The Germ Theory - of Government - 7

In this series we have been looking into the mysterious reality that government power seems to carry "germs" that promote tyranny (The Germ Theory - of Government - 6).

"If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy." - James Madison

That has proven to be true after hundreds of years, if you consider the military NSA spying on the citizens of its own nation to be a form of tyranny and/or oppression; as well as their doing that spying on Americans in this land "in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy" (see e.g. The Queens of Stalingrad - 2, ACLU vs. Clapper, Alexander, Hagel, Holder, and Mueller, and Will The Military Become The Police - 3).

Yet, they were all out on "Independence Day" telling us how they have to protect us from foreign enemies (by spying on us far worse than those "foreign enemies" do to their citizens).

Let's face it, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, so our Constitution expresses a distrust of government (see e.g. The Constitution Is Quite A Medicine and Why Trial By Jury?).

Our jury trial laws and practices express an ancient understanding about those in power, which can be readily seen by the statistic that Twenty Seven Percent of U.S. Presidents have been slave owners:

Of the first five presidents, four owned slaves. All four of these owned slaves while they were president.

Of the next five presidents (#6-10), four owned slaves. Only two of them owned slaves while they were president.

Of the next five presidents (#11-15), two owned slaves. Both of these two owned slaves while they were president.

Of the next three presidents (#16-18) two owned slaves. neither of them owned slaves while serving as president.

The last president to own slaves while in office was the twelfth president, Zachary Taylor (1849-1850).

The last president to own slaves at all was the eighteenth president, Ulysses S. Grant (1869-1877).

So twelve of our presidents owned slaves and eight of them owned slaves while serving as president.

(U.S. Presidents Owned Slaves, 12/44 = 27%). We can hypothesize that, since far, far less than 1% of citizens owned slaves, freedom is more of a function of what the people want as individuals, such as their civil rights and their common good.

On the contrary, government officials in power are, in the eyes of our forefathers, those who are historically responsible for a loss of freedom and rights, and will continue to be so:

“Experience has shown that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.”

(Thomas Jefferson). The mystery of why corruption keeps manifesting in the halls of government, in the seats of power, over centuries of time gives rise to Dredd Blog's "The Germ Theory of Government" (see e.g. The Insanity Virus, Hypothesis: Microbes Generate Toxins of Power - 6, and The Human Microbiome Congress).

It is not a universally accepted theory, nor has it been so in the past, but the expanded understanding in microbiology may change all that.

For example, once upon a time not so long ago, scientists and doctors taught, believed, and exclaimed that disease was caused by mysterious entities that just appeared out of nowhere:

The theory of diseases was highly influenced by ideas of an imbalance of the basic "four humours" in the body, a theory known as dyscrasia, for which the main treatment was bloodlettings ... the conventional wisdom [was] that diseases spread in the form of "bad air", also known as miasmas or vaguely as "unfavourable atmospheric-cosmic-terrestrial influences".
...
As accounts of the dramatic reduction in mortality rates in Vienna were being circulated throughout Europe, Semmelweis had reason to expect that the chlorine washings would be widely adopted, saving tens of thousands of lives. Early responses to his work also gave clear signs of coming trouble, however.

(Wikipedia, Semmelweis; see also What Is Pseudo Science?). Dr. Semmelweis was placed in an insane asylum because of his discovery, where he died of a germ-caused disease.

The internment of Dr. Semmelweis was done despite his saving hundreds of lives by practicing cleanliness in his clinics, and urging other doctors to wash their hands between patients.

We now know that germs are in fact the basis of infections, and that cleanliness in hospitals and clinics resists the spread of disease by germs.

Earlier in this series we hypothesized that science may someday discover that the spread of corruption in government circles that are inundated with power is also a function of toxins.

And we may develop vaccines and other treatments in the future (Microbial Languages: Rehabilitation of the Unseen).

The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.