User blog:Blue in the Red Zone/Don't hate the Player

There's an expression I hear now and then, "Don't hate the Player, Hate the Game". I recently added a favorite page to my profile, and it reminded me of that expression. I wondered what a genius like George Mason would have thought of modern politics or modern economics. Would he have used something like that expression to remind us that sometimes it's not about the players, it's about the game?

We can hate the corporations, the PACs or the elites that seem to be running and ruining the world, but they're just the Players. We can even hate the Game, our Constitutions and systems of Laws that form the basis for our governments and economies. Players will still play. We lost track of one the guiding principle ages ago. As long as we continue to ignore that one missing principle, the Players may change, the Game may change, but the outcome will remain the same.

Our government exists to promote our "general welfare" not the welfare of individuals or groups of individuals. It doesn't exist to promote the welfare of "white men", or "corporations", or "entrepreneurs". The idea that one person, or one group, has privilege denied to the rest of the individuals is always going to change the outcome. Government granted advantage is always going to pervert the operation of the Game.

Yes, Government has the power to grant a group of individuals the privilege of banding together, appointing officers, limited liability, right to contract, etc. for specific purposes and limited times in order to promote the general welfare. Government never had the right to grant those privileges generally or in perpetuity. Government was never granted the right or power to protect those privileges. That Corporations have those privileges, and government protects and perpetuates them, is absolute evidence of corruption.

So, we can change the Players, we can even change the Game, the outcome will remain the same. Liberalism, Socialism, Conservatism, Neo-Liberalism, Classical Liberalism, fascism, all will create the same outcome as long as one person or one group enjoys perpetual government granted privilege denied to the rest of society. In our System, we have The Players, The Game, and The Referees. We're the Referees, and we haven't been doing our job of enforcing the rules. It's noones fault but our own.