Holding Out for a Hero!
To talk of politics is a difficult business. For one thing, a lot of the words and definitions used in political discussion keep shifting in their meanings – think, for instance, of terms like ‘liberal’, ‘patriot’, or ‘progressive’. So I’m going to keep with a few very basic terms here, and I’m certainly not going to be digging into party politics. Instead I want to dig quite a bit deeper than any specific issues that might be around in political discourse today. For that, we can start by going back to one of the most basic of questions – why have government at all? There are of course folks around who think we could do without a government of any kind, and indeed, that we could do without much or all of the institutions associated with government. For this to work, there needs to be an extraordinary level of good will and engagement by all citizens of a nation. Are we up for that? Well, probably most of us would say no. But I think that idea of doing without a government is a ...