Question Of The Week, 10/29/06
Good morning. Did you remember to turn your clocks back last night? No, that is not this weeks question. Actually this weeks question might be as old as time. It has been ask by many past and present day political philosophers. This weeks Question Of The Week is. What is the purpose of government(at any level)? I'll post my answer in the Comment Section Monday Night.
God Bless America, God Save The Republic.
God Bless America, God Save The Republic.
posted by David Schantz | 2:10 AM
6 Comments:
To protect the citizen's natural rights and provide general security.
I'd have to go with my good friend, the Constitution, on this one:
"...establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity..."
Before I saw the comments here, my first thought was the Preamble to the Constitution.
Along the lines of Prague Twin's comment...The American Revolution was, in many ways, not a revolution at all. Rather, the colonists were fighting for their rights as Englishmen, rights which England was depriving them of. While Patrick Henry and some others like him were real firebrands, most of the colonists didn't look upon the war as a revolution but rather as a necessity to preserve "natural rights." Another term might be "God-given rights."
From the Declaration of Independence (emphases mine):
When 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...
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....
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...
A lot of answers for this question.
I'll just simply state that government is better than anarchy.
First I want to thank everyone for stopping by. I had heard this weeks question ask in other places. I wanted to see what kind of answers I'd get here. When i first heard the question I figured the Preamble to the United States Constitution should explain the purpose of our federal government. Thats still my answer.
God Bless America, God Save The Republic
Yea,
I was paraphrasing.
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