The Modern Deified State

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.