The Omnipotent State

Via Karl Hess's essay "The Lawless State", ask yourself these questions to determine how you view government:

• Do you feel that the state is more important than you are?
• Do you feel that the state should enjoy freedoms that you do not?
• Do you feel that the state should be able to rise above the law?
• Do you feel that you could not live unless the state protected you?
• Do you feel that you could not thrive unless the state nourished or subsidized you?
• Do you feel that service to the state is more desirable or more noble than service to your self, your family, your neighbors, or your own ideals?
• Do you feel that it actually is a privilege to pay taxes?
• Do you feel that since the government, the state, is more important than any one man, that every single man should be prepared to give his all, even his life, to or for his government?
• Do you feel that the state is something with a life and identity of its own, beyond the men who might hold office in it?
• Do you feel that "the government" and "the country" are the same?
• Do you feel that, when all is said and done, your life belongs to your government?
• Do you feel that your "rights" are given to you by government?
• Do you feel that, when all is said and done, if big problems are to be solved in this world that government will have to do it?

I can say with confidence that my answer to each is a capitalized "NO". Can you?