Re: In Search of Clarity, Part 1A

Madame M,

How correct you are about our parochialism, and it is making us poor evaluators and decision makers. I am speaking of the rabid, unthinking—no, mindless—anger. The people (like their anger) are discomfited (extremely), but at vague or porous people and things. People decide emotionally. Emotionally bent minds are already made up. Facts are irrelevant. Examples:

“Obama’s responsible for the BP spill.” Absurd. “Examine your premises.” (Rand, Atlas Shrugged)
“Republicans are responsible for nothing getting done on ‘problems’.” (a premise within a premise!) Absurd. “Examine your premises.”

Here’s another example: There are a bit too many of those in a typical government unit who are petty and so visionless. And despite those in leadership trying to do things to help them, they’ll yet bite the hand that feeds. They’ll destroy themselves, their livelihoods, their family, in their blind and narrow selfishness that then leads to some sort of backlash against that government unit (closing, transfer, resizing, etc). These disgrunteds do not want to believe the usual reality that the majority of leaders (albeit, perhaps no longer the vast majority) are just like the majority of people, neither corrupt nor incompetent nor wholly selfish (although maybe partially selfish). That is, those leaders behave as pragmatically as they can. It’s just that we have created a system that makes it very difficult—sometimes near impossible—for them to do what’s truly best.

Another aspect of government employees: Seemingly NONE of them realize they are economic NONPRODUCERS, living off the sacrifices of PRODUCERS. I can hear my dad, a cattleman of many years: “They’re on the trough.”

Responding to another point of yours: We have certainly created an effeminate society. That effeminate society reaches out for thugishness in petty rebellion. And also in the search for some masculine touch (however sadly misplaced) and dangerous adventure.

No, couldn’t imagine having used it in presence of my mother. Even in the presence of my father, it would have been most unusual.

Sense of abandon and lack of care for the future is the most telling to me. The others have some time to correct, but the one is inherently, acceleratingly, destructive.

There is a sense of sacrifice that can be appealed to in cutting entitlements of all sorts, but no one wants to sacrifice unless they know that most or all are REALLY making a sacrifice. There is so much deceit, much of it quite subtle, and yet people still suspect it, and as such, don’t want to be the patsy making the sacrifice while the (insert moniker here: “fat cats,” “big boys,” “inside crowd,” “connected,” etc.) skate out. So selfishness rules. It is the “tragedy of the commons,” extrapolated to a colossal scale.

Being a history guy, I was actually thinking of “roll back.” Allow me to fantasize here a bit: Rolling back (allowing to function) only government programs that existed at some time of manageable government (1955? 1940? 1925?). I was going to say that in this fantasy Congress by two-thirds majority could put in programs installed since the chosen date, but with things like Medicare it would certainly be no prob getting those super majorities, so not sure about that, as that part couldn’t qualify as fantasy. :) In this fantasy, the money that would be saved would go to paying off our enormous debt and funding the remaining unfunded entitlements still around.

Of course, that’s complete fantasy, although if one merely said that the programs that weren’t around at rollback year would be SUSPENDED until the debt was paid off and the remaining entitlements fully funded, it might move from fantasy to…astronomical long-shot. ;) Regardless, we either face our fundamental contradictions head on, or reality will intervene catastrophically and agonizingly at some point.

I think many of the young know innately they’re largely f’d however things get served up; this may be a reason for the choices (or sometimes lack of) they exhibit. I disagree with my son on a lot of things, but I don’t say much when he says “screw the establishment.” Of course, one day [shudder? :)], his group will BE the establishment, assuming we don’t totally flush things down the drain in the meantime.

Freedom the better payout? Undoubtedly. Whether many young are conscious of it is quite another matter. Too much is taken for granted.

Yep, Amtrak has been mismanaged for years, and the very fact of being beholden to a wildly varying appropriation has also enfeebled. So many opportunities have been lost over time. Immediate draconian cut off of all subsidy might not work either, given its fragility. Pretty much opposite of European and Japanese railroad investment, eh? This is all related to the common good, a topic I will take up further in a future post.