What is government

[ashling]

I have been up all night working on putting together a couple of different government classes for the summer session at a local college. I should have been in bed many hours ago, but I just haven't been able to sleep. Keep thinking of things and so I get back up and end up on the computer.

So anyway, whether it is from lack of sleep or whatever, I just started writing this in my head and so ended up back here at ye olde computer machine. I'm not trying to sound hokey or anyting, but it may be coming out that way. This is what I am working on:

Government is more than the limestone and marble buildings in Washington and Austin or of the institutions that are represented by and housed in those buildings. The constituted government is, according to John Adams, "a frame, a scheme, a combination of powers for a certain end, namely -- the good of the whole community." It is, in a very real sense, a concept: a complex and inchoate set of decisions, actions, responses, interactions and relationships which, for better or worse, can, on any given day, exceed our greatest expectations or succumb to our darkest fears. As such, it is created and recreated every day. And the promise – and the really exciting thing – is that as participants, we are invited and even called upon to be present at and participate in that creation.

In order to be there and do that in any meaningful way, it is necessary to understand the basics of government structure and purpose. Further, to be able to communicate and achieve that purpose, it is necessary that we be able to think critically, profess forcefully, and act apropriately.

[Xicano]

1. What is government?

Government a word derived from two separate words. First the word govern which means to govern which means to control. Second the word ment which in this case is derived from the latin word mente which means mind.

So government literally means to control your mind.

[ashling]

2. I guess like Jello,

there's always room for negativity. :shrug: