There are only a few kinds of government that have been proven successful, a term that will be defined presently, in large scale societies. The measure of success in society, as I define it, is quite simple: the basic needs of the citizens must be met. Because each government has pros and cons, I will list them in alphabetical rather than popular, chronological, or superior.
1-Communism:
The most idealistically liberating form of government quickly turned into the most oppressive, and, in Western thought, hated. The problems that the Communist nations faced were linked to the fact that no one wanted to do the dishes - metaphorically speaking, of course. No one dreams of becoming a garbage man. Capitalism, obviously, has solved this issue by paying more for jobs that are considered undesirable - but in a Communist nation, jobs are based upon desire and ability, and not only does no one want to be a trash man for being a trash man, no one is more suited for trash manning than another. So the menial tasks are a problem. But Marx had the solution to that one - we'll discuss it later.
There is another glaring issue, that of bureaucracy. The Communist system which the Russians and Chinese implemented required a few powerful men at the top - who profited enormously and have unmitigated power. It's like that Rush song - the one about the trees who complain that one species is taller than the other, and so the solution is that "The trees were all kept equal by hatchet, ax, and saw"- but someone had to carry the hatchet. And that someone whose responsibility it was to cut off any trees that got too tall is so easily corrupted.
But that's not all. The cultures which adopted this form of government were not conducive to Communist ideals - with the notable exception that Russia actually thrives with totalitarian bureaucracy; thus, the issues of a Soviet state were actually culturally familiar if not acceptable and the things that went right - the sharing of property and so on - were difficult to accept. Other countries reacted differently based upon cultural understanding, and were, for the most part, unable to assimilate. They just lost themselves.
2-Democracy:
Although Democracy is seen as the most 'ideal' or 'correct' form of government in Western Society, it is, in fact, a relatively unproven concept. No Democratic society - at least, nocivilized (and I say that with more than a little sarcastic disdain) Democratic society - has survived past a century or two (America is up for a revolution any day now). The framers of the American government were working off of very shady empirical data, considering that what we would modernly consider a true Democracy - one in which all the citizens share equal rights i.e. without the possibility of discrimination based upon gender, race, religion, or social status - was not in place for the better part of America's history. I'm talking, of course, about the fact that all the framers were white, wealthy, and male - the shining capstone of modern democracy (everyone gets to vote and minorities are represented and protected) was utterly unportrayed until...let's face it: they're still largely unportrayed.
Ok, so Democracy is not as ideal as we make it out to be - it still works...sort of. And yet - yet, after all that, America makes a pretense of perfection and of idealism - "Come to America, where the streets are paved with gold", right? Wrong. Because even though our country is seen as the most powerful one on the planet, anyone would be crazy to make such audatious claims as Americans do. Because America is Capitalist and because America is increasingly immoral, because Democracy demands morality, an aspect of society which is melting quickly.
SO Here's the whole point - that's the problem with Democracy - it requires not only moralitybut commonality. The minorities can neither be pleased nor appeased in a large scale democracy: the great irony of our system.
3-Monarchy and Dictatorship
The difference between Monarchy and Dictatorship is, of course, that the Dictator appoints his successor and the Monarch bears him. Or her. Although I absolutely recognize the significance of this difference (the hereditary lineages are more significant than one might think, in fact), for our purposes, we will group the two together. So - what is wrong with a dictatorship? Well, we all have heard stories about the Evil Dictator who runs a country into the ground, but we have also heard stories of kind, generous, and good dictators. If you're thinking I'm crazy, think again. Here are some examples: King Solomon, King Arthur, King Mosiah, etc. Now, we all know, of course, that for every one good King there are a hundred bad ones - Saddam Hussein, King Henry VIII, King Noah, etc. The problem with this form of government is not in it's lack of potential for good, but rather, the difficulty with which a bad dictator can be ousted.
There are others, of course: Theocracy, Judocracy, Republic, etc, but I think I have belabored my point: any government can and will be corrupted and evil. We see literally hundreds of examples of this. It is the legacy of man: the rise and fall of civilizations. But we are in an unprecidented time. Never before has a society been more global than ours. We have knew weapons, technologies, ideas - and we have one more thing: amorality. Amorality is not "immorality" - it is not going against one's morals - it is a complete lack of morals. A lack of knowing what is fundamentally right and wrong.
Now, you say, "There is no absolute right or wrong for everyone - it all depends on perspective". Bravo, you. I could not agree more. We have made too many compromises with uncompromisable material. We have allowed ourselves to grow so large and so diverse that we are imploding. "If the eye offend thee, pluck it out". There are people in our huge, global society who are acting in ways that are anti-social to say the least, but instead of plucking them, we enable them.
So what is the answer? Are we to be take away agency? No. We just need to realize that we are given agency so we can choose the right way, not so that we can choose whatever way makes us feel good at the time.
The point is that large scale societies don't work. What we need is a series of small scale, self-sufficient, moral (or not, depending again on the individual's choice) societies.
hen in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
