Too many Americans have an improper view of government.  That view encompasses the belief that government is good and that it is has our best interest at heart.  Many believe that government should be a tool for social change.  George Washington did not share that conviction; rather, he believed that it was something we should always be vigilant over.  Consider this Washington quote from A Dictionary of Similes, by Frank J. Wilstach's:

Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.

That is not the tone you would normally expect from your average president speaking about the government of his country.  But then, Washington was no average president.  He realized, as Thomas Paine did, that government is a necessary evil. 

In this short insight into the mind of Washington, we see government exposed for exactly what it is.  Government cannot do anything, accomplish anything, or build anything except by force.  That may sound like an absurd stretch, but think about it.  The government coffers used to fund all of government’s myriad activities are replenished from the sweat of its citizens’ labor.  We labor to supply our own needs, but government takes its share.  It isn’t voluntary, we acquiesce to the government and pay our taxes because, next to the hand outstretched demanding payment, is a hand holding a gun.  That is the force of which Washington speaks. 

The two attributes that Washington refutes, reason and eloquence, fly in the face of the views held by many about government during the last presidential election.  While most voted with an eye towards “hope and change” Washington makes it clear that is not what government is about.  Government is not a living, breathing being that is reasonable or articulate, so it cannot have our best interests at heart.  When we embrace government as the solution to our problems, the returned embrace is not that of a warm lover, but the cold grip of a master directing a servant.  If we as a nation look to government to solve our problems, we’ve surrendered our freedom to solve the problems ourselves and allowed government to become master over us.

There is one aspect of government as force that you probably haven’t considered.  Would it be just for someone who doesn’t work to go up to someone who is well off and demand money, with or without a gun?  Would you pay?  That is essentially what is happening today, except we pretty it up by letting the government act as an intermediary.  If we as individuals don’t have the right to help ourselves to other people’s property, then why do we corporately have that right?  Since government is not a being that is reasonable, it stands to reason that it has no rights of its own.  All rights it exercises are an extension of the people it represents.  So in effect, we as a nation are condoning theft when we allow government to collect money from the wealthy and redistribute it to the poor.  If you take government out of the picture, that is exactly what is happening.  But because we have allowed government to do this to us, we’ve proven Washington’s point – government is a fearful master.