Power Sources:

When it comes to governing people the most basic of questions is where does the power to do this come from. Sooner or later someone is going to ask “Who gave you the power to tell me what to do”? A valid government damn well better have a good answer for this question. The two most accepted sources of power are divine and human. In the first case the populace at large is convinced in some manner to believe that God Almighty approves of the government.

In more recent times two other methods of justification are used. Loosely those can be summed up as power of the bullet and power of the ballet. In many parts of the world the government exists because the power for that rule is force of arms. At the core of this type of government is the implied fact that you do what you are told to do or we will shoot you dead. It is important to note God is not going to strike you dead with lightening. No you are going to be killed by the soldiers who support the government. One might say the uncertainty factor has been removed.

The most modern form of power administration is the government that is elected by the people through voting. This like military rule is a human centered form of government. The government may or may not acknowledge the existence of god. It does not say that god has sanctioned their power. At least the wiser of the governments do not say such things. The problem of course is which god the government should endorse. Because endorsing a god may cause unhappiness in some parts of the population that does not believe in that particular god governments try to avoid the issue.

Where America started to get into trouble was when another form of human centered government evolved and that form was socialism. Socialism was a result of the research of principles put forth by Karl Marx. Socialism is really more of an economic thought process than a governmental thought process. I have heard it said that communism is socialism with electricity. Socialism is really an attempt to determine how the wealth-pie will be cut up and delivered to the citizens. As such socialism should be contrasted with free enterprise not governance. America confused communism and socialism. And that is why “under God” was added to the pledge of allegiance.

It will be interesting to see America thread her way through the current set of problems she faces. With leadership that acknowledges that all power flows from the people and not god and definitely not the army I think we shall not only survive we shall prosper. However I remind all my fellow citizen that this government is an ongoing experiment. Only we can determine if the experiment is successful or if it fails. It is our government … let us make it work again for all of us not the chosen few.