TRUST NO GOVERNMENT

Governments, if they endure
Always tend increasingly
Toward aristocratic forms
No government in history
Has been known
To evade this pattern
And as the aristocracy develops
Government tends more and more
To act exclusively in the interests
Of the ruling class

Whether that class be hereditary royalty
Oligarchs of financial empires
Or entrenched bureaucracy
All governments suffer
A reocurring problem
Powеr attracts
Pathological personalities
It is not the powеr corrupts
But that it is magnetic
To the corruptible
Such people have a tendency
To become drunk on violence
A condition
To which they are quickly addicted

[Chorus]
Trust no government
Trust no government
Trust no government
Trust no government

There exists a limit to the force
Even the most powerful
May apply without
Destroying themselves
Judging this limit is
The true artistry of government
Misuse of power is the fatal sin
The law cannot be
A tool of vengeance
Never a hostage
Nor a fortification
Against the martyrs
It has created
You cannot threaten any individual
And escape the consequences
Good government
Never depends upon laws
But upon the personal qualities
Of those who govern

[Chorus]
Trust no government
Trust no government
Trust no government
Trust no government

The machinery of government
Is always subordinate
To the will of those
Who administer that machinery
The most important
Element of government, therefore
Is the method of choosing leaders
We should grant power over our affairs
Only to those who are reluctant
To hold it
And then only under conditions
That increase the reluctance

[Chorus]
Trust no government
Trust no government
Trust no government
Trust no government

Trust no government
Trust no government
Trust no government

If there is no enemy
One must be invented
The military force
Which is denied an external target
Always turns against its own people