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Most of the evil done throughout human history has been done in the name of religion. Religion is just another means of control and used to its extreme is a bad as any other dictoral system, millions have died at religion's hands and millions more will soon follow the others to the grave. The Muslims will see to that. We once had a system that had the potential to overcome such actions but we have let it be slowly taken away. We are but a crisis from losing it all under the veil of unconstitutional laws. People have fought very hard to win the "God loves my side better than he loves your side" trophy for a long, long, time.

As H.G. Wells noted, the war technology keeps getting better even if the people don't.

Thanks for asking nicely, Brian.

1. You didn't comment at all on my use of "countervailing" powers.

2. Religious wars were waged under the "banner of God"--not necessarily "for" God. Just as they are today.
Nor in 2,000 years were as many people slaughtered as was done in the last 200 years. You can put it down to "advanced" weaponry, or even a greater population; nevertheless there was never the carnage previously as during the two world wars of the last century.

The notion of the "Greater Good" presupposes that the life of the individual is valueless, and one consequence is that those in power are prone to, perhaps, the use of those lives without conscience.

Had mechanized weapons been available in antiquity there is no reason to believe that the carnage wouldn't have been as great. And I don't believe that the greater good presupposes that the individual is valueless. It depends on the context. In terms of war You are right. WW one was sold as the war to end all wars sacrificing lives with out conscience even using the process of drafting against the individuals will. The Greater good in terms of public services, caring for aged, or indigent, ect is an entirely different context

Had mechanized weapons been available in antiquity there is no reason to believe that the carnage wouldn't have been as great. And I don't believe that the greater good presupposes that the individual is valueless. It depends on the context. In terms of war You are right. WW one was sold as the war to end all wars sacrificing lives with out conscience even using the process of drafting against the individuals will. The Greater good in terms of public services, caring for aged, or indigent, ect is an entirely different context

Both private property and religion act (or should act) as bulwarks against the power of government. (Stalin abolished both, as you know). Capitalism abandoned its role, as did religion, as a countervailing power to the "power of the sword" and the "power of the purse" when it became crony capitalism.

Mankind, throughout most of history (well, in the last 2 millenia, at least) has evolved some methods to curtail, limit and prevent a concentration of power, and its abuse. (The Investiture Controversy in the time of Charlemagne, and the Magna Carta are examples of some of the first attempts at limiting power.)

When the holders of property and the holders of knowledge, either scientific or religious, align with the sword and the purse, then power becomes concentrated and freedom vanishes.

Can you understand how Socialism and C*******m, products of 19th century philosophy, are particularly, and insidiously, dangerous in implementing a concentration of power? And in more than one way.

We are at that period in Mankind's history when it has become imperative that we learn how to govern ourselves. Unfortunately, and perhaps fatally so, BHO's latest perverted irrationality is that a concentration of power is inevitable. That is regressive, not progressive.

My young Vietnamese foreign exchange student told me she was taught that the problem with a democracy is that one man or group of men could obtain power. I replied that couldn't happen in American where we have the doctrine of separation of powers. But that now seems to be disappearing.

I'll end with this cautionary word:

More evil has been done in the name of the "Greater Good" in the last 200 years of human history than in the 2 millenia preceeding it."

Food for thought.