16 year old Jacob's Perception of the Government's Role in the Lives of Citizens

The relationship between a citizen and a government must be one of responsibility and action to be mutually beneficial. The responsibility of a citizen is to be aware of and to protest or support his government's actions and laws according to his conscience. The responsibility of a government is to recognize and protect its citizens' actions and freedoms from invasive control. This relationship is necessary for justice to prevail within the State; if it does not exist and the government becomes corrupt, it is necessary for citizens to revolt against the State.

It is necessary for citizens to be responsible in order to remain free of oppression. A responsible citizen must act as an individual, unconformed to the majority. He must have a cultivated respect for his conscience, obligating him to do what he thinks is right at any time. He must decide for himself what is right and wrong, what to support and what to resist, and how he should act upon his decisions. He must serve the state with his conscience, rather than with his mind or body. He must analyze his government's laws in contrast them to his own principles, and compare the actions and responses of his government with his own in the same situations. He must act upon the differences between himself and his government.

It is also necessary for a government to be responsible in order to promote goodwill towards humanity. A responsible government must operate with the recognition that the individual citizen is a higher and independent power, the foundation of its State, and the source of all its power and authority. It must acknowledge it is simply an organization of ordinary people subject to all of the faults inherent in every human being. It must function as an expediency, systematically returning control to its citizens who are capable of self-discipline. It must allow those who have fulfilled the duties expected of them and wish to live separately of itself, neither contributing to it nor benefiting from it, to do so. Its laws must be few, simple, and effective, uninhibiting to its citizens' rights, applicable as much to the future as the present.

If a government becomes irresponsible, if it ignores the rights of its citizens, or if it ceases to govern efficiently, the duty of responsible citizens is to revolt against it by refusing allegiance to it. If a government passes unjust laws, it is necessary for responsible citizens to disobey these laws, for the beginning of a revolution is just one act of resistance done well. It is not enough to cast votes, even if voting against wrongful policies. Every resource and influence must be used in response to injustice. If an act of injustice is committed by the government, responsible citizens must immediately take effectual action against it, not wait for a majority to accumulate. Citizens must issue complaints to guide the government, but if the government is unreceptive, the citizens must make themselves heard. The methods used by citizens to get the attention of the government must be gradual in severity, so as not to cause unnecessary damage to the State. If the government becomes unendurably oppressive, then it becomes necessary to dissolve the State, dethrone those in power, and destroy the laws of the tyrants.

A grand and glorious State closer to perfection than the present one is possible if the citizens and the government actively participate in and contribute to a relationship that truly promotes liberty and justice for all: a relationship in which the citizen can freely act from principle, perceive and perform what is right, and change things and relations, a relationship in which the government realizes the essential value of the individual and strives to nurture it, and a relationship in which a mutual respect for the other presides over self-centeredness. An enlightened State can only be made possible by the combined effort of both parties involved to achieve perfection.