The Governed Consent to Unjust Powers Too

The Founding Fathers almost got it right when they declared “That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” What they got wrong is that it is not only in free countries where the governed give their consent. It is in every country, with any kind of government (including totalitarian), that the people allow their leaders to rule them.

The reason for this is not to be found in Political Science; it is in Mathematics. The governed simply outnumber the people running the government. That huge numeric advantage provides the governed the power to make changes to the government at any time that they desire to pursue it. If the people of a country make a demand, exercise their combined compulsory force to block the government's maintenance of the economic, legal, and social order, and refuse to back down in the face of severe retribution, they will win. There is just no way the government can imprison or kill every person (or even a substantial minority) of the country.

The stickler in this process is that not enough people realize that they have this power. Even if a person is aware of it, they know that most of their neighbors and countrymen do not. The logical conclusion of both the the enlightened and the un-enlightened is to do nothing when the possibility of change seems slim to none. The result is that they have given their collective consent to the government tacitly. Here is the core of the philosophy. Consent of the governed does not usually come from positive action; it comes from inaction. When the realization of the power does occur and each participant is aware that the knowledge is wide-spread, it leads to the action behind great revolutions (e.g. France, Philippines, Eastern Europe). The crowds gathered in Wenceslas Square in 1989 shaking their keys may have been shocked to find out their power, but to someone understanding the power of the people it was like Glynda telling Dorothy, "You've always had the power..."

The good news for Americans is that the mechanics of our representative government allow for easy, non-violent ways for the people to make changes. Nevertheless, the same kind of disbelief in the power to affect change makes the majority feel like it is not worth trying to do anything but complain. The people of America are like the person watching a television show that they hate, but the remote control is just out of reach and somehow watching the disliked show seems less unpleasant that exerting the effort to get the remote.