day no. 16,751: you choose, you lose

"I mean that, apart from all questions of abstract justice, it is not the smallness or largeness of the suffrage that is at present the difficulty of Democracy. It is not the quantity of voters, but the quality of the thing they are voting about. A certain alternative is put before them by the powerful houses and the highest political class. Two roads are opened to them; but they must go down one or the other. They cannot have what they choose, but only which they choose." — G.K. Chesterton, A Miscellany of Men

The children of man despise their fathers, but they also hate being bastards. Where God the Father is forsaken, therefore, the people seek someone else to parent them. More often than not, the State is happy to step in to play step dad. In a democracy, the people, like children, are not allowed to pick what they want, but must choose between the options provided by their parents. A good parent will give their child the option to put their shoes on now or in five minutes, but not give their child the option of going out without shoes. The child feels empowered by their ability to decide for themselves and the parent protects the child from the paralysis of too many options on the one hand and the possibility of picking poison on the other. Inasmuch as this is an effective tool for parenting, so be it... but, and this cannot be emphasized strongly enough, citizens are not children. The people are not the State's babies. The government is not our step-father anymore than we are their step-children.

"For the powerful class will choose two courses of action, both of them safe for itself, and then give the democracy the gratification of taking one course or the other. The lord will take two things so much alike that he would not mind choosing from them blindfold—and then for a great jest he will allow the slaves to choose." — G.K. Chesterton, A Miscellany of Men

The state lets the slaves choose which course of action their master should take, but both options are ones which the master has already approved. The slaves assume a sense of superiority in getting to dictate to their masters while their masters retain complete control. The great jest of that kind of liberty is the smile on the faces of those filling out their forms met by the bigger smile of those receiving them. The joke is on those filling in their favorite ovals. The forms will never provide the option to eliminate future forms.

You choose, you lose; or more to the point, whatever you choose, they still win.