Back in the “olden days,” when your TV started acting up and a couple of good thumps didn’t fix it, you would take off the back cover and pull out the “tubes” (if I’ve lost you, find an old person and ask them, “What is a tube?”). The next step was to go to the local drug store and plug the tubes into a tester, buy new tubes for those that tested bad, plug all the tubes back into your TV, and presto, it’s fixed.
We went through a short period of time where easily tested parts no longer existed even though you still could take off the back cover and marvel at what you saw. Unless there were obviously burned-up parts, good luck getting it to work again.
Today, our little gadgets are not even a little bit user serviceable. In fact, should the maker of the device determine you can’t use it anymore, they can simply reach through the internet and choke the life out of it. There is no redress.
Our government at all levels appears to have the same template. Layers of bureaucratic red tape, artificial intelligence answering machines and responses, agenda-driven politics that serve only two masters, and more power over your money, life, and freedom. There doesn’t seem to be any user-serviceable parts.
The last chance of trying to make government responsive is the ballot box, and now that is mired in artificial intelligence, corruption in election officials, and legal finagling designed to exhaust a simple desire for honest government.
The solution is not easy or simple. If you read any of the books that detail this country’s struggle for independence, the men who otherwise could have lived very comfortable lives gave all that up to establish a free republic. A government of the people, by the people, and for the people.
While voting is important, it is necessary to remain vigilant that government is not the master but the servant, and that elected officials are user-serviceable parts. Put down that game controller and call, email, and attend public meetings. He or she may not have been your candidate, but they’re now your representative. You know what they say about squeaky wheels. Don’t let your children inherit a totalitarian government because it was too hard to preserve freedom. You don’t know what hard is.
This article appears in Nov 22-29, 2018.
