Government is more than a territorial monopoly on aggressive force. It\u2019s also the heir to a centuries-old manufactured mystique, reinforced through its schools and other institutions, regarding its sanctity and sacrosanctity. The mystique is generated by and tends to manifest itself in the dogma that one\u2019s State is uniquely virtuous and deserves to be judged by standards applicable to no one and nothing else. This is hardly less true of secular states than it was during the time of the divine right of kings. In some important ways, people have not gotten over that principle.<\/p>\n
It long been recognized that governments cannot reign merely through brute force. There are too few rulers<\/a>. So they need help in achieving popular compliance, and they find it in ideology. It is state ideology, the indispensable dogma, that creates the aura of sanctity. Where once people believed the ruler was the deity\u2019s representative, in today\u2019s democratic republics, they believe their rulers are their <\/i>representatives. But it\u2019s the same scam, perpetrated by rulers and their high priests in the intelligentsia, to maximize subordination and minimize resistance.<\/p>\n Ideology <\/i>in this context means something much deeper than what is usually meant. It does not refer to the approaches known as \u201cconservatism\u201d and \u201cliberalism,\u201d or the differences between those who want \u201cbig government\u201d and those who want \u201climited government.\u201d It refers rather to the deeper view that The State with its authority to threaten and wield violence is indispensable and intrinsically virtuous, as nothing else can be. Therefore it is not to be judged<\/a> as we judge other people<\/a>\u00a0and institutions. When someone does wrong in office \u2014 a Nixon, say \u2014 it is chalked up as an abuse<\/i> of power. Power itself is beyond reproach.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n