No, Government is Not the Problem--We Are

This is the first blog I've written in almost a year. The reasons for that are varied, but they sound fairly understandable to me as I look back. We've had health issues, hospital issues, and issues involving moving into a new house. 

All are perfectly acceptable explanations in their own right, except that they are really only half of the picture. The main reason, the one that really hurts to think about, was my feeling that nothing I could do would make any difference.

It seemed that the trolls had taken over the bridge and rather than just charging a toll were actually trying to pull the bridge down.

But time changes things. Sitting in ERs has given me time to think about this and realize that perhaps I have something to say, even if it is really more of a question.

Why is it, I want to know, that people want to tear down that bridge instead of looking at who uses it, what its future might be, and how best to keep it safe and fulfilling its utility. Shouldn't we be discussing the nature of bridges, what we need them for, and how to have them still get us over future rivers?

I am questioning, of course, the anarchist idea of tearing down government. The burn, baby, burn school of economics, larded with various insanities such as millennial prophecies of world destruction.

Up until this point, I figured that the urge to destroy was merely ideological and that if people really looked into what they were calling for--in other words, put some thought in place of emotions-- they would see the folly of removing the one entity that supposedly protects us from one another.

But over the past year I noticed enough instances where these people have come up against fact and they have simply thrown it aside. Education only works when someone wants to be educated. Evidence works only if someone wants to listen. I have sadly watched as words such as truth have sunk into the morass of people choosing to use the word personally to mean exactly what they want rather than adhering to any agreed upon standard of meaning.

What is truth? Well, if the world isn't confused enough already, I can only say what it isn't: truth is not something that people can demand to be changed to suit personal ideas. Truth has to exist independently. Truth is not shouting that no one has proved that FOX distorts news when a search on the internet reveals dozens of instances--which wouldn't be so bad if FOX didn't claim to be unbiased. Just repeating an idea over and over doesn't make it true.

That's really why I haven't written. I found myself asking: What is the point when people read the US Constitution and claim to know what it means when in fact the Constitution means only what case law and Supreme Court opinions have interpreted it to mean? What is the point when everyone demands equal respect for their ideas regardless of whether there is any experience or knowledge to back them? What is the point when people want entertainment rather than serious engagement about ideas?

Well, I've finally decided that I am not going to be silenced by the trolls. Like the Billy Goat Gruffs, I am going to try to cross the bridge and stamp my feet at them--because I realize that silencing little voices like mine is what the trolls want.