It’s the undeniable truth of the human condition that people are their own worst enemies. They could never do as much harm to anything external as they are capable of doing to themselves. People would stoop to any level in order to save a few bucks,a few minutes and avoid a few hassles. Why else would you need general policing and a plethora of laws that the common man would do just about anything to bend?
We run a traffic light when no one’s watching, push and shove our way to get to the amenities and just about anywhere a little bit early, sneak in random violations of regulations daily even at the risk of our own lives like ignoring helmet, safety and drunk driving laws, covet our neighbor’s possessions, form opinions based on our own biases and act accordingly, fairness be damned, out of flawed emotions like anger, greed and jealousy.
A MOB is guided by stupidity and negative emotions that can be manipulated and misused by anyone with half a brain. A mob is only half as smart as its dumbest member and twice as violent as its most thuggish individual. Lynching, honor killing, destruction of public and private property are all done by mobs consisting of common men. The civil society is a collection of all sorts of people, good and bad, and every government is an epitome of this variety. Often the good is just too little, too late and our own worst nature prevails against our own best intentions.
Anytime in history when people have been given too much power and control without having mastered self control, it goes badly. Populism can very easily lead to incredible stupidity, a wide range of disasters and historical cruelty of mass scales of which we are the perpetrators, the main culprit our own worst natures. The boon of governance should not be bastardized as a government of populist measures but should be laid as a foundation for doing the RIGHT THING, not just what suits us and our short term benefits, self governance can never be a positive force if we do not govern our own selves.
I am a flawed man and I’ve been good and bad accordingly when it suited my interests. I am frequented by all sort of negative emotions like anger, greed, jealousy and much worse. But whenever I have been strong enough to exercise self-control, I have been a positive member of a civil collective, a force for good and I too am a common man.
If we want to achieve the dreams of peace and prosperity we all have to play our roles, we all need a little more self-control, a little less selfishness and we all have to become sensible and solidary. Freedom without individual responsibility is worse than anarchy and anarchy is an unstoppable force that will consume everything in its path unless we control our worst impulses and become an Immovable Object.