"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." ~ H.L. Mencken
Bureaucrits
Column by Alex R. Knight III.
Exclusive to STR
It's an all-too typical condition among those calling themselves Government: Do as I say, not as I do. Most members of the public seem to be so conditioned to the notion of it that they tolerate it with almost total obliviousness. And the government apologists are even more dismissive of such callous hypocrisy. They seem to feel, at least implicitly, that the imagined authority conferred on a bureaucrat via the inexplicable magic of government somehow automatically exempts them from the same code of ethics the rest of us expect of each other. That it is somehow only correct that such “officials” should exist cocooned in a kind of privileged caste, lest the entire world dissolve into unbridled chaos.
I have a very difficult time identifying with such a mentality myself, but then, unlike those who profess an ardent belief in the Cult of the State, I pride myself on making every attempt to function as a logician. How many times have any number of politicos flaunted their ability to circumvent the very rules and regulations they create for the rest of us regarding Social Security, health care, taxes, guns, travel – even insider trading? Bernie Sanders vehemently decries capitalism as evil, yet buys a third house. Al Gore screams apocalypse when it comes to “climate change,” yet lives in a mansion and is ferried around in a private jet.
This systemic duplicity, moreover, is only sustained as a result of the diamond-hard indoctrinated belief that there must be political governance in some form or measure. In no other capacity and for no other reason would such sophistry be tolerated from anyone in a position of influence. Market forces would quickly depose such an individual in the wake of ensuing financial folly. Social forces would relegate such a person to disingenuity and irrelevance, as is already so often the case with disgraced celebrities.
But the beat goes on, as a result of both cultural and institutional inertia, coupled in turn with an almost total lack of public awareness and comprehension of alternatives to this ludicrous status quo.
It can only be the job of the initiated, of course, to point the way towards those alternatives. But will society ever listen?