A new carnival - Carnival of Principled Government, A Founding Vision

I tend to be distrustful of government in general and especially large government. As my wife wrote long ago “We have a problem with authority figures.”

I once got hold of a four hundred page summary of the United States budget. I spent a couple hours working my way through it. It is surprising just how much money the Federal government spends. ($2.6 trillion in 2008) There was much in the budget that the founding father would have been upset with. Why, sixty years after the Great Depression, are we still paying farmers not to grow crops?

Government programs take on a life of their own. The scary thing is new government programs are often created to solve the problems of other government programs. I am reminded of a story about Bismark:

When Bismark was Prussian Ambassador at the Court of Alexander II in the early 1860's, he looked out of a window in the Peterhof Palace and saw a sentry on duty in the middle of the lawn. He asked the Czar why the man was there. The Czar asked his aide-de-camp. The aide-de-camp did not know. The commanding general was summoned. "General, why is that soldier stationed in that isolated place?" asked the Czar.

"I beg leave to inform your Majesty that it is in accordance with ancient custom."

"What is the origin of the custom?" put in Bismark.

"I do not recollect at present," answered the general.

"Investigate and report the result," ordered Alexander.

The investigation took three days. They found that the sentry was posted there by an order put on the books eighty years before! Records showed that one morning in the spring of 1780, Catherine the Great, who ruled Russia at the time, looked on that lawn and saw the first flower thrusting above the frozen soil. She ordered a sentry to be posted to prevent anyone from picking the flower. And in 1860 there was still a sentry on the lawn -- a memorial to habit, custom, or just everyone's saying, "But we've always done it just that way."


Dana of Principled Discovery is kicking off a new carnival – the Carnival of Principled Government, A Founding Vision. Dana has been a frequent participant in the Carnival of Homeschooling, and has hosted it several times.

The Carnival of Principled Government is focused on what was the original intent of the founding fathers as they created The United States of America. I encourage you to check out the carnival.

Citizens of the United States still have the ultimate power, but we need to be informed. We need to understand that asking government to solve a problem will often create new problems, and the original problem may not be solved, and may even be exasperated. Citizens are not going to get that kind of education in a government run public school. I think homeschooling may prepare the next generation to start shutting down government programs, like paying farmers not to grow food.


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