Government, by its nature, is vulnerable to a broad reach of failure, and that becomes increasingly difficult to correct as government’s size grows and corruption, or even mere arrogance, increases.  Ultimately, government becomes large enough that it deems itself no longer responsible to the people who created it, and it engages in activities for its own benefit instead of ours.  Finally, these activities become centered simply on preserving and expanding its own power—which fosters corruption, which fosters further self-preservation and growth, which….

Here are some recent and current examples:

• The Community Reinvestment Act and refusals to reform it, which created the conditions for the housing bubble and subsequent collapse.
• Fast and Furious, DoJ’s gunwalking scam.
• The method by which Obamacare was enacted, and its enactment against the loudly expressed wishes of the American people.
• DoJ’s selective prosecution of crime, refusing for instance to prosecute voter intimidation crimes unless the alleged victim was from a government-favored group and the alleged perpetrator(s) from a government-disfavored group.
• DoJ’s use of disparate impact analysis to manufacture racial discrimination where none exists and solely to satisfy a government’s politically motivated goal.
• The process surrounding the stifling of the Keystone XL pipeline by the White House.
• DoJ’s secret seizure of press telephone records (the AP, for instance) in New York, Washington, Hartford, and the main office for AP reporters in the House of Representatives press gallery.
• The cover-up of the government’s preparation for and response to the terrorist attack on our Consulate in Benghazi.
• The politicization of the IRS, and its use to persecute government-disfavored groups and men.
• Labor Department’s selective enforcement of laws regarding the killing of members of protected bird species, including the refusal to prosecute wind energy farms that kill over 80,000 hunting birds per year.

And so on.  This kind of thing isn’t unique to big government, of course; any time men are placed in power over men—a necessity even of consensual governments—the potential for arrogance or corruption abounds.  However, small consensual governments, inherently limited in power—formally by a constitution, and practically by a vigilant and involved population—are easier to control, and the growth of corruption and arrogance much more hindered.

It’ll be a long, cross-generational struggle to restore our government and to repair the damage done these last 80 years.  It’s a struggle that must be engaged, however.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, in an absolutely awesome expression of governmental hubris, says that New Yorkers should just “get used to” the city’s rapidly proliferating surveillance cameras.

You wait, in five years, the technology is getting better, they’ll be cameras everyplace…whether you like it or not[.]

Amazingly, Federal Judge Richard Posner agrees.

Obviously, surveillance cameras didn’t prevent the Boston Marathon attacks.  But they may well have prevented further attacks planned by the bombers, including whatever destruction they may have attempted to cause in New York City.  Moreover, the criticism ignores deterrence.  By increasing the likelihood that terrorists or other criminals will be apprehended, surveillance cameras increase the expected cost of punishment.  That will not deter all attacks, but it will deter many.

Surveillance cameras also can be expected to increase the cost—and difficulty—of maintaining individual freedoms in the face of a constantly snooping government.  But surveillance cameras are of a piece with the lockdown imposed on Boston during the recent manhunt.

Ben Franklin was right.  Posner and Bloomberg are wrong.  But the latter plainly are speaking from the perspective of government and not from the perspective of government’s employers.