RANDom thoughts

Force. The root of all evil. Think about it, what is it that makes stealing evil? That a man takes from me without my consent, that he forces me to give up or lose something that is mine. It is force, the without consent, that is the corrupting element, that is the evil, in the action. Fundamentally, the action is the same as if I’d given or sold that which was stolen: a good has been transferred. The difference between the two is my consent. Anytime we engage in force we are handling the One Ring. We are in danger of contaminating ourselves. It may be necessary, but when it is it is activated by the necessities of circumstance, by certain particulars of a specific moment. We do not carry around with us the right to use force whenever we wish. Unactivated use of force is evil. That right is activated by the use of force against us, activated for our defense. When the moment is passed, the right is no longer there. Even the rightful use of force can be corrosive; constantly carrying the arbitrary right of force would destroy a man’s soul. Governmental force, as constituted, is of this nature: perpetually active. That is why it is so dangerous-power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely-the constant presence of the right to use force is what makes the power of government corrupting. It’s heady, empowering, makes men feel like gods, superior and infallible, with a right to anything. There are only two types of men who constantly feel the right to force: men that are evil, and men who work for government. To protect ourselves from the arbitrary force of the first we instituted institutions with ultimate force, nominally limited, but because it was ultimate, it was necessarily arbitrary. Is government innately immoral?