Government Reform the Collectivist Way

SEE HERE As Mao said "Power comes out of the barrel of a gun" or words to that effect. The reality of most of the world can be summed up by the notion that power is simply force applied by will to achieve the ends of those in power. Only in a few nations has the notion of the "will of the people" taken on any tangible reality and even there the will is often stymied by the concentration of power in the hands of a few. Government is not the solution to our problems. As Ronald Reagan said, "Government is the problem!" The solution to the problems of a free people is virtue not merely defined as moral excellence but as a universal striving for excellence. Aristotle had it right and mostly today we have it wrong. We tell our children they are excellent when they are mediocre. We tell the excellent that they are the problem. We give medals to the losers and cheapen the rewards for the winners. We strive not to hurt feelings by making no achievement very rewarding. There is no sense in this but we have long forgotten what sense is in the first place so that common sense has become uncommon. We are in danger of sinking as we stop teaching our children to swim, metaphorically in the sea of life and not to expect to be rewarded for failing to strive. We are eating our seed corn and wondering how a harvest can follow. It is time to change course.