Nothing is closer to the very core of an individual than their thought processes. Yet it is language that makes thought possible by supplying the mind with ideas and rules for combining them. There is no private language--it's community property.
A few individuals manage to put words or ideas together in very original ways, like Shakespeare or Einstein. Yet even they would have been impossible without their societies' language and education, and without institutions (such as the theater and science) which they did not create. Every individual's life is an intersection of pre-scripted roles (e.g. being parents, spouses or professionals) that we did not invent, and without which our behavior would be unintelligible to others or to ourselves. Like actors on a stage, we play these roles more or less well.
All our labor, however skilled, is a social product, a joint production of the labors of countless others such as teachers, farmers and city employees. They build and maintain the environment or infrastructure without which our own work would be impossible."
All of those items quoted above by Mr. Cooney, are also parts of the "social contract." Ultimately, our responsibility to participate in the functioning of our government, and being an active part of it, are also our primary duties under the "social contract."
I do not want to give the impression that I believe that government is the cure for all that ails this nation. Government is indeed a dangerous servant and a terrible master, just like fire. That does not mean that we should suffer through cold winter nights without warmth, eating raw food. It does mean that we can never have a laissez-faire attitude towards government, leaving it to do its job without our continuous monitoring and intervention as citizens. To do so leads to corruption: both from within and outside of the government, by those individuals who bide their time, looking for the opportunity to take advantage of any momentary distraction. If, and only if, such opportunistic individuals are dealt with severely when discovered, do others learn the lesson of engaging in such opportunistic wrongdoing. To quote Thomas Jefferson once again, "The human character, we believe, requires in general constant and immediate control to prevent its being biased from right by the seductions of self-love." (Letter to Pierre Samuel DuPont de Nemours, 1816. The Complete Writings of Thomas Jefferson; Memorial Edition: volume 14, page 489, 1904.)
If we first stipulate that ultimately we are the government, and that any government expresses itself in a positive sense through the moral actions of the individuals who constitute that government (both constituent and elected official), and that morality in the case of government is to not act in a self-serving, expedient, or arbitrary manner, then we have a secure foundation upon which to secure our nation for our lifetimes and beyond, if we accept our responsibility to participate in our government. Or to quote Abraham Lincoln, --that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." (Gettysburg Address; November 19, 1863.)
Two recent articles on AlterNet undercut the anarcho-capitalist libertarian arguments against government regulation and intervention in the business world, as well as the superiority of laissez-faire capitalism over a regulated capitalist system, even more powerfully.
The first of these, "Greenspan's Laissez Fairy Tale: How Flawed Economic Theories Fail to Account for Financial Fraudsters," by William K. Black, (AlterNet, January 16, 2012; http://www.alternet.org/story/153756/ ).
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