civil government

"civil government, in so far as it is instituted for the securing of property is, in reality, instituted for the defense of the rich against the poor, or of those who have some property against those who have none at all." adam smith__________________smith was contemporary with the american "war for independence" ( the consensus right holds no truck with "revolution"...unless, of course, it is their own...then it is "freedom" ) and i cannot help but view that staement as a critique of john locke and his "not too numerous a democracy"...smith seemed more egalitarian with his view that labor should be as free to move in search of higher wages as capital was to seek profit and that government should aid this...he would not have looked favorably on closed borders and border walls...he would likely have seen the concept of an "armed lifeboat" of sealed borders repelling immagrants and refugees as an extreme example of "the defense of the rich against the poor"...and yet one supposes that is precisely where we are headed as the world's climatic conditions deteriorate ( and they will...deniers aside )...there may be some success in repelling "the poor" however that won't preclude what will happen inside the lifeboat...you may stop immigrants but the internally displaced would already be on the boat...one reflects on the 1930s dust bowl and the reception the okies received on their internal migrations...

i'm thinking that as the country's climatic situation deteriorates ( further ) in the west those migrations will occur in a reverse okie order as people move towards water and those in possession of it resist the influx in varying degrees...what constitutes wealth, or what will constitute wealth as conditions change and how "civil" will a government that secures it be? for that matter, if things degenerate enough, what will constitute "government"? a hobbesian "war of all against all"? centralized bureaucratic authoritarianism? dictators love a crisis that scares the bejesus out of people...ramps up the herd menatlity...groupthink and torchlight parades...counting on rational discourse seems pollyanna to me...how "civil" is political discourse now?