Lynness- Common Sense

I've decided I'm going to try Common Sense, by Thomas Paine.  I googled "patriotic reading list" and found one that included some pretty hefty titles.  I figured I had time for this one.  I also decided that I'm going to make comments as I go, instead of at the end, since we're about to get really busy (we think we'll have a contract on our house by the end of the day, and I've got about 3 weeks until Tabitha makes her debut...).  That way I get SOMETHING posted, even if I don't get to finish it.

The first section of his treatise is on the origin and design of government.  Here's a quote:
“...Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one: for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries BY A GOVERNMENT, which we might expect in a country WITHOUT GOVERNMENT, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer. Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built upon the ruins of the bowers of paradise. For were the impulses of conscience clear, uniform and irresistibly obeyed, man would need no other lawgiver; but that not being the case, he finds it necessary to surrender up a part of his property to furnish means for the protection of the rest...” (underlining by me)

That's the zinger- we elect someone (and I'm not talking about anyone- president, senator, etc. in particular) or vote for some measure that we think will bring about needed change, only to find that we've created a monster that we now have to live with.  We make laws to address issues which down the road create bigger concerns- and all this we have visited upon ourselves.
I find it interesting- and correct- that he compares the need for government to a fallen state.  I think of the Millennium and wonder how wonderfully different it will be when Christ reigns personally on the earth.  Millennial peace will be possible because the grossest wickedness will have been destroyed at Christ's 2nd coming.  Certainly in the Celestial kingdom, if not in Zion on earth in the Millennium, we will need no government of the type man creates, for we will be better governed by ourselves.

On another note...wouldn't it be nice if everyone in a government position (and all of us who elect our leaders) remembered this line?
“I draw my idea of the form of government from a principle in nature which no art can overturn, viz. that the more simple any thing is, the less liable it is to be disordered, and the easier repaired when disordered;” (underlining by me)
In a time when bureaucracy and red tape and delay and complication are synonymous with government and the whole organization is so complex that I don't believe anyone quite understands all the ramifications of any changes implemented, since they affect so many other things, how are we even supposed to begin reform?

That's enough for now!