The Shrine of Government

I spend a lot of time in government buildings. Mostly state, city, and county but occasionally federal.

There's a trend I want you to notice next time you go into some government building, probably because you were forced to pay obeisance in the form of a fee, permit, fine, or tax.

All of the government buildings look like shrines or temples. Or what we were taught that shrines or temples should look like. In these shrines you can find priests in the form of government employees as they carry about their (mostly) ridiculous functions. Outside of the shrines (in larger urban areas) you will find clusters of petitioners who have for some reason or other fallen outside of the approved status of the government. Mostly homeless and beggars. They are there because they know government is where you go when you want something, but also because they expect the traffic of priests and penitents will toss them some scraps.

Government in America has become its own religion, or it at least demands worship as if it were.