I was appalled to read an article in The Smallest Minority this morning. An excerpt:
In today's USA Today was a letter from G. Bruce Hedlund of San Andreas, California. Mr. Hedlund said this:
Think of our country as a society made up of children and a government made up of adults. It is up to the adults to weigh all the options and provide services in the best interests of the children.
There is so much wrong with this I don't even know where to start, but I will say that this attitude is responsible for the US receiving the government we've voted for.
There's more at the link. Please go read it for yourself.
How any sane adult can believe this is quite beyond me. Surely we've learned through the long history of the human race that those who govern us are as subject to faults, failings and evil as the rest of us? They'll act in their own interest, and the interest of their 'class' (i.e. politicians, their supporters, and 'the system') without a second thought as to whether or not it's in our interest, whether as individuals or as a society. In the USA, both major political parties are equally guilty of passing laws and regulations favoring their particular interest and support groups. People wail and scream about President Obama riding roughshod over US contract and financial law to give major benefits to the unions in the Government takeover of General Motors and Chrysler; but they forget that Republicans did the same for the bankers and businessmen who supported them when they were in the majority in Congress and the Senate. Both parties are equally guilty.
If our society is made up of children, we have no business voting. Voting is for adults. If we're adult enough to vote, we're adult enough to demand that those we elect act in our interests, not theirs: and that means holding them accountable as servants of the people, not masters. The day we surrender to them power over us in loco parentis is the day that we're truly screwed. How any responsible voter and citizen can argue along the lines of Mr. Hedlund is totally beyond my capacity to understand.
Peter
I invite you to examine my definition of adult, and then compare it to Mr. Hedlund and his belief that the citizens of this country are children and the politicians are the adults.
ReplyDeleteI do believe Mr. Hedlund suffers from something called "projection."
ReplyDeleteEither that, or like so many statists, he wants to be in charge, and views himself as somehow more special than his neighbors. He imagines himself as someone that should be in charge.
I'd say honestly that's the natural state of mankind... to transfer the parent-child relationship to the political one of - pardon - sovereign and subject.
ReplyDeleteThe writings leading up to the Revolution are full of that kind of talk - "we're her children."
I'd go so far as to say a Republic may well go against human nature. Or as Bill Whittle would say, "we're the weird ones." None of which means the outcome ain't hella better, or that we aren't obligated to not be children.
... just that living as a citizen of a Republic necessitates a level of adult responsibility that lots of us don't really want.
That is just wrong...
ReplyDelete