Some Dyspeptic Mutterings

Is George Bush a moron? And what if he is? Memory serves that the American people have also elected Bonzo's B-Grade Movie Sidekick Ronald Reagan; Mr. Peanut--Carter; Sock's the Cat's meal ticket Bill--and what a tomcat he proved to be; and but for his lack of native birth might contemplate Ahnald. Normal seems to be in the eye of the beholder. Bush seems to think the American economy can't afford to fight global warming but the lessons of New Orleans would seem to show that the costs of allowing the arctic ice sheets to melt will be even costlier. To a Newfie, a white-coat seal pup is just another mouth that will eat fish they'd rather catch to make a living--if they looked less adorable and more like say a catfish would the rest of the world be so concerned. While the rest of the world fights to prevent the extinction of whales the Norwegians and Japanese say, "What's the point of there being whales if there isn't a whale fishery?" While 20% of South African's are HIV Positive, the best the Catholic Church can come up with is a prelate's statement that condoms are the lesser of two evils. Despite a severe shortage of priests in North America that same church will still not countenance the ordination of woman and clings to the concept of celibacy. Bush has declared war on terrorism, but the Mafia still thrive inside his borders supplemented by Bikers, Asian Gangs, and the like. And OJ is still searching for his wife's killer; guess he doesn't have any mirrors in his house.

Politics has been described as the art of the possible, but in this world of instant communication the wise politician keeps himself abreast of whether common practice is still common. I grew up on the East Coast of Canada where one was Liberal or Tory to the "backbone"--my parents cancelled each other's vote and my uncle dispensed bottles of rum and chocolates on election day . When the government changed hands almost the entire civil service changed as well--today that's called political patronage. Using public funds or resources for one's own gain is called miss-appropriation of funds or money laundering; voting to foster one's own benefit, conflict of interest; using one's position to sway others or buy votes, influence peddling; leaking information for the benefit of others, breaking confidentiality and insider trading; hiring relatives or friends, favouritism. Lying to the public, concealing the truth, obfuscation--just look at how politicians resist access to information laws and transparency, not to mention the popularity of paper shredders and hard drive cleaning devices--it's not called government wipe for nothing. The political landscape is littered with the bones of those who ignored these realities. Where's all this leading you ask? A public that assumes that policians are all corrupt and a generation in their late teens and twenties, the demographic who use this kind of service the most, who ask why bother?
Churchill is said to have claimed that democracy is the worst form of government--except all the rest. The problem is that political change is a difficult process and rarely accomplished without human cost. Karl Marx who laboured in a British Museum while lving in squalid conditions would hardly have recognized the system of government put in place after the 1917 Russian Revolution. It may be possible for a few people to reform government, but changing the mindset of an entire nation spread over 14 time zones? When the CCCP broke up the state ceased to own the means of production and opportunistic entrepreneurs became what we call the Russian Mafia--one oligarchy got replaced by another. A government that no longer directly profits from the work of its people was suddenly faced with a nation that resisted the idea of paying taxes for the first time and therefore lacks the means to support itself, its military, its police, the arts, or anything else. The pen, or ideas, may be more powerful than the sword; but the process of deciding whose ideas hold sway is quite another question.

What then can one man do? You've heard of the Butterfly Effect--a butterfly flapping its wings in China causes a tornado in Kansas? Think globally and act locally. As the people who elected those politicians we have to make them aware that we care and are engaged. We need to be involved in the world around us and make our feelings constructively known. Not everyone can be a priest or a leader, but everyone has a sense of his place in the world and an expectation that his reasonable needs will be met. Unfortunately change takes time and patience. Witness the years, lost lives, and inexorable process that finally led to sufficient critical mass to bring down the Berlin Wall. We inherit our world from our grandparents and we bequeath it to our grandchildren. Ballot boxes lead to politicians who fail to plan beyond their chance of being re-elected in 4 or 5 year's time. We need to make our leaders aware that we expect them to make decisions not only for the short term, locally; but also to make the entire world a better place in the long term. We also need to be aware that our own actions have an effect and to take responsibility to ensure that those effects are good onew.