I don’t think government is an inherent evil. It’s like most things – what we make of it. Government has the power to do great good and horrendous harm. We choose.

The thing that makes no sense to me is how anyone can look at the past two centuries and think we humans are any good at all at this government thing. It’s like the kid that thinks the dog bit him because the dog likes him. It’s nuts. We totally stink at this.

We can’t decide which form government should take and we tweek the heck out of whatever form we finally decide on, usually with no clue as to why we decided to do it that way in the first place. Hilarity ensues if we’re lucky; death and destruction if we’re not lucky. We’re only moderately better than the preceding millennia when the only check on government power involved shooting or stabbing something.

Not that we didn’t do more than our fair share of the shooting and stabbing in the last couple centuries. Better than awful is not the same as good.

A lot of us like this ‘government by the people’ notion. A lot give it lip service but aren’t as thrilled. Some just hate the whole thing. The rest would like to take over the world from the idiot masses. We don’t count the nut jobs that want no government at all as they usually end up killing each other pretty quickly.

Congressional, parliamentary and various bizarre iterations of the two forms of legislative bodies litter the planet. Some work. Some work occasionally. Some work as rubber stamps. The rest splatter the spectrum from semi-functional to total waste of space.

Executives are about the same, running the gamut from highly effective to barely present. Some are elected. Some are appointed. Some are place holders. Some think they have power. Some actually have power. Some are dictators. Some are statesmen. All are politicians.

None of these railroads runs on time.

They aren’t all bad. There are some decently good governments on this planet. At the moment, can you think of any you’d like to give the keys to the castle? Heck, most of us don’t trust them with the keys to the car!

The point isn’t to rag on the myriad of governmental failings. The point is we don’t have a perfect system worked out yet. Even if we did, half the people on the planet wouldn’t like it. That’s fine if the perfect system is authoritarian where the government doesn’t have to care what the people like. Of course, that other half that doesn’t appreciate the perfection of authoritarian government is going to make life miserable for everyone and how does that equal a perfect system anyway?

It doesn’t.

The problem with governments is pretty simple, really. It’s us. People. That Bugs Bunny monster, Gossamer, that ran screaming when he saw people may have had the right idea. Try planning Thanksgiving dinner if you don’t believe me. Everyone wants something and at least one other person hates it. Turkey or ham? Squash or potatoes? Pumpkin pie or apple pie? Stuffing or dressing?

Now you know why everyone just brings something. And why your mom made you eat your aunt’s sweet potato pie every year even though she couldn’t cook. It was easier than trying to actually make decisions about who would bring what.

Government is every bit as lazy and will insist you eat all the veggies. At least at Thanksgiving most people like at least something on that table. Government is rarely that lucky. Usually, no one comes away really happy and when they do, someone else thinks something shady happened. This does nothing to encourage good governance. Now you know why so many idiots are attracted to politics. They’re not smart enough to know better.

It’s not hopeless. It’s just messy. All things size human are.

Humans have been experimenting with governance for at least six millennia. What we’ve learned so far: monarchies are self limiting and really messy to clean up after. Republics don’t last long if you don’t have a way to keep the military on a leash or somewhere else. Empires are just bigger, messier monarchies. Government by the people is chaos in a bottle. Dictatorships are the best way to destroy your country. None of these are perfect.

Now, we Americans are partial to that government by the people one. We can make a pretty good case for it being the best of the bunch. But we also invented rollercoasters so we may have a higher than normal tolerance for chaos.

That is the problem with government by the people – the people have to want the responsibility and the ensuing craziness. We Americans sometimes get a little sea sick from all the wild rides. A lot of people worldwide just aren’t ready for this form.

Maybe there’s a better, more child friendly version of democratic republics, but it hasn’t been invented yet. Also, there are good reasons we don’t let the kiddies run the kindergarten. Child friendly may not be a good governance option.

Inflicting American government on the world is just asking for disaster. Attempting to inflict authoritarian dictatorship on America is asking for an even bigger disaster. You can force everyone to play nice but only while you’re watching. Turn your back and the little rug rats will be in the knife drawer and trying to set the house on fire.

This is why one world government is an extremely bad idea. We suck at regular government so why would we be any better governing the whole world? Trying to force all the kiddies to play house together works just as well in the rarified halls of government as it does on the playground: a major fight breaks out. Tears, crying, and lawsuits result. Only in government, shooting may also result. A lot of shooting.

Maybe we should grow up and learn to govern well the countries we already have before we try to rule the world.