There are no fundamentals in government anymore; no foundation of human worth or meaningful participation: Just excuses that this new house will be sturdy enough to shelter us all – and road we are taking will lead us there in the end. How long will it be before people start to question: “when will we get there?” How long before they dare?
Fifty years after 1971: and people don’t worry about what they think – they worry about what they believe. If you think for yourself: you’re probably counselled by past experience. But if you’re counting on the warnings of people who do your thinking for you — you’ve got a problem: they can always get another you.
The most important criteria for government experts and contractors is how well they work with the government. Our taxes pay for the Town lawyers who defend the government from the encroachment of the public into the policy and decision making process. Always and everywhere; the minimum possible legal participation is the maximum allowed to the people.
Everywhere in Tompkins County: self-serving policies and draconian regulations are enacted – without the involvement or oversight of the people — while contracted experts gain career longevity by showering the residents with carefully worded misrepresentations and intellectually dishonest paradigms.
At Town and County policy “hearings”; the public is informed that they can’t ask questions, and should be grateful they can sign up to speak for two minutes; because they don’t have that legal right.
County Authorities [and their cronies] don’t worry that a thoroughly cowed and conforming public will burn down their money-changing halls and establish a radical form of society: representative government.
Abraham Lincoln said: “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” Tompkins County government is overwhelmingly liberal and Progressive: so it is the ideal place to study the character of its adherents — While the universal opinion of area residents is that County government is corrupt and there is no meaningful public participation; authorities continue to do as they please. There are no rules – only tools. The character: Self-serving, Authoritarian and Corrupt. Tompkins County is leading the way to our “Lies and Lubyankas” future.
Abraham Lincoln said: “How many legs does a dog have if you call his tail a leg? Four. Saying that a tail is a leg doesn’t make it a leg.” — but today’s self-serving society gives legitimacy to assertions of “goodness” that spring from greed, the love of power, and hate: Backing up excuses that wouldn’t fool a child; with an intimidation that would convince almost anybody.
It’s a distinction without a difference. Shocking? Look around.
It’s like the story about the frog: If it’s put in boiling water; it jumps out – but if it’s put in cool water, and you gradually increase the temperature – you can boil it to death.
If you took a snapshot of today – hate targeting people by race, gender, and age – repressive measures by an increasingly authoritarian government – how would you match it up in history?
Concentration camps and Gulags? They’re just a few years away. You can say; “No it’s not.” — but where is your evidence? Where is the social underpinning of love and human worth? Love and compassion would never do what is being done — only hate.
It’s your actions that define you – not your ideological excuses.
There are no real public meetings in Tompkins County – no meaningful public participation in the decision making process. In the rare instances where questions from the public are allowed – they are deflected with irrelevant, partial or unresponsive answers.
There is never any discussion or deliberation – the voting follows without a minute’s pause – exactly as planned – for the benefit of the county’s rich and powerful interests.
They’re not even called “meetings” they’re called “hearings” – it’s an event where members of the public can sign in, and talk for 2-minutes [timed] – to a group of authorities who have already made up their minds and are merely waiting for you to stop talking. People who don’t attend are labeled as “not wishing to participate.”
It’s the kind of government that’s sweeping the country — and sweeping away anything that stands in its path.
One of a series of punch lines. They will probably appear as a page in the book, rather than in the bumper sticker format. Writing these “humorous” pieces relieves a little of the tension I build up while working on the “Tompkins County and Tammany Hall” book — and the growing feeling that it’s too late for change — as we move from a functional dictatorship to a factual dictatorship.
It’s not surprising how easily COVID posters can be converted to cautionary proclamations. The restrictions used for the eradication of a virus and the eradication of an idea are very much the same.
And a vaccine performs a similar function to indoctrination in building resistance to an outside influence.
Even the policies that emphasize isolating and tracking down the source share a common fear: loss of control.
“For the greater good” is the tyrant’s slogan of the new century. While the “good” is something that the people can decide among themselves, this “greater good” seems to require an overarching and overriding control — and the kind of authority that glories in it.
“Full Disclosure – Full Exposure” of government policies and statistics leads to thinking. Thinking leads to questioning; and questioning leads to freedom.
How much does your government like to be questioned?
Bureaucracy’s no mystery
It’s unchanged throughout history
With power, privilege, and with wealth
It works to keep them for itself.