“Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher.”

~ Thomas Paine, Common Sense (1776)

Given the disdain the socialist elites in the UK are showing for the common folks who just denied them confirmation of their self-imposed elevated status – and a similar disbelief expressed by the American progressive cabal that the commoners could, as they say, “vote against their interests” – I can’t help but think that there is a corollary to Rush Limbaugh’s Undeniable Truth #24 which states:

“Feminism was established so as to allow unattractive women easier access to the mainstream of American life.”

That corollary would be:

“Socialism was established so people marginally qualified to be an assistant clerk at the DMV would have access to power over American life.”

Having had the opportunity provided by a couple of 12 hour flights to and from China a week ago to do a little thinking and reading, I have been revisiting a lot of period literature from the American Revolutionary era. It is remarkable how fresh the universal principles of freedom, the unabashed desire for self-determination and expressions of natural law sound even after over 240 years have passed. On my flight back to home, I read the treatise Common Sense, from the famous pamphleteer, Thomas Paine.

When the “Leavers” won the Brexit vote, all of this sort of came into focus for me.

I found Paine’s description of the evils of a hereditary monarchy as a form of governance eerily similar to the modern incarnation of that form, our modern bureaucracy combined with the Illuminati and elitists who compete with Her Majesty in the UK and presume to be our American royalty.

In precise terms, Paine wrote:

“MANKIND being originally equals in the order of creation, the equality could only be destroyed by some subsequent circumstance: the distinctions of rich and poor may in a great measure be accounted for, and that without having recourse to the harsh ill-sounding names of oppression and avarice. Oppression is often the CONSEQUENCE, but seldom or never the MEANS of riches; and tho’ avarice will preserve a man from being necessitously poor, it generally makes him too timorous to be wealthy.

But there is another and great distinction for which no truly natural or religious reason can be assigned, and that is the distinction of men into KINGS and SUBJECTS. Male and female are the distinctions of nature, good and bad the distinctions of Heaven; but how a race of men came into the world so exalted above the rest, and distinguished like some new species, is worth inquiring into, and whether they are the means of happiness or of misery to mankind.”

The governmental bureaucracy thrives on heredity – they value longevity as an avenue for advancement and view loyalty and chronology of service over performance. The recent “revolts” of the public sector unions served to reinforce the sense of entitlement and privilege that comes with this federal heraldry. Even the political parties revere the Illuminati and elitists, giving us candidates that are “establishment approved”.

Such a monarchical perspective leads to governmental interference and manipulation of society to achieve outcomes that the ruling class deems appropriate and necessary – while in actuality being neither appropriate nor necessary. Paine captures the eventual outcome of having such a government of lords and kings and what that means in relation to the freedom of the greater society.

“SOME writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness POSITIVELY by uniting our affections, the latter NEGATIVELY by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher.

Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one: for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries BY A GOVERNMENT, which we might expect in a country WITHOUT GOVERNMENT, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer. Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built upon the ruins of the bowers of paradise. For were the impulses of conscience clear, uniform and irresistibly obeyed, man would need no other lawgiver; but that not being the case, he finds it necessary to surrender up a part of his property to furnish means for the protection of the rest; and this he is induced to do by the same prudence which in every other case advises him, out of two evils to choose the least. Wherefore, security being the true design and end of government, it unanswerably follows that whatever form thereof appears most likely to ensure it to us, with the least expense and greatest benefit, is preferable to all others.”

The more things change, the more they stay the same. It is a cycle as old as time. The title of the post was inspired by the poem by Rudyard Kipling. We would do well to heed his words:

In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “If you don’t work you die.”

Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew
And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true
That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.

As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began.
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool’s bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;

And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!