23A025 Responsibilty by Jim Davies, 6/20/2023

In the recent ZGBlog "Authority" we showed that there is no valid way that voters can convey to rulers the right to rule.

How now about the converse: if rulers have been elected (by however invalid the method) are their subjects responsible for what they do?

Example #1: in 1933 Hitlers's National Socialist German Workers' Party was elected by a plurality of some 11 million votes. No rival won more, and after some clever political moves after he had become Chancellor, no rival mattered. His party was in sole control. Now, was every German responsible for all that the Nazis then did? I don't think so.

Most of them voted for a Germany restored to honor and prosperity, and (unusually) Hitler delivered on that promise. The "Jewish Question" was present in the NSDAP manifesto, but not prominent. Were those 11 million answerable for the Holocaust? I don't think so.

Example #2: today, Joe Biden's Democrats rule America, after an election that reason says was rigged and stolen. The Prez himself is a pathetic figurehead and the real power lies (as increasingly usual) in the bureaucracy or "Deep State" as many call it; the vitally important foreign policy being driven by Victoria Nuland and Antony Blinken.

That policy is to prolong the proxy war in Ukraine, for as long as it takes to wear down Russia - into either subservience, as a member of the US hegemon, or irrelevance after collapsing economically. This policy is incredibly dangerous, for if it began to succeed the rulers in Moscow, having nothing left to lose, might very well unleash its nuclear arsenal and bring civilization crashing down.

Now, are We the People, in whose name the FedGov operates, answerable for that benighted policy? Despite the profusion of Ukrainian flags across the Nation (or at least on its Left and Right Coasts), no: I don't think so.

A third example: in 2019 Ukrainian voters elected Zelensky by a huge, 70% majority; as a comedian he had no political experience but his platform promised peace, in the squabble over Russophile rebels in Donetsk and Luhansk. His failure to deliver anything but the direct opposite is well known. So is the population responsible for what his government is doing? - I don't think so.

There we have it: an almost complete disconnect between rulers and people. The only slight degree to which the ruled bear responsibility for the actions of their ruler is if they voted for him or her to take office, or expressed support in some other way.

To vote is to hand powers one does not have to someone else, who will use them to do whatever he pleases. It's the height of irresponsibility. So I won't vote. Will you?

To pay taxes to a ruling clique is to give it the means to wreak havoc; to disrupt the smooth functioning of the market (at best) or to wage non-defensive war and so kill large numbers of people (at worst.) I know, tax evasion is against the ruler's law and will probably lead to imprisonment. We are faced with a vicious choice: to be honest and responsible but to live in a cage, or to compromise that principle and live fairly normally. I pass no judgment.

To work for the rulers in any capacity at all, however, involves no such difficult choice. Possibly all government jobs pay better than non-government jobs, so there could be a loss of living standards by declining to do so, but that's a small price to pay for the resulting increase in self-esteem. See more at the QuitGov site.

It's the responsible way to live, and deeply satisfying. And it's the only way to dislodge the rulers.