BROKEN PROMISES and DASHED HOPES
“You’re fired” are the words I long to say to our nation’s autocrats
Call me a cynic. It’s certainly justified.
At age 70, I have witnessed and participated in many elections like the provincial one scheduled for June 2nd in Ontario. Sometimes I have donated and voted in the past naively hoping that it might make my life as a citizen better under the latest and most promising slate of would-be lawmakers.
Voting is like a prayer.
Religious leaders are in the business of selling hope; they demand faith and prayer (a form of wishful thinking) to get the desired results. Politicians are also in the same business but they operate under a different model. They call for money, volunteer labour and votes (another act of wishful thinking) to empower them to deliver the ‘promised land’. Neither ever deliver on their promises.
The River and your eddy of Life
We humans are each like a tiny eddy of water drifting under the surface in a vast river which flows towards an unknown destination. The river’s current is all-powerful in comparison to the minuscule energy exerted by your eddy. As “least resistance” life strategy is one you can choose to flow effortlessly with the current, or you can choose to struggle and attempt to swim against it. Any individual efforts by each eddy to influence the overall direction of the current are futile at best.
Most of us eventually choose ‘to go along in order to get along’ with the Current of Life. This choice is driven by our greatest fear - to be ostracized, or entirely banished, from the tribe of their birth or the one that best serves our survival needs. “Sheople” is the pejorative sometimes used to describe those of us who practice this very human need to “belong”.
Leaders appear in every tribe.
Physical strength, great wisdom and exceptional oratory skills have historically determined who gets to lead. Yet leaders are human too. Like that eddy in the River of Destiny, their leadership is ultimately fleeting and they are also pulled along by the current with little (if any) ability to influence its path.
Long ago, I read The Source by James Michener. It traced the history of religious beliefs from ancient man to modern times. Early gods were idols that were perishable and were subsequently supplanted by more enduring gods such as the sun and beings with alleged super powers who resided on unreachable mountain tops or the depths of oceans.
The God of the Bible was the ultimate all-powerful and eternal Supreme Being. This God was created to address our need for, and hope of, the support and resources to face the daily challenges of survival and our inevitable mortality. I write these words as I stop to discuss with my wife her sister’s recent diagnosis of stage 4 breast and lung cancer which her oncologist has stated is incurable.
The non-identical twins of power.
Our systems of government have many similarities to our institutions of Faith. They cater to our fears and promise help. They are all very fallible human creations and suffer from the same human frailties and shortcomings. It’s little wonder why so many people refuse to discuss religion or politics in ‘polite company’. In spite of all the promises for a better life, a vast record of human history remains to describe the endless fields of the littered carcasses of dashed hopes.
Resentment
I freely admit to feeling profoundly disappointed by my fellow man. Too many believe that he or she has found the “right” formula for the better of society - “the greater good”. They feel compelled to impose their “righteous” recipe for “the good life” on everyone else. The piously-religious, for example, often insist that everyone else subscribe to their chosen path. The politically-indoctrinated likewise exhort others to support their choice too. These are autocratic character traits which are all too common in people who are committed to tribal cults as discussed earlier.
I resent every citizen who has ever voted for the political regimes that have built our current institutions of excessive power. They have consciously chosen to impose their will on everyone else, especially those of us who craves Freedom of Choice in all of our personal affairs. As a longtime Libertarian who has always wanted much Less Government in my life, I have been out-voted by the majority who have placed their faith in Big and Bigger regimes of public authority.
I just want to be left alone to live my life on my own terms. Why must the collective ‘righteous’ among us compulsively control the choices of everyone else leaving no avenue for escape.
Individual choice in the public arena is now possible
Consider this fact. In the era of the Digital Economy, we currently have:
QR codes for vaccine passports;
digital IDs to access every time of social, news and information media accounts;
online access to our digital bank and investment accounts and our insurance claims co-payments provided by online insurance claims adjudication systems;
instant access our entire credit histories;
the police can access our criminal histories from their cruisers and
authorized professional have access to our entire medical histories and many other services.
Tell me then, why is it not possible for each citizen to technologically choose to register voluntarily for public services such as Education or Health Care, OR to opt out in favour of non-government services providers?
The answer, of course, is that it is entirely possible and even desirable for our citizens. However, it is not in the best interests of the powerful public institutions to allow citizens the Freedom of Choice where public services are concerned. Our political and ‘public servant’ class of citizens have clearly placed their own vested interests ahead of the citizens who pay their wages and fund their programs. I guess they live in fear of hearing those two scary words expressed often in The Apprentice by Donald Trump.