Tell Politicians to Take Their 'Fresh Ideas' and Shove 'Em!

Reprinted from Front Porch Sunday, August 29, 2010

One of the cliches' of today that drives me up a wall is the one about politicians having 'fresh', 'new' ideas. "What we need is..." Give me a break. What we need is that these pretenders to expertise beyond their experience and ken stop imposing THEIR "new ideas" about how people specialized in their various fields should think, prioritize and conduct themselves. If we think about it (which isn't taught in public schools), it's blatantly obvious how sanctimoniously presumptious and ignorant it is to assume we should elect politicians who would tell farmers how to farm, educators how to educate, the medical profession how to practice, industrialists what to industrialize, energy producers how and where and what energy to produce, bankers how to bank, commerce how to commercialize.

Let's first dismiss, without argument here, that the new "idea" of telling others what to do with their lives, professions, property and families has an ounce of "newness" in it. The battle between, dare I say, liberty and oppression, is as old as the human race. Oppression has largely prevailed, because it has succeeded in keeping the citizenry, serfs, slaves, whatever, frightened, ignorant, and with no sense of self-worth. Freedom is a recent thing, and is proving itself, while enormously beneficial, highly vulnerable to the power-hungry among us.

Let's save that dead horse issue for beating another day. We have another dead horse to beat today.

We like to start with this painfully 'obvious' illustration of the obvious: Let's say you need a quadruple bypass. Do you want your surgery team to be politicians and bureaucrats, or experts, i.e. doctors, in their field? Do you want the surgery team racially, ethnically and gender balanced, or do you want the best damned people for the job? Do you want a surgery team that has been promoted through a public educational system without learning how to think, read, but happen to belong to select groups likely to vote for a certain political party?

Do you want to make a point of, at the risk of your own life, making up for perceived past and present 'injustices', or do you want to get fixed, to live another day and pursue whatever causes for which you have a passion? Now if there weren't such pervasive ignorance rampant today, this would be a stupid question. The sad thing is, some folks would want to yahbutt it to death to the point of saying you are a heartless bigot for wanting what's best for you and your family. Well, bless their heart, which is always generous with other people's lives, families and property.

Frankly, that one illustration should adequately dispose of the myth of Statist omniscience and desirability of its omnipotence. But let's keep beating this dead horse.

Do we want a safe, economical(or not) means of private transportation and lots of choices, designed by folks directly motivated to provide a product that pleases us, or do we want something designed by chalatans on the take, with no expertise, and no accountability? I mean, really. Do we want a vehicle capable of traveling 100 mph, as well as a highway full of them, built by people who have a "right" to their jobs, regardless of the quality of their end product? The further we go with this, the stupider (intentional) it gets.

Do we want farmers to innovate, compete and improve the best food production and distribution system in the world, or do we want to have someone who's never been atop a tractor and doesn't know enough to sell lemonade, much less farm produce, telling agriculture and commerce what, when, how much produce they can deliver to us via the market place? These thoughts ain't rocket science folks!

Do we want to watch racially, ethnically and gender balanced sports or do we want to see the best? (Take a look at who's sitting in those sky boxes at professional sports events. If you can stand it.) Damned stupid question....

Here's a dandy: would we like our children to learn civics, history, reading, logic and math in school instead of wallowing in social engineering? Sorries for us if we're sending ours to public schools. Education is the first to go on the plantation. Remember it was illegal to teach slaves to read just 170 years ago. Its de facto illegal here now.

Must we go on with this beration of the obvious? No, not with us, the choir. But there's a bunch of folks out there who are so used to letting someone else do their thinking for them that these qustions could cause headaches, neuritus, neuralgia, and erectile dysfunction in men. Se be gentle. But SHOW UP!!

What say you?