they were just doing their job" is inevitably trotted out. While people are against government, they consider it a "necessary evil." They point to all the "good deeds" that government does, like build roads, finance schools and impose vaccination programs, and ignore the very, very "bad deeds" that government does, like war, genocide, the War on Drugs, and jailing innocents on the basis of a monopoloid1 and bankrupt ideology of justice. Certainly the individuals who work for any given government are not evil in and of themselves. They may commit evil actions as part of their work, but they themselves may be very nice people who wouldn't otherwise think of hurting another person, and, insofar as the moral aspect is concerned, probably don't understand what it is exactly that they are doing. Despite the fact that they support a system that hurts and takes away the freedom of millions of people on a daily basis, it is not the individuals that we call evil when we say "government is evil." We are, rather, talking about the concept of government and the belief in government. First, we must define what we mean by "evil," as this is also a controversial term. Granted, people have varying ideas on which ethics2 one should use to judge actions, and what is or is not evil. But even with that in mind, the vast majority of people agree on some basic ethical principles such as: 1. Killing people without provocation is evil. 2. Stealing from people is evil. Extortion, by extension, is also evil. 3. Kidnapping people is evil. 4. Taking away people's freedom is evil. There are, of course, exceptions to these principles. Some people believe that the death penalty is ethically permissible because the person being killed is a criminal and thus has forfeited his rights as an individual. Many people would also be sympathetic to a person who steals out of urgent necessity. One may also temporarily take away a person's freedom to move about if it can save their lives. But apart from these specific cases, the vast majority of people would agree to principles 1 to 4 above. If you agree with principles 1 to 4 above, then you probably also agree that any system which is premised on3, and maintained by, the constant violation of these points is also clearly evil in nature. For instance, an association of serial killers, no matter how much "good deeds" it performs, would be evil because it is premised on, and maintained by, a constant violation of principle 1. The association cannot exist without some people killing other people, because that is what serial killers do. Obviously this is an extreme example, and few people would say that such a group is good and justified. On the other hand, an accidental violation of these rules may not lead to such judgment. In malpractice cases, a doctor may accidentally kill a patient through human error, yet we do not necessarily call him evil. At worst, we could call him incompetent. Likewise, we would not call a group of doctors evil on that basis alone. The difference between both cases is that, in the case of the serial killers, breaking the principles of ethics we've listed is a systemic4 feature, while in the case of doctors, it is not. Continue. 1"Monopoloid" is the adjective of "monopoly." A monopoly holds, by definition, a monopoloid control over an area. 2Ethics: A set of moral principles, a theory or system of moral values. For instance, the Golden Rule is an ethical principle. 3Premised on: Using as a basis for justification or argumentation, assuming something as true or taking it for granted. 4Systemic: Common to a system, integrated within the features of a system. |
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