buttercat1791 on Nostr: We have to recognize in what real power consists. The written regulations of the ...
We have to recognize in what real power consists. The written regulations of the federal bureaucracy only have power insofar as they are enforced.
Power is the ability to cause someone else to do something you wish. The weaker version of this is coercion, but true power is based on love. If my wife asks me to massage her shoulders, and I do so because I love her, then she has power over my time and effort, but it is driven by love rather than by coercion.
In a society striving for virtue, the leaders, especially on a local level, will have influence because of the good will of their fellow citizens, rather than because of the coercive power of the state. This power based on good will is stronger than coercive power. As we become more subsidiary, the bureaucracy will simply lose its ability to enforce arbitrary regulations, because the enforcement depends to some degree on the cooperation of the governed.
Power is the ability to cause someone else to do something you wish. The weaker version of this is coercion, but true power is based on love. If my wife asks me to massage her shoulders, and I do so because I love her, then she has power over my time and effort, but it is driven by love rather than by coercion.
In a society striving for virtue, the leaders, especially on a local level, will have influence because of the good will of their fellow citizens, rather than because of the coercive power of the state. This power based on good will is stronger than coercive power. As we become more subsidiary, the bureaucracy will simply lose its ability to enforce arbitrary regulations, because the enforcement depends to some degree on the cooperation of the governed.