Governments

[padmeofnaboo.livejournal.com]

I'm going to pose this question to you today:

"What do you think the role of the government should play in the lives of private citizens?"

*sits back, aspirin already downed*

There will be no homework this weekend, provided you can give me more than a two word answer and back it up with an explanation.

Comments

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

*sits down, smiles shyly at Padmé*

The government should provide impartial justice, liberty for all beings, and a sense of stability.

[padmeofnaboo.livejournal.com]

But how should a government do this?

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

By establishing a judicial system that provides real justice. By passing fair laws and enforcing them. By having beings in charge who aren't so wrapped up in personal vendettas and petty agendas that they can't agree with each other. By being willing to act when a group outside the government, or even inside the government, is behaving inappropriately, either through embargoes, or Jedi intervention, or military means.

By having good ideals and the backbone to stand by them, not by squabbling for days over matters that aren't important when an enemy's on your doorstep and only getting stronger.

*grimaces* I might be a bit wrapped up in this subject. Too much talking to Chancellor Palpatine, I think.

[demonbelthazor]

The government is there to protect its citizens...even from themselves.

[padmeofnaboo.livejournal.com]

How?

[demonbelthazor]

By watching over the people and making sure they don't do anything that might be harmful.

[padmeofnaboo.livejournal.com]

Again, how?

[e-verdigris.livejournal.com]

What gives one person the right to tell another person not to harm himself?

[e-verdigris.livejournal.com]

Assuming that all people should be free to do whatever they want in life as long as they don't inflict damage on another's life, liberty, or property, a government's only purpose is to prosecute those who initiate force against others. In simpler terms, if a person harms another, the government's job is to punish him for the harm he has done.

[e-verdigris.livejournal.com]

(OOC: Sorry, I think I missed the earlier classes, but I really do want to be in Gov. 1)

[padmeofnaboo.livejournal.com]

OOC: Jump in any time.

[02maxwell.livejournal.com]

The government should provide peace for private citizens. Instead of rulin' with military power, it should allow for the citizens to have a chance to figure out what they want and then a means to achieve it for themselves; even if that means the citizens want separate governments. Also, a huge, strong, central government that rules over areas where the oppressive rule is the only influence from the government in that areas is just wrong...

[ihatedenmark.livejournal.com]

The government is the center-point of society around which everything else turns. It is its job to be virtuous enough to provide a good example to dictate the rest of the hierarchy of society. So long as the government creates just rules for the people to live by, and the rulers themselves remain free of corruption unlike some people I know, everyone should live smoothly in his or her own role.

[notrosencrantz.livejournal.com]

Governments. To govern. I don't think they have a role at all. I mean, we're all just pawns, showing up at our right times, saying our lines, then wandering off until the next scene. A government does what it was always meant to do. Therefore, there is no such thing as a private citizen, anyway. If my actions are predetermined, then my forwards may as well be my backwards and vice versa, and everybody can see where I'm going if they look hard enough. A government, comprised of many citizens, is only bound to this unfortunate future/past moreso.

[notguildenstern.livejournal.com]

*mutters under his breath*

Statement.

[jquayle.livejournal.com]

[padmeofnaboo.livejournal.com]

OOC: Surely. Sorry it took me awhile to get back to you. It's been a busy weekend!

[http://users.livejournal.com/susan_death_/]

Government really doesn't need to be involved in the lives of private citizens, because the private citizens have enough problems of their own. Most of the time, it's just people who wander through the world trying to do the best they can, and unless they're actually breaking some kind of previously set rule, they shouldn't have anyone else trying to interfere. Governments, generally speaking, are set to limit liberties in order to make itself run more easily, and most people don't need that.

Apparently I'm feeling compassionate today.