- What follows are a few of the basic premises on which
I base my thinking. You might or might not agree with them, but may I suggest
that you make a list of your own basic premises. It will help you clarify
your thinking.
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- 1. Government is inherently incompetent, and no matter
what task it is assigned, it will do it in the most expensive and inefficient
way possible.
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- 2. The American government is corrupt from top to bottom.
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- 3. If you rely on the mass media to inform you about
your community, state and nation, you will, with rare exceptions, be woefully
ignorant of what is really going on.
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- 4. The universal franchise is a bad idea. The notion
that the destiny of the nation should be put in the hands of ignoramuses,
parasites, boobs, party hacks and idiots is absurd on its face.
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- 5. Public education in America is a failure and is so
flawed it cannot be reformed.
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- 6. Not much has changed in the past 5,000 years of human
history.
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- All of that might sound cynical, but it really isn't.
True conservatives have argued for years that government, even a benign
one, is like a clumsy, retarded giant, and therefore you have to be careful
to limit what tasks you assign it.
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- You can make a career out of just criticizing obvious
bloopers committed by the various departments of government, because they
all commit them. The Romans built roads that are still around, but states
today continue to build roads that will pothole and crack within a year,
sometimes sooner. Look at the federal airport-security people. They take
nail trimmers away from grandmothers but allow real weapons to get through.
And so on and so on.
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- As for the news media, since most media companies are
now controlled by a handful of corporations whose sole interest is in maintaining
a high profit margin, you are getting mostly fluff instead of hard news.
Hard news is labor-intensive. It is cheaper to go with the fluff.
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- Thomas Jefferson's theoretical belief in a free press
soon foundered on the reality, and he came to despise it. He advised one
young man never to read newspapers, since it was better to be ignorant
than misinformed.
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- As for government corruption, it's all around us. Sure,
there are honest public officials, but the system itself is corrupt. It
now requires so much money to run for office that the field is narrowed
to bored millionaires and office-seekers willing to take as much money
as they can from anywhere they can get it. That's why Congress pays no
attention to the people. It pays attention to the suppliers of campaign
funds not to mention junkets, fancy vacations and off-the-radar business
deals.
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- As for the universal franchise, the problem with that
is obvious. People who wish to vote should at least be required to pass
the same test given to immigrants who want to become citizens. A lot of
voters are not even sure what state they live in or what century, for
that matter. How can people who are ignorant of history, economics and
basic science make an intelligent choice for a national leader? They can't.
They will go with the demagogue.
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- And, of course, it is public education that is mass-producing
these ignoramuses. Imagine people completing 16 years of formal education
and not knowing how to spell, punctuate or use their native language correctly.
Imagine college graduates who know virtually nothing about their country's
history or geography.
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- As for the final premise, it is simply a reminder to
utopians: Human beings are selfish, flawed and fallible animals. They always
have been, they are now, and they always will be. Therefore, any human
institution, public or private, will reflect those flaws. If you want perfection,
plant a rosebush.
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- _____
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- Charley Reese has been a journalist for 49 years, reporting
on everything from sports to politics. From 1969 to 1971, he worked as
a campaign staffer for gubernatorial, senatorial and congressional races
in several states. He was an editor, assistant to the publisher, and columnist
for the Orlando Sentinel from 1971 to 2001. He now writes a syndicated
column which is carried on LewRockwell.com. Reese served two years active
duty in the U.S. Army as a tank gunner.
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- Write to Charley Reese at P.O. Box 2446, Orlando, FL
32802.
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