It is an axiom of practical politics that the power of
government is limited. Realities beyond the control of even the most brilliant
politicians constrain the effective potency of curative and preventative
policies. Even ingenuous states, where the impetuous govern, recognize the
exact contours of such limiting, dynamic constraints. Yet, unlike practiced
states, where the prudent govern, the impetuous believe that limitations
represent mere economic boundaries, overcome through skilled applications of
state power. And the greater the boundaries, the greater justification for an
increased application of that power, no matter the cost. Poverty, disease, internal
strife, territorial integrity, and global conflict can each be overcome at the
right price. Government can right “nearly” every wrong, correct “nearly” every
injustice—while never discovering a wrong or injustice that state power cannot cure.
In the face of such promise, the ingenuous will benevolently appropriate the
resources of generations to come, converting them to their own present benefit.
Such ennobling optimism eventually exhausts vital energies, bequeathing future
generations a shell, incapable of responding to the smallest of difficulties. In
the end, the hubris of the ingenuous state, where the impetuous govern, lies in
the belief that the state can accomplish the miracles of a deity, which more
than justifies the sacrifice of all necessary means to state ends. The sooner
we recognize that the state cannot right “nearly” every wrong, nor correct “nearly”
every injustice, the sooner we will proceed to govern with prudence and aim
towards improving society with care, bequeathing an intact state to progeny that is prepared to meet the most taxing difficulties. The
trouble in practiced and prudent governance, then, is living in hell, while
waiting for heaven. Heaven may come, but it will not come in a crazed,
half-coherent rush to the gates, for heaven will never permit such to enter.
