A Nation of Hyenas

This is the title from Tom Mullen's latest blog post "A Nation of Hyenas." As he says, he was inspired by watching Wild Kingdom, in which the cheetah caught and killed some food, and then a bunch of hyena's came and took the property away. Why? Because there were more of them, and they were bigger and stronger. Later that night, while watching a heated exchange between a liberal and a conservative on TV, Mullen heard the liberal give the justification for the government having the power to take away property, possess banks and auto companies, and force me to go to their schools and hospitals:

“That’s why we have a democratically-elected government and the people want the government to do something.”

It is the horrifying reality of what any government bailout or other redistribution of wealth represents. We as Americans have forgotten that all government action is exercised under exactly these circumstances: at gunpoint. That is the purpose of government, to exercise brute force on behalf of its constituents when it becomes necessary to do so. That is why our government was originally so limited. The founders of our nation believed that brute force was only justified in self defense. Therefore, government action was limited to protecting its constituents from harm by other people, whether it was harm by a fellow citizen or a foreign army.

The first philosopher to really grapple with this issue was a guy named Thomas Hobbes. He said that humans are brutal people, who when left to their own devices will take other people's property, lives, and freedom. The only way to control such a brutal creature as man is to create an even more powerful and brutal government, one that will control him and keep him in line. The problem though is once you create a brutal and powerful government, how do you control that very government so that it doesn't take away life, liberty, and property?

Our founding fathers thought that a combination of separation of powers, federalism, checks and balances, limited government, and a religious civil society would do that. Sadly, years of liberal rule has eroded these founding principles, and now we are left only with the unrestrained brutal all powerful government- a hyena who will gang up on you and steal your property.