Sisyphus Understands

Some of you may have heard that the latest Military Times poll says that 60% of active duty service members are wary of our President-elect (hat tip: Instapundit). I can't say as it surprises me very much, to be honest.

Something that most people outside the military will never understand is how much duty, honor and integrity mean to us. Those are the keystones on which we have built the greatest military in the world, and without them it would simply fall apart. When we tell you that we'll do something, we mean it. And if we don't mean it, we don't say it.

Well, politicians are a bit of a different breed, to say the least. With a Republican, especially one who has been in uniform, we feel a bit more comfortable (think: Reagan, Bush 41, Bush 43). Democrats tend to make us very nervous, since the majority of the current crop have not served, and really don't understand the military or what it takes to make it successful (or even how to properly use it, but that's a subject for another post). Imagine that you worked at, say, Home Depot and had been pretty successful as a manager. Your sales are up, you're beating the crap out of the competition, your employees are pretty satisfied, and you have new hires coming out your ears. Enter your new CEO, who says you're doing it all wrong, and here's how he's going to fix things.

That essentially sums up the Clinton years - we knew what we were doing, how to do it, and what we needed to make it happen. The boss saw it differently, and eight years later we didn't have even half the stuff we needed when the time came to go to war. Remember the big issue over body armor at the start of the Iraq war? Well guess what - the Interceptor armor we were issued had been in the inventory since the early 90's (the Rangers had it in Somalia). The reason the rest of the Army didn't have it is because (you guessed it) it was too expensive. The last Democratic administration decided that it wasn't cost effective to better equip Soldiers - after all, it wasn't like we would ever have to fight anyone, right?

So, yes, we are a little leery of the incoming Commander-in-Chief, especially considering how he's stacked his cabinet with Clinton retreads. The fact that he's keeping the SecDef on is a positive - but only if he listens to him.

Ask any ten people what the biggest problem with the government is, and you'll get ten different answers. Here's my thought, though: the biggest problem with government is that it tries to govern.

Think about it - like any organization, a government has to have a purpose. But unlike a business, there really isn't any way to show that it is accomplishing that purpose - no profits, no IPOs, etc. The things that a government usually is responsible for (at first) are the things you want to keep from happening: wars, disasters, etc. So if there's no war, people can't tell if the government's doing a good job, or just lucky, can they? And so complacency starts to set in, and people start to ask if we really need all that government.

Well, like any organism, government wants to survive. And so it starts looking for more things to do in order to justify existing. And we get trade agreements, then domestic laws, and so on. At each stage, something gets tossed to the citizens to keep them happy (health care, welfare, education programs, ad nauseum), and at the same time the government gets to grow. "Look at all we do", they say, "how could you get by without us? Oh, and we need more of your money."

And so the vicious cycle continues - the government finds more things that only it can do (often by first making it illegal for anyone else to do it), and then proceeds to suck up the resources from the people in order to do it. Never mind that in many cases the issue was handled quite well (and often better) at the local level, with less cost. An organism which does not grow, dies - governments know that as well as any biological entity.

But eventually, there will come a point when the host can no longer support what has become an essentially parasitic organism. Then is the time when nations collapse or reinvigorate themselves. Sadly, both options are painful. And given the inherent tendency of people to avoid pain, that choice will probably be pushed off as far as possible - and in this case procrastination really does make things worse.

The big question is - how bad do we want it to get, before we tell Washington to get it's act together and push government down to the people again, rather than keeping it in the hands of the elite?

Just so you don't get bored (and because I happened to be watching "Serenity" while waiting for Battlestar to come on), here's the results of my Serenity character quiz:
Your results:
You are Zoe Washburne (Second-in-command)

Zoe Washburne (Second-in-command) 75% Malcolm Reynolds (Captain) 70% Wash (Ship Pilot) 65% Kaylee Frye (Ship Mechanic) 65% Jayne Cobb (Mercenary) 55% Dr. Simon Tam (Ship Medic) 50% Alliance 50% Derrial Book (Shepherd) 40% A Reaver (Cannibal) 30% River (Stowaway) 20% Inara Serra (Companion) 15%

Dependable and trustworthy. You love your significant other and you are a tough cookie when in a conflict.

Click here to take the Serenity Personality Quiz

Now don't get me wrong - I love Zoe's character. But I must be honest with myself too. My legs just don't look that good.
Oh, and does this blog make my butt look fat?