[complex_exp]

Uh, no, private property is subjogated to national interest. Personal freedom is subjogated to national interest (you may be conscripted). In all countries. The only way for things not to fall into a terrible state of affairs (like in Russia or Iran) is for the civil society to perform political acts, like engage in honest journalism, activism and critical thinking. And even then freedom and security are not guaranteed.

Thinking that you can be a free-from-all libertarian is like being a house cat that does not comprehend the system that keeps him alive. It is only because the system works that you can enjoy personal freedoms.

Russians have fully outsourced their both internal politics (resulting in for example the absolutely atrocious state of the courts of law) and foreign politics (mobilization! yay, go die in a trench!) to the tzar and look how that turned out. They also paid taxes and generally speaking accepted the offered social contract, but didn't monitor the situation and react to transgressions.

[hellfish]

> Thinking that you can be a free-from-all libertarian is like being a house cat that does not comprehend the system that keeps him alive.

So because the government does something (THANK GOD), we all need to advocate for more government?

[smitty1e]

I'd like to differentiate between the Col. Jessup "You want me on that wall; you NEED me on that wall" class, and

...the specific Col. Jessup instance that breaks down and calls away a Code Red.

Our Civil Servants are neither civil nor (apparently) serving any but themselves.

How to avoid becoming a cure worse than the disease?

One thing would be to rotate these staffers more frequently, so they are less prone to what looks like GroupThink.