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The Thing! The Thing Itself
WHY PEOPLE DON'T TRUST GOVERNMENT by Joseph S. Nye Jr., Philip D. Zelikow, and David C. King (editors) (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1997) 337 pages
EDMUND BURKE SAID IT BEST: In vain you tell me that Artificial Government is good, but that I fall out only with the Abuse. The Thing! the Thing itself is the abuse! Observe, my Lord, I pray you, that grand Error upon which all artificial legislative power is founded. It was observed, that Men had ungovernable Passions, which made it necessary to guard against the Violence they might offer to each other. They appointed governors over them for this Reason; but a worse and more perplexing Difficulty arises, how to be defended against the Governors? (A Vindication of Natural Society. Or, a View of the Miseries and Evils Arising to Mankind from Every Species of Artificial Society. In a Letter to Lord **** by a Late Noble Writer, 1757 [Edited by Frank Pagano. Indianapolis, Ind.: Liberty Fund, 1982], pp. 64-65, emphasis added.)
Time for a pop quiz, multiple choice. First, a subjective question: Which of the following is the worst idea? (a) Gather a bunch of conservatives wearing pastel bicycle shorts (spandex!). Take color photographs and publish the result as a calendar. (b) Convene some internal specialists and ask them to write a book: "Why People Don't Like Intestinal Disorders." (c) Gather a bunch of professors from a policy school and have them write a book: "Why People Don't Trust Government."
Okay, that was a trick question: those are all bad ideas. Idea (a) is horrible (picture it: Yikes!). Idea (b) would not work because it is just too obvious: intestinal flu is bad, so of course people avoid it. No one would buy that book. Idea (c) is equally bad, because.. well, think about it. How likely is it that we are going to hear about problems in government from people who worship it?
Now, the real question, the one that counts for your final grade: which of the three things was actually done, and published? The answer is (c), of course. As you might expect, the answers in this book focus on misperceptions by citizens and have little to do with mistakes...