Somewhere along the way we lost our conviction that the best government was self-government. In our enthusiasm for turning over every social problem to the administrative bureaucracy for solution, we forgot that democracy is based on the maxim that the solution of the problem of social life is the business of the people themselves. Neither [Thomas Babington] Macaulay nor Jefferson, when they scanned the horizon for dangers threatening American democracy, foresaw this prodigious growth of a bureaucracy armed with police powers, a bureaucracy which bids fair to become a vested interest in its own right.
-John Dos Passos (A Question of Elbow Room)
Too much of “well, SOMEBODY’s gotta do something about this” and not enough “If not me, who?”. We really are well down the road of doing for ourselves and others and simply defaulting “to others” which almost always is “Government has to do something about it!”.
Again, I recount at the first meeting I attended of the Grandfamilies Study Commission, I brought all of the other commission members to silence. I merely observed that from all of the Working Groups, all of the large papers that had been stuck up all round the room with all of their ideas (of which, I can say, they were quite proud of) that one idea was missing.
“I dryly note that none of these even mention the idea that sometimes, it is Government that needs to get out of the way”
Stunned silence from all of these Government and Government funded (NGOs) workers that were part of the Commission. It’s as if I had wandered into a Hells Angels convention, got up on a table, and started to preach “YOU NEED TO REPENT AND BE SAVED!!” – same reaction but with less violence. The only one I had to worry about was the Hollis Police Chief sitting next to me (and he was smirking as well that I dared to upset their “dollars in their eyes” applecart).
I also note that the Chair also did have a semi-approving / wry smile on her face when it dawned on her what the heresy was that I had just said. She told me later she was glad that at least ONE person felt that way.
We have lost what Alexis De Tocqueville wrote about in the 1830s that Americans had so little Government and were always willing “to do it themselves”. It was a contrast, a huge one, from the European countries that he traveled in. We talk about being Free but we aren’t unless we are willing to act on our own. Society is just an absorption by Government if Government is looked upon as being the only entity that should solve problems.
We know that we’ve become an obese country physically – just look around. Heck, even after losing 60 lbs, I’m still looking to lose another 20 (hey – that would be the equivalent of one and a half Grandson’s!).
What’s worse is that we Americans have become so flabby and corpulent with respect to our Civic Duties and Responsibilities.
Letting “someone else” do it – only to find out (like School Boards right now and the danger they are posing) that we are “letting” those people take our Powers that we otherwise would not let them come close to those Levers.
But we’ve become too lazy. To even care. Is this what our Founders expected and NEEDED in order for our “American Experience” to succeed?
So what are YOU doing?
(H/T: Cafe Hayek)
