"Wild-eyed fear of the government is as American as baseball, neatly-trimmed lawns, or throwing boxes of tea into harbours."
from a blogger at The Economist
This is a true observation, and the phenomenon seems odd. Despite the fact that our government is one of the least repressive on the planet, we have a large subculture of people who are extremely paranoid about it. Other places may have a few anarchists, and people will use fraud against the government in order to avoid taxes and regulations, but they don't have these kinds of people in large numbers.
Perhaps this happens because of our freedom and history. In most places, the government is, and always has been, a fact of life. People may complain about it, but they accept it, viewing it like they view the weather. But this country was explicitly founded on the principle that people who do not like the government have a right and a duty to alter or abolish it, using force if necessary.
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