(Published in The State Line Tribune, Farwell TX/Texico NM)
Until people stop looking for answers in all the wrong places, they will continue to be led astray. Or worse.
I saw a news story out of Albuquerque that mentioned that "several organizations are asking how the (mayoral) candidates plan to keep people safe".
Sorry, but no mayor can "keep people safe". Nor can their employees or co-workers. That is YOUR job.
In a similar vein, some people beg politicians to show "leadership" on one issue or another.
Looking to politicians for leadership is like fishing for bluefin tuna in your kid's wading pool. You're going to either come up empty, or someone is pulling a fast one on you. Leadership from politicians? You might as well beg a newborn to rebuild your transmission.
Any leadership you imagine you see from politicians will lead to the wrong place. And why would you want to follow them anywhere? This group of people is notoriously incapable of running their own personal lives. Why would you want them "helping" you with yours?
Don't look for politicians to "help" the middle class, or families, or taxpayers, or anyone else. They are not capable of doing anything to help anyone but themselves. Even if they give the appearance of helping you, it is an illusion that will end up doing more harm in the long run.
The only positive effect any politician or bureaucrat can have is by getting out of the way. But that isn't rewarded with votes; it looks too much like "doing nothing". In truth, "nothing" is the best thing they can do.
Don't waste your precious life waiting for help to come from someone else. Life is built from the bottom up, not handed down to you from Washington DC or Austin.
That doesn't mean it's completely pointless to pay attention to what the Keystone Kongress or the current president are doing. If you like Three Stooges movies you may get a laugh from watching the elected buffoons, too. Everyone needs a hobby. Just don't take them too seriously, and never look to them to provide leadership of any sort. That's a futile, and counterproductive, wish.
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The best way government can help the middle class or keep them safe is to remove artificial barriers that prevent them from helping and/or protecting themselves.
ReplyDeleteLaissez-Faire: an economic policy that allows businesses to operate with very little interference from the government. French imperative of laisser faire: to let (people) do (as they choose).
ReplyDeleteAlso, Kent, your article reminded me of a definition of a politician, told to me by the mayor of South Lake Tahoe. He said a politician is a person who sees which way the herd is going, gets in front of it and say follow me.
The fact that people look for leadership is the essential problem.
ReplyDeleteAs long as one is willing to believe that you can fish in a swimming pool (productively), he/she is toast. A person who can't rely on himself and respect himself enough to look there first is incompetent, in a fundamental way.
I know I'm not telling you or your readers anything you don't know already. If I thought that, I would never bother to read your blog.
It just seems almost unbelievable to me that anyone would not be able to understand the importance of 'self' and that leadership would be the last thing one would want.
It must be, as Aldous Huxley postulated in 1953, that the result of allowing TV to guide the development of children would ultimately lead to a population of mindless automatons, guided by the advertisers in every way.
see 'Brave New World Revisited'.
Brave, indeed...
Rich
Or how about the movie "Idiocracy."
ReplyDelete