From: byrd@lucerne.rice.edu (Marc J Byrd)
Subject: Re: Democracy or Republic ?
Reply-To: byrd@lucerne.rice.edu (Marc J Byrd)
Organization: Rice University
Distribution: usa
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1992 14:11:29 GMT

In article <BxLLn1.Ipy@quake.sylmar.ca.us>, brian@quake.sylmar.ca.us (Brian K. Yoder) writes:
|> In article <1dl8g8INNb2t@cairo.crhc.uiuc.edu> peercy@crhc.uiuc.edu (Mike Peercy) writes:
|> >byrd@lucerne.rice.edu (Marc J Byrd) writes:
|> 
|> >| Marc J. Byrd - byrd@rice.edu       |  United We Stand. 
|> >| Rice University                    |  Whether or not you accept it, you are 
|> >| Dept of Elec & Comp Engr           |  responsible for the actions and 
|> >| XUV Holographic Microscope Project |  inactions of your government. 
|> 
|> >How can you possibly believe the statement in your sig?  There
|> >isn't a single person in Congress who represents me, yet I am
|> >responsible for their actions?
|> 
|> >You must be using Oxford's definition 3a for 'responsible':
|> 
|> >  3 a Answerable, accountable (to another for something); liable to be
|> >      called to account.
|> 
|> Indeed, when they pass a bill spending your money, you are held responsible.
|> 
|> >So I'm responsible for the government much same way I'd be responsible
|> >for a homocidal maniac who broke into my house.  If he chose "to call
|> >me to account" by shooting me in the head, I'd be "responsible."
|> 
|> That's exactly right.  The only sense in which you can be said to be 
|> responsible for such people or actions is if you explicitly approve of them.
|> For example, a German citizen during WWII who worked with the resistance
|> could hardly be said to be "responsible" for the actions of Hitler.  On the 
|> other hand, a citizen who voted for hitler and voluntarily sent his kids 
|> to a Hitler Youth camp and joined the Nazi party certainly shares some of the
|> blame for what happened.
|> 
|> --Brian 
|> 

The vast majority of German citizens neither joined the party or the
underground, at least not in the beginning.  Most were complacent.
What I'm talking about in my sig may not apply to those who vocally & actively 
oppose those who are actually elected.  I'm aiming it more at those same 
complacent people, trusting big brother to take care of them, while big
brother spends their children's & grand-children's money.

This is starting to get close to an issue I've been thinking about
alot lately.  A government is defined by its people giving up a (hopefully small)
portion of their rights & _responsibilities_ (would be temporary if we had term 
limits) for the greater good of the many.  In our system we periodically lend those 
rights & responsibilities to "representatives," who should represent our needs, 
obligations, & views (otherwise, to call them so is a deception).  

Mix with this the idea (Voltair?) that citizens have a right (responsibility?)
to revolt against tyrannical rule.  The conclusion is that citizens of ANY
government, even a tyranny, are (albeit fractionally) responsible for the 
actions & inactions of their government.  


-- 
Marc J. Byrd - byrd@rice.edu       |  United We Stand. 
Rice University                    |  Whether or not you accept it, you are 
Dept of Elec & Comp Engr           |  responsible for the actions and 
XUV Holographic Microscope Project |  inactions of your government. 
Newsgroups: alt.politics.perot