The Glade 4.0

"We belong to the government"

http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2012/09/05/vi ... epage=true

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"It is true that democracy undermines freedom when voters believe they can live off of others' productivity, when they modify the commandment: 'Thou shalt not steal, except by majority vote.' The politics of plunder is no doubt destructive of both morality and the division of labor."

That isn't even what was said, the video says:

"Government’s the only thing that we all belong to. We have different churches, different clubs... But we're together as a part of our city, or our county, or our state... and our nation."

You know, as a society. Government for the people and by the people. We all take a part in it. We all belong to the group.

It was meant in the same way you'd say you belong to your church, or to your community.

It was a horrendous choice of words. I do *not* belong to the government...

I think it's fairly obvious that they meant "Belong to" as in belonging to a club or organization; a member of something. Not "belong to"as in "owned by".

That said, yes, it was a horrendous choice of words. We all are members of the government in that we're all citizens of the nation, which is a Republic. We're not all members of the actual government apparatus.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

I took it as belonging in the sense of being a member of an organization. I think even that shows a difference between that way of thinking and mine.
I "belong" to the United States, and the Gov't belongs to me (all of us). We both "belong" to the same thing, the US.
Their way of thinking seems to be that both I and the US "belong" to the Gov't, that the Gov't is the US. That's not how I see it.

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"Dress cops up as soldiers, give them military equipment, train them in military tactics, tell them they’re fighting a ‘war,’ and the consequences are predictable." —Radley Balko

It's more logical to say you belong to humanity than to either your government or your country.