Slippery Slope vs. Heavy Hand
To a hammer, everything looks like a nail. This paraphrase of an old Japanese saying can be used as a lead in to describe the viewpoint of government held by both ends of the political spectrum. The viewpoint of the left and the right immediately begin to diverge as each word of this phrase is parsed.
Take the word “hammer”. Both left and right know this word signifies government. The difference is the right always calls a hammer a hammer where the left only sometimes calls government a hammer. When government opposes leftist beliefs it is called “the slippery slope”, hammer, or much worse. Somehow when this same government aligns itself with leftist ideas it is transformed into a paternal Great White Father looking out for us, ready to catch us if we fall, and after dusting us off sending us on our merry way to a “better life” of its own exclusive defining. The reservation is not just for Native Americans. Gulags also serve to keep people where they can be protected and watched.
Those on the right see “the heavy hand of government” as a hammer because they know that, while necessary in certain circumstances, government has a way of growing. They know that enablers such as legislatures, judiciaries, and executives are always originating or being plied with ideas to make government larger. They cringe at the mention of “There ought to be a law”. They know the hammer wants to grow.
Bureaucrats love to pass new regulations and impose new rules. Big government apparatchiks propose seductive sounding policy to right perceived wrongs and raise additional money through fines and levies for use in “doing good”. For each measure of doing good someone loses more of the ability to freely choose. This fundamental right in a republic is granted to each citizen. It is the republics implementation of free will, free will granted to men not by men but by God.
The “nail” in the old saying is of course anyone who opposes or is to be directly impacted by the hammer of government. The left sees the hammer as a means of inflicting blunt force trauma to anyone who has the temerity to oppose socialist ideology. The right sees the impact of such a hammer and also sees the nail in much broader terms as representing victims of any authoritarian government seeking only to expand its power at the expense of its citizens.
So the right has not only the charge of reducing the size of the hammer of government but also to wrest it from the heavy hand of the left. The battle has been such for many years here in America. So the battle continues today.
Take the word “hammer”. Both left and right know this word signifies government. The difference is the right always calls a hammer a hammer where the left only sometimes calls government a hammer. When government opposes leftist beliefs it is called “the slippery slope”, hammer, or much worse. Somehow when this same government aligns itself with leftist ideas it is transformed into a paternal Great White Father looking out for us, ready to catch us if we fall, and after dusting us off sending us on our merry way to a “better life” of its own exclusive defining. The reservation is not just for Native Americans. Gulags also serve to keep people where they can be protected and watched.
Those on the right see “the heavy hand of government” as a hammer because they know that, while necessary in certain circumstances, government has a way of growing. They know that enablers such as legislatures, judiciaries, and executives are always originating or being plied with ideas to make government larger. They cringe at the mention of “There ought to be a law”. They know the hammer wants to grow.
Bureaucrats love to pass new regulations and impose new rules. Big government apparatchiks propose seductive sounding policy to right perceived wrongs and raise additional money through fines and levies for use in “doing good”. For each measure of doing good someone loses more of the ability to freely choose. This fundamental right in a republic is granted to each citizen. It is the republics implementation of free will, free will granted to men not by men but by God.
The “nail” in the old saying is of course anyone who opposes or is to be directly impacted by the hammer of government. The left sees the hammer as a means of inflicting blunt force trauma to anyone who has the temerity to oppose socialist ideology. The right sees the impact of such a hammer and also sees the nail in much broader terms as representing victims of any authoritarian government seeking only to expand its power at the expense of its citizens.
So the right has not only the charge of reducing the size of the hammer of government but also to wrest it from the heavy hand of the left. The battle has been such for many years here in America. So the battle continues today.
posted by tovarich at 12:31 PM
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