nanny state?

I've heard this term a lot lately and thought I'd better check it out for myself. It's hard to know where to stand on issues any more. As I become older and more informed about the political "process," I am more convinced we are the next verse in a very long song. Our country is but one of many who succumb to the insistence of its leaders that they, not the individual citizen, knows what is best for the people and, as a result, doom the entire nation.

The stark fact is that you cannot give power to rule others to a select group of people and expect good things to come from it. Power is like a drug; once given it is very hard to use it only to serve others. We tell ourselves we act in the best interests of others but we are, in reality, stripping them of their personal freedom. This creates a larger and larger gap between the rulers and the ruled until a once humble and noble-intentioned person entrusted as the head of the State becomes a conceited tyrant - bent on pushing forward programs, laws and policies that only serve the people writing them - other politicians. Progress becomes lost in the endless maneuvering, currying favor and compromises made in backroom meetings. The deal is done before it ever sees the light of day.

We are not fit to rule ourselves. Only God can truly lead a people. Haven't we seen one civilization after another begin with the noblest intentions, built on righteous ideals fall apart a few hundred years later because of corruption, greed and all manner of evil?

So what is an average person to do? Scream into the wind with no affect or stand aside and be swept along with the current of political whim?