Rousseau

“All humans are naturally free and good but are corrupted by institutions of society” The noble savage as described by Rousseau was born free but “everywhere in chains”

The man was probably a whole lot smarter than me but I believe his elevator never made it to the top floors, he was a few pints low, he wasn’t firing on al thrusters, he … well you get the idea.

I look at what is happening in Iraq right now and I am amazed by the degeneration of man. It is not the society or institutions that are keeping them blowing each other up, it is the people themselves. People full of anger, hatred, revenge and not a little bit of greed. Now I am sure you can say it is the institutions lorded over them by Saddam or the US army, but the fact is they have been fighting like that for hundreds if not thousands of years. It was the institutions that kept them in check for a while. It is not just Iraq and the Middle East the same thing happened when Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia broke up into a million little pieces. Rousseau had it wrong, in fact, he had it totally opposite. It is the institutions that keep people free. Institutions like family, church, and, yes, government or the state.

Old time Las Vegas residents will tell you that when the mafia ran the city there was NO CRIME. Obviously the crime committed by the mafia themselves didn’t count, but you could walk down a street anywhere and not worry about being mugged, molested or mauled. We Americans aren’t immune from our natural corruption. I heard a story recently about a friend who wanted to get rid of a working refrigerator and so they put it out by the road with a sign that said “FREE” on it, hoping someone would come along and pick it up. No one did. So next they put a sign that said “$50” on it and within a few hours it was gone.

The noble savage is a lot more savage than noble I’m afraid.

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