The Parable Explained

               The unjust physician is the government, and the patient is the United States.

              

               The government sees the illness of our land - social issues, economic problems, crime, and the like - and takes advantage of it.  It makes laws that ease the symptoms of our problems, but that make the underlying issues worse.  Consider the unsustainable gymnastics of Keynesian economics that temporarily keep the markets stable but ultimately cripple our country's economy and stifle the free market.  Take note of the regulatory state that professes to protect workers and consumers with its petty laws but in fact cripples the agency of both individuals and businesses.  Look at our justice system, that pretends to solve problems by throwing innocuous stoners in jail for their "crimes."  The government addresses all of these problems on the surface, but uses their solutions to mire the country deeper and deeper in debt and dependency.

              

               Why does the government operate this way?  Is it out of simple ignorance?  No!  Although it definitely exists among the political elite, stupidity is not the primary vice that afflicts Washington.  It is not stupidity, although there is certainly short-sightedness among politicians who manipulate the land for their political gain and do not foresee their own inevitable downfall.  No, the problem is evil.  Corruption.  Lust for power and money.  Politicians continue to propagate their own self-seeking policies, pragmatically "fixing" the problems on the periphery, and all the while the wheels of the machine turn, driven by greed, easing the people further into total dependency on the government and its bad medicine.

              

               We already perceive this dependency today.  How often do we hear voices from both sides cry, "Without government, how would poor people be fed?" and  "Without government, corporations would oppress us!" and "Without government, who would protect us from moral degradation?" and "Without government, who would protect us from evil people?" and on and on and on without end.  What these people never seem to consider is that it is the government that keeps people in poverty, the government that allows corporations to oppress us and oppresses us itself, the government that promotes moral degradation, and the government that is the evil we need to be protected from.  We Americans have Stockholm Syndrome; we fawn at our captors and follow them on leashes loyally because they give us a few scraps of bread to eat, never stopping to consider their violence, rapaciousness, and repression!  We shudder at the frightening freedom of a life without coercion, and retreat back into our safe holes in the den of the thieves.

              

               The government is evil.