With the utmost sincerity and all the seriousness I can muster, I feel compelled to tell you that I absolutely hated the three-legged table we used to have in our living room… Almost as much as I hate a dysfunctional government!
It had to be one of the greatest engineering blunders of all time– a failure on par with that of the “cat translator” or the original merry-go-round (you know, the one that used to knock out teeth and dislocate arms before we realized that children don’t need to spin around at Mach 1 speeds on a giant steel spinning disc).
Just like these tragic inventions, the three-legged table was designed to fail from the very beginning…
You see, it had three legs; one in each corner of a narrow, obtuse triangle. Sure, it looked cool, but due to the disproportionately heavy top, its center of gravity was about six inches in front of it!
I discovered this quark of modern aesthetics when I was re-arranging the furniture one day.
There came a point in time when I had to move the lamp that was sitting on top of the table before I could do anything else. Well, when I bent down to unplug it, I accidentally bumped against the table and knocked the lamp over. Luckily, my cat-like reflexes allowed me to catch it before it hit the ground.
Crisis averted.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have much time to congratulate myself, because the table promptly fell right on top of my head! Oddly enough, I hadn’t even bumped it a second time…
Confused, I set the lamp down on the floor, rubbed the growing welt on my head, and tried to stand the table upright again. That’s when I realized that my efforts would all in vain.
The table was naturally off balance.
Evidently, it needed the weight of the lamp to hold the back leg down on the floor. Without that counterbalance, the table repeatedly fell over.
As you can imagine, a string of profanities was soon pouring out of my mouth.
“What the ****!? Who the hell designed this ******* thing!?”
Not that any of my questions really mattered… I already knew how I was going to fix the problem– it involved a hammer and garbage can.
I instantly felt better. No more table, no more problems.
A short while later, though, when I returned to the business of rearranging the living room, I realized that I had created yet another dilemma for myself: The lamp was still sitting on the floor… What was I going to do with it now?
Hindsight really is 20/20.
We ended up replacing the three-legged table with something that has four, symmetrical legs. It’s a solid, effective, and all-around beautiful addition to the feng shui of our living room. All is right in the world!
If only this were a blog about interior design… But alas, it’s not.
The Dantian Project seeks to find the center of the most pressing issues in modern society. The three-legged table only highlights why that’s such an important task:
Just like a misplaced center of gravity can cause a piece of furniture to repeatedly fall down, a misplaced center in government can cause an entire society to collapse. History is full of useful examples.
The Roman Empire, Mayans and ancient Sumerians provide great reminders of what can happen when governments aren’t properly centered.
The question I put before you now is: What about America?
Of course, some will argue that no, America isn’t centered. Others say that it is, but requires ongoing adjustments. Of course, I’ve also heard from folks who say that we don’t need any government at all…
For them, Anarchy is an appealing solution. The three-legged table, after all, was fundamentally flawed from the beginning because of its very design. Could the same be true of government?
To answer that question, I’ll point to the first four topics that The Dantian Project covered and see what you think:
- Money- Tackling Homelessness: Slab City or Bombs, which discussed the epidemic of homelessness in America, implied that government is needed to create and manage monetary policy. Basically, people need a way to buy stuff.
- Media- Truth in Media: The Pikes Peak Sinkhole, covered the importance of journalistic integrity, and the impact it has in keeping people well informed. Done wrong, society ends up fractured and polarized. Done right, we can work together to move mountains.
- Safety- Cryptids of Violence laid out the argument that people have an inherent dark side. Our best defense against it is to build systems that protect us from the worst parts of ourselves and others; a classic role of government.
- Education- The Fractured State of U.S. Education talked about the impact that quality education has on a person’s ability to achieve personal and professional success. Without it, there’s no way we can expect to compete in a global economy, especially in a world that’s increasingly dependent on information and technology.
Each of these issues blend together to form the “lamp” of modern society; the very thing our table (government) is supposed to support. They exist regardless of what the table looks like– or if we even have a table at all.
That being the case, people will always come up with ways of governing themselves. The only question is if our government works to maximize freedom, or promote oppression.
Next week’s article will discuss the topic of anarchy in more detail, and I invite you to subscribe if you haven’t already! That way you’ll be sure get notified of future discussions.
For the time being, however, I’ll make a bold claim: Government and society are attached at the hip. As long as society exists, we’ll need some form of government to support and regulate it.
What do you think, though? Is our current form of government effective? Or is it like the three legged table; off balance and ready to fall?
I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!
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