From Town, To Nation, To Dust

By David P Shirk

Freedom is more than an ideal. It is a way of life that all who embrace it can live, and prosper under. Morally speaking, it is the only way to live if you wish to be in charge of your own life and all you produce. The more freedom you either abuse or give up, the more government grows to fill in the gap.
In short, government is like a fire. Contained and well supervised, it serves its keeper well. Yet people like fire, and all too often perceive its benefit not its danger – living in ignorance of its full capability when it is unleashed. They feel the warmth from it on a cold day, and use it to heat water, and cook. They know that most others use it as well in such small amounts that it is not something to be feared, but rather used for their benefit. Yet one day someone takes their eye off of it. A smoldering ember pops out of the fireplace and starts spreading. Eventually the entire house is consumed, and the owner left destitute. People know that governance of any sort could be for the good – as long as it remained in their control under their watchful eye, and doing only what it was told to do out of well thought out reason.
Such a form was held by a small town once. So the townspeople allowed it, and kept it small. Yet one day while they were not using it, they stepped away from it and allowed it to keep burning. Yet while they were away going about their business, the fire decided that it was not burning enough to make everyone warm and happy. So it spread.
At first all the people noticed was a small piece of wood missing from each one of their stacks. Upon further investigation, they found one less fortunate enjoying a warm fire in an alley. It turns out that the mayor’s assistant had taken that small bit of wood, and used it to warm the guy who was down on his luck. Some people thought this was wrong – after all, they had always been kind to this man – given him food, a place to sleep when the weather got too bad, and even firewood on days that were just chilly. Others thought that this was great – it saved them the time and effort of dealing with the guy, and at the relatively low cost of a small piece of wood.
The general consensus was that it was no big deal. So the next day, the people went about their business again. This time they come back, and another small piece of wood was gone again. They had expected this however, so they did not think anything of it. This went by for a week or so, and they soon became indifferent to it.
Then one day they returned and did not even think about the wood anymore. Yet upon entering their homes, some found their cabinets open, some said that the last of their flour was taken, and some their water supply lower than usual. It would have sounded like the whole town was imagining things had fewer people noticed. Once again they investigated, only this time they found that the town hall was warmly lit, and a dozen or so were eating a well set meal.
This caused a little more of a stir. The town’s people did not mind feeding a guy who was driven to poverty by a bad fall while working, but most of the others enjoying the food and the fire worked far less than the rest of them. They were impoverished not by an accident, but by the choices they made such as becoming a slave to the bottle or some other bit of nonsense. However the towns people grudgingly gave a little more way, seeing the situation as a distasteful act, but not one enough to get too ruffled over – after all, they still had work to do and their families to go to.
The overseer of the provided food and shelter reported later that night to the mayor. He saw his task as not only justified, but morally imperative to any righteous society. He told the mayor that the job was done, but that the townspeople were a little upset by the situation. The mayor asked his opinion, and he responded that the townsmen should be ashamed of themselves – after all, it was only taking their spares and making good use of them. The mayor thought about the matter and concluded that his assistant was correct. However he did not want the matter to get out of hand, so he kept the provided food, fire and temporary shelter as the new norm – not to be added to.
However a month passed, and winter was due to set in. As a result, the townspeople had stockpiled more wood on their property. Yet due to the ever diminishing weather, more wood was needed to provide heat for the less fortunate of the town. However the wood was taken nonetheless, with food in just about the same amount.
The brutal winter came and went, setting the stage for a very nasty town hall meeting in the early spring. For the most part, most had enough stored for the winter, and sat quiet. Yet there were a few families that the extra taken from them all season long, and that little bit made a world of difference. After spending the last few weeks of winter with a meager fire and little food, they ended up finding themselves in the town hall just to get warm again.
One father stood up, and as respectfully as he could, made it known how outrageous this whole thing was. He was immediately answered by the condescending public servant who retorted with comments like ‘How dare you claim to be in the right yet refuse to give to help the needy’. The father lost his composure at that point and yelled back at the official for always having a full belly and warm place to go from his hard work while his family who had earned it had to remain with less. The official smiled and pointed out that maybe so, but the father and his family were both at the town hall with ready food and warmth when they needed it. In the end, the father was exasperated, and once he completely lost his temper, was asked to leave.
Once he left no one else had anything to say. They felt for the father, but did not feel like being made out to look like an unreasonable idiot like he had been. So it was decided that the experiment was a success, and would become policy. Long story short, this went on for a generation. There were always complaints, but in the end nothing changed.
The next generation had a mayor just like the last. He felt mortified when he found that his official and those under him were not getting paid for gathering the wood and the food. So he implemented a small tax to see that they were compensated. The taxes went the same way as the wood and food had, and despite the complaints, turned into policy.
Yet another generation passed and there were still problems. Even worse was that the people had began taking the idea of ‘giving until it hurts’ as a way of life, and the way they used to live was long forgotten (save for the old timers who were labeled as mentally ill anyway). The new mayor seemed consistent in the eyes of the people so they listened to him – after all, they still lived, so what was the wor....

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