"Men as well as rivers grow crooked by following the path of least resistance.” Thomas Jefferson
Self-control is probably the most difficult task any human faces—to resist the “sins of the flesh,” the temptations that plague us all, and to do the right thing. Everyone does the “right thing,” at least occasionally; no one, not even Stalin or Pelosi, was/is 100% evil. But too often, humans give in to their lusts and desires, and destroy themselves and, too often, others in the process.
The “path of least resistance” is the easy way, of course, to do what is pleasant to us, what is easy, what we want to do rather than what we know we should do. Most people would rather eat pizza or ice cream than broccoli or spinach. We know which is best for us, but we also know which we’d rather have. Self-control? Or the “path of least resistance”?
Plato wrote, “The first and greatest victory is to conquer yourself; to be conquered by yourself is of all things most shameful and vile.” Few people can consistently do it, and especially when it is really important to do so. That is why there is so much evil in the world, and so many Democrats in America.
Governments are established among men to “secure” the natural rights (“life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”) which the Creator endowed men with. Governments should not exist to tyrannize or enslave their populous, but to provide the virtuous framework, the structure, the protection against evil that will allow humans the freedom to pursue virtuous, civilized lifestyles. Antisthenes of Athens wrote, “Virtue is the only good, and self-control is the only means of achieving virtue.” Sadly, however, governments are needed because, since “conquering oneself” is the greatest victory a human can achieve, it is thus also the most difficult thing a person can do. And the less self-control a citizenry has, the more government it will need. That’s good for government tyrants, bad for the freedoms of the people.
Therefore, when one asks, why do we almost never hear government leaders urging people to practice self-control, the last two sentences in the previous paragraph provide the answer. You’re Nancy Pelosi. Or Chuck Schumer. Or Joe Biden. Or Kamala Harris. Or a Republican politician not a few. What’s your goal in life as a politician? To see a virtuous, self-governing populous who doesn’t need you very much? Don’t make me laugh. Politicians don’t get into power in order to limit that power. They will—to a person—spill the bilge that they get into “public service” because they want to “help the people.” But why does “helping people” always, ALWAYS result in more government interference in the lives of individuals, increased government growth, more money for politicians and less for the people, endless wars and “crises” that only the government can solve?
Do you think Pelosi et al, want a self-controlled public? Not in your life. It is in the interest of the government to encourage its people to follow “the path of least resistance” into licentiousness and chaos. A virtuous citizenship is the last thing a tyrant wants. And that’s why you never hear any politician talk about it.
Tragically, government is needed because too many people do not practice self-control or virtue. The good, honest, virtuous citizen needs little government because he will take care of himself and his family, not be a burden to society, and not infringe upon the rights of others. He will respect their lives and property because that’s what virtue does. But, unfortunately, every society in human history has had its riffraff, its evil, its coterie of licentious barbarians who refuse to practice self-control and respect for others. Thus, the virtuous sigh, and establish a government to protect themselves from human scum, all the while hoping that government doesn’t fall into the hands of such scum. The last hope has been a vain one all through history.
The evil who need government come in degrees, of course. Some only need the threat of force to restrict their savagery. Some must be removed from society and isolated for the protection of others. Some are so utterly depraved, evil, and irredeemable that they simply need to be eliminated altogether from the human race. Ideally—IDEALLY--government will do the above faithfully, and without infringing upon the freedoms of the people it was created to protect. But that’s another fantasy. Governments never do that. They inevitably, and without one contrary example in human history, become tyrannical. Power is the temptation the politician has no self-control to resist. And power is necessary in government, of course, to restrict the barbarians. But when the barbarians get into government, as they always do because power is the temptation they can never resist, government becomes an even greater threat to freedom than the savages it was created to protect against.
Thus, it is very easy to understand why government officials never urge self-control upon their citizens—the politician has none himself/herself, and probably doesn’t even know the meaning of the word. The “path of least resistance” for too many people leads to the “crooked” halls of Congress. They don’t want you practicing self-control because it would make them look like the hypocrites they are, and it would also limit the need for them to exercise power and control over you, which is the very reason they became politicians in the first place.
Government is needed to protect against the savages among us; but, who protects us from government? It is a vicious conundrum which humanity has never solved. Our Founding Fathers came the closest, but all one must do is look at the Deep State today to realize their ultimate failure.
Power is the irresistible temptation for every politician. Thus, they want you to follow the “path of least resistance.” And those who vote for it are just as guilty as those who practice it.
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