How are you on Hobbes? (Not Calvin and Hobbes, the other one). Most of my understanding of the social contract comes from there. Basically, I think we gave up the right to exact individual revenge in return for giving the state a monopoly on violence. All the other hedges of freedom are frippery compared to that one. If you do that, there must be a mechanism for removing a government that exercises that right improperly, which is the difference between a tyranny and a democracy (it's a formal distinction: there can be no mechanism for removing the tyrant in a tyranny. One of the things that makes The Declaration of Arbroath a revolutionary document, centuries ahead of its time in Europe, is that it stated that the people could remove a monarch acting contrary to the people's will. No wonder the English never trusted the Scots).
Distrust is a good and appropriate response to the exercise of power. It should be questioned whenever you see it happening. Cynicism, OTOH, is corrosive because you start out by assuming the worst. This can be appropriate, but it eats away at yourself and at the body politic. It leads to statements like "All politicians are the same", or the shorter formulation, "All politicians are bastards" when actually there are huge differences in intent and action in different politicians and many of them are driven by noble intentions. Which doesn't mean I agree with them, but if there are no Gods, then there are no Monsters.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2010-12-13 04:33 pm (UTC)Distrust is a good and appropriate response to the exercise of power. It should be questioned whenever you see it happening. Cynicism, OTOH, is corrosive because you start out by assuming the worst. This can be appropriate, but it eats away at yourself and at the body politic. It leads to statements like "All politicians are the same", or the shorter formulation, "All politicians are bastards" when actually there are huge differences in intent and action in different politicians and many of them are driven by noble intentions. Which doesn't mean I agree with them, but if there are no Gods, then there are no Monsters.