The Weapon

     Much of what passes for political discourse today is essentially empty. What’s discussed has little bearing on how the American political system actually functions: the forces that drive it, the consequences the interactions of those forces produce, and the responses of private citizens desperate to protect themselves, their loved ones, and their property.

     There are a host of analogical simplifications – none of them perfectly accurate; all of them useful – one could invoke in exploring the torture we call politics today. Most of them have been employed by someone somewhere at some time, some even by your humble Curmudgeon. The explanatory power in each of them is what gives them relevance. As a great deal of recent news is about violence and death that’s arisen from political differences, let’s make use of one that drips blood, and see where it takes us.

     Imagine a weapon. It needn’t be any particular kind of weapon; if you like guns, or knives, or bombs, run with it. But give it these characteristics:

• No matter how many times it’s used, it’s never “used up;”
• He who controls it cannot be opposed. In effect, he’s the absolute dictator of the realm.

     (At this point, you may be imagining some unstoppable superweapon whose use brings about mass death and destruction. That’s all right. The weapon I have in mind can do that, and far more discriminating things, too. But all things in the proper sequence.)

     Now imagine us as we are: three hundred million fractious, perpetually squabbling individuals, each of whom has his own agenda and convictions. Imagine further that we all know about that weapon, and that each of us has some non-zero chance of persuading its wielder to use it for our benefit. The current wielder, of course, will have his own priorities. Therefore, for any arbitrary individual or organization – call him / them / it Smith – to persuade the wielder to use it for Smith’s purposes would require making it seem profitable to the wielder and his purposes as well.

     As The Weapon is unopposable, isn’t it clear that control of it must be the most important consideration of all? Isn’t it clear that those who seek to impose themselves and their agendas on the rest of us will never, ever cease to fight over whose hand will wield it?

     As you contemplate those questions, add this phrase to the stew and agitate violently: coalition politics. Heat to boiling and serve when wholly vile.

     I’m sick of politics, politicians, and political debates. I’m sick of people who strive, however earnestly, to tell me – or you – “what we should do.” It’s always been morally dubious; today it blends demonic viciousness with utter insanity. History tells us that it cannot continue indefinitely. Herbert Stein tells us that therefore, it will stop. What we don’t know is when, and at what cost in lives, agony, and treasure.

     The men who wrote the Constitution and the subordinate charters of the thirteen original states were aware of what their nation had escaped. They sought to limit the possibility that a new tyranny would somehow emerge from what they perceived as the “necessary evil” of government. They knew that an effective limiting mechanism must have teeth as threatening as those possessed by the State. (John Randolph: “You may cover whole skins of parchment with limitations, but power alone can limit power.”) They did their best to contrive such mechanisms. And they failed.

     They failed because they underestimated the cunning and determination of evil men. They failed because good men are all too quick to act from good intentions, and all too ready to assume that others’ morals and ethics are the same as theirs. They failed because government is The Weapon. Once it’s allowed to exist and to operate, it will swell and absorb everything that’s within its reach – and its reach is very long.

     Time was, I believed government could be tamed, strapped down to its “essential functions,” prevented from doing anything other than the few public functions for which individuals and private organizations are less well suited. I no longer believe it. I can hardly imagine how anyone with an adequate awareness of the history of the United States, the boldest experiment in human freedom of all time, possibly could.

     There’s an election coming up. A lot of people are passionately engaged in it, whatever their motives. Millions will donate to various candidates. Millions will promote and campaign. Millions will vote…including some millions who don’t have that privilege under current law. Some candidates will win; some will lose.

     But there will be no peace. There cannot be; today, control over The Weapon is all that matters. Struggle over it will continue unabated. Indeed, it will grow ever more violent.

     Si pacem vis, para bellum, as the saying goes. If there is no peace, then there must be war, for there is no intermediate state between them. Plan accordingly.

     But do have a nice day.