Whenever Government Becomes Bigger It Crowds Out And Weakens Civilization

Trigger

Here is a very readable, concise article about this subject regarding British society and government in the 20^th century by Alastair Paynter published on 2/13/2013 in the Freeman Magazine. It also contains some interesting links to more literature on the subject.

A Basic Definition Of Civilization

Civilization is very simply defined here as free and responsible individuals voluntarily cooperating with one another and assisting each other to their mutual benefit in a myriad of ways especially in the absence of a powerful, coercive government. The moral code governing these individuals can be as simple as a commitment to adhere to the, e.g. Ten Commandments.

Excerpts From The Article

A few quotes from this article:

1.       “When the State seeks to perform the duties that ordinarily would be carried out through people’s voluntary social bonds, it damages these bonds and weakens civilization.”

2.       “One prominent—but by no means solitary—example of this diminution of society is the replacement of private charity with the welfare state. … This unnatural intervention weakens the sense of duty, custom, and manners which animate an organic system of civil society. State intervention has not only debased the very concept of charity, but reduced individual responsibility to others …”

3.       “Proponents of the welfare state tend to ignore the plain evidence that wherever State interference hasn't cramped or enervated them, voluntary assistance and mutual aid have been the norm. Before the advent of the welfare state, this assistance came in the form of charity and mutual associations called friendly societies [Encyclopedia Britannica 1911 article about these societies]. In 1911, the year the Liberal government introduced compulsory national insurance, around 9 million people (of the 12 million covered by the scheme) were already members of such mutual aid associations. That’s 75 percent. During the nineteenth century, there had been a vast proliferation of friendly societies, which sought to provide social security and sometimes medical assistance to their members.”

4.       “It is remarkable how a once-liberal (i.e., liberty-loving) country [Great Britain] could be so steadily inculcated with social democratic ideals. What was once considered healthy and good has come to be seen as aberrant and alien. Thankfully, a persistent germ of the individualist spirit still remains in Britain.”

Big Government Suffocates The Human Spirit

One may add that once big government takes over, e.g. charity human innovation and human spirit suffer.