I am now a double drop-out

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Andres:

I get your point. While I was "parsing" things a bit, the intent was not to obfuscate. "We get the government we deserve" through such "contracts." Those in power tend to want to reify that power -- no surprise there.

For me, the most beautiful words regarding government were those that begat my country:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Everybody always trots out the first of these three sentences, but the second two are as, and arguably more, important.