Brenda wrote:
Thing is, there's always going to be some
power hungry S-O-B that wants to try to take all the marbles. He may get a
bunch of them for a while, but there's always gonna be the next power hungry
S-O-B to come along and steal them from HIM.

Cato responds: Exactly! These S-O-Bs are called dictators. They are
who we have to fight and defend ourselves from if we want to be free,
and if we want to leave freedom for our children and grandchildren.
Who wants to live in a society were you have to keep your mouth
shut of what you believe, unless you want to go to the "Gulag" under
Communism, or to a camp like Bergen-Belsen, Treblinka or Auschwitz
under Naziism? Yes they collapsed, but generations of people had to be
born, live and die under some of them, always looking over their
shoulder's, speaking in whispers what they truely believed, not
trusting members of their own families who may inform on them. Waiting
for the knock on the door in the middle of the night. What a way to
live! What a cost!
Allmost all power was in the hands of one "Great Leader" with a
small group of his inner circle perhaps having some.
That is why relatively free western democracies, and republics,
have separation of powers and multiple parties. It is not possible
under such systems to hold the leader responsible for what he does. In
the west we can. In some cases we can impeach them, and even imprison
them. (U.S.) U.S. Constitution in Article I, Sections 2 and 3, which
discuss the procedure, and in Article II, Section 4, which indicates
the grounds for impeachment: "the President, Vice President, and all
civil officers of the United States shall be removed from office on
impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high
crimes and misdemeanors." Most other western nations have similar
legislation. It would be suicide to try something like that under
Communism or Fascism, as some found out in the past. (In both the
Soviet Union, and Nazi Germany.)
In those dictatorships you are stuck with the same leader usually
until he dies of old age, no matterr how much of a monster he is. But
it seems that most of these free western nations are slowly moving
towards a form of dictatorship, and loss of economic, religeous,
political and other freedoms.
It seems that the great majority of us who were born in freedom,
take it for granted, do not appreciate it, and in too many cases even
work agains it. Freedom's greatest enemies, live among us. They are
us.

Cato