We are the government?

I regularly listen to the paranormal/conspiracy podcast Binnall of America. The January 26 guest was Paul Kimball, author of The Other Side of Truth:

In The Other Side of Truth, filmmaker Paul Kimball crosses the Rubicon of the imagination to explore the idea that what we call the “paranormal” is actually a form of performance art created by an advanced non-human intelligence to make us think about who we are, where we have been, and where we are going. Using his own journey of discovery as the backdrop, Kimball puts forward the “other side of truth” – the world not as we have been told it is, but as we are being encouraged to imagine it could become.

The  interview was enjoyable overall, but I couldn't help but get frustrated by a few things he said that, to my mind, are contradictory.

Early on, he notes how we remember the warriors but not the peacemakers. (Do you know who Dag Hammarskjold was?)

Later on, he expresses his belief that we join a collective consciousness when we die. I have no objection to this belief.

But then he implies that this somehow translates to this world a more socialistic way of doing things. He called Jesus a communist -- a compliment. He notes that the socialist movement in Canada was founded by Christian pastors. He disagrees with libertarians because he rejects "individualism." He mocks those who are "anti-government" because, in his eyes, we are the government, and if you don't like what it's doing, well you simply aren't involved enough.

Kimball's view of death, and of the inter-connectedness of people in this world, is all well and good. But libertarianism has nothing to do with "individualism" as a moral philosophy.

Libertarianism is about the rejection of aggression and coercion -- whether used by individuals or collectives. and of all people, someone whose heroes are peacemakers should appreciate it.

What's more, while Jesus may have preached "sharing the wealth," he and his disciples never called on the government to impose it. And, in a libertarian society people can voluntarily form communities where they share the wealth.

The essence of "government" as we know it today (which should properly be called The State) is the policeman's gun and the prison cell -- hardly the tools of peace.

So why the disconnect?

I have a theory that could be unfair to Kimball, but the inferences are there. Kimball once had a job for the Nova Scotia government: "Program Administrator at the Nova Scotia Film Development Corporation."

And then he became a filmmaker himself. In Canada. I'd be surprised if he didn't get subsidies from the government.

If the policeman's gun, the prison cell, and the omnipresent threat of violence they represent didn't exist, would people have voluntarily paid taxes to "the government," some of which would be used to pay Kimball?

If the government was "we," why threaten violence?

It's because we aren't the "government." The government is composed of the people who work for it. 

It appears to me that "government" - The State - is the primary obstacle to cooperation and greater collective consciousness. It not only divides nations, it divides people within nations as it forcibly takes from some to give to others.

If you mock a powerless person being "anti-government," you're blaming the victim.