Morton Marcus has a column (h/t Buzzcut) pointing out that mayors can’t simply pass off potholes, and the damage caused thereby, as the fault of a bad weather.
I will not accept, however, the excuses of my mayor that this was a bad winter.
No. The problem is that politicians insist on ignoring our roles as citizens and thinking of us only as taxpayers. It is not the cold of winter that withholds funds from fixing the streets. It is the cold in the hearts of too many voters who deny our communal responsibilities.
We live or die because others are careful or reckless. The tragedy is a growing number of Americans, including many Hoosiers, believe we are or should be independent of each other.
The point that we are citizens, not merely taxpayers, is fundamental. I raise the same objection when we are thought of as consumers. And, I disagree with Buzzcut, the government is us. It’s a tool by which we accomplish things we cannot accomplish as individuals. We are not solely communal; that vision leads to horrors. But, similarly, the notion that we are nothing more than individuals, that there is no “we,” is a poison as well.
It’s a bit overwrought, but I tend to think of this quote from the Watchmen when I hear things blamed on forces beyond our control:
The cold, suffocating dark goes on forever and we are alone. Live our lives, lacking anything better to do. Devise reason later. Born from oblivion; bear children, hell-bound as ourselves, go into oblivion. There is nothing else. Existence is random. Has no pattern save what we imagine after staring at it for too long. No meaning save what we choose to impose. This rudderless world is not shaped by vague metaphysical forces. It is not God who kills the children. Not fate that butchers them or destiny that feeds them to the dogs. It’s us. Only us.
Probably a little much for potholes, but it spoke to me when I was a younger man.
I just threw up a little bit in my throat that you quoted from “The Watchmen”. ;)
Yet again, you are showing your college town-ess. In your world everyone is thoughtful and reasonable and has the ability to come together and come up with reasonable solutions to problems everyone can agree upon.
In my world, I’m in a gerrymandered district where my vote is diluted with 10 straight ticket Democrat votes of the most uneducated, unintelligent, uniformed variety, the type of voter who is driven to the polls, told to vote straight ticket, and then given money as a reward. At the county level, it is very similar.
The government that results is certainly not “me”. It is not people like me. It is not people from my community, people from my town, or even people from south of the Little Calumet river (which, geographically, if like 90% of Lake County, but less than 50% of the population).
We’ll see how you feel, Doug, when the House is as gerrymandered for Republicans as the Senate is. When the House Republicans have the same supermajority that the Senate Republicans have, and they can ram through all the legislation they want, are you going to feel represented by that government?
I’m an upper middle class, middle aged white guy. I have a feeling I’ll do all right in the representation department.
Since about half your blog is reviewing goofy legislation put forth by the other side… I have a feeling that you won’t be well represented. It’s going to be a lot more legislation like you got this session.
Good post Doug, good quality stuff…
You know that my real beef is that Marcus came up with another blood libel of conservatives. And he didn’t even get the numbers right. He’s a hack.
You’re getting hyperbolic with the term “blood libel.” Comparing this to centuries of horrific abuse of the Jews by European Christians makes it tough to any otherwise valid criticisms seriously.
When you say that we are killing people because of our opposition to government spending, I think blood libel is a good way to describe it.
by definition, it can’t be libel if it’s true.