Big government, little citizens

From Mark Steyn:

When William Beveridge laid out his blueprint for the British welfare regime in 1942, his goal was the "abolition of want" to be accomplished by "co-operation between the State and the individual." In attempting to insulate the citizenry from life's vicissitudes, Sir William succeeded beyond his wildest dreams. As I write in my book: "Want has been all but abolished. Today, fewer and fewer Britons want to work, want to marry, want to raise children, want to lead a life of any purpose or dignity." The United Kingdom has the highest drug use in Europe, the highest incidence of sexually transmitted disease, the highest number of single mothers, the highest abortion rate. Marriage is all but defunct, except for William and Kate, fellow toffs, upscale gays and Muslims.

Big Government means small citizens: it corrodes the integrity of a people, catastrophically. Within living memory, the city in flames on our TV screens every night ((London)) governed a fifth of the Earth's surface and a quarter of its population. When you're imperialists on that scale, there are bound to be a few mishaps along the way. But nothing the British Empire did to its subject peoples has been as total and catastrophic as what a post-great Britain did to its own.  (emphasis added)

The U.S. has been traveling the same trajectory, ever since FDR began pursuing his "four freedoms."  In a world defined by the presence of sin, every utopian scheme inevitably warps into a dystopia.  The West desperately needs to refocus on allowing -- no, encouraging -- its citizens to resume responsibility for their own lives, thus restoring a dignity and purpose that is rapidly disappearing.