Rose colored glasses

This one is gonna offend a LOT more people than usual. A very few won't be offended. Very. Few.

This is a-poke-you-in-the-eye-with-a-sharp-stick rant. We are slaying sacred cows. We are taking the meat and burning it away on piles of rainforest timber.

On with the show, eh?

COGNITIVE DISSONANCE

Ooooh. Big word. Fancy word. Try another - delusional. Again? Homo non clara mente cogitare.

Bah. Make this simple.

Human. 

We - that is you, me, that guy who just ducked around the corner so you won't see him staring at you and everyone you know - we are all afflicted with this disorder to some degree or another.

We mentally ingest what we want and consign the rest to a hazardous-waste dump.

A very rare, very few people can overcome this. History has a handful of examples. None of 'em appear in this rambling.

GET TO THE POINT ALREADY

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Here's yer point -

We have what we asked for. Well, you did and do. That we don't like it, see the Cognitive Dissonance above. "We" because I got hauled into the mess you made against my will.

What did we (most of you) ask for? 

More government.

What did we (all of us) get? More government.

Me and very, very, very, very few others wanted and tried for something different. We actually tried to get less government, but our voices were shut down, drowned out and crushed beneath the weight and power of what the rest of you demanded.

Mind you, this tiny peer group and I are not excluded from the Cognitive Dissonance. It rages within us. We too idealize a utopia and believe it can happen.

<sigh> It can't. It won't. Keep reading.

NO!

I hear your screams. You did not ask for more government.

Yeah, you did. If you voted, you asked for more government, more than 99% of you voted for more anyway. If you did not vote, you definitely asked for more government. You are part of that 99%.

And, you got it. Jesus, Harold and Joseph, you got it and slammed it down on everyone!

The joy I find in this debacle is that you are in the same grinder as the rest of us. A bunch of you will not admit that. Of course, a bunch of you will insist nothing is wrong while being dissolved in the belly of a sarlac.

LEFT

The left - you have loudly demanded more government as if government will magically (government is magic, or rather sleight of hand) cure all the ills facing us. 

Ooooh, yes you have. The left in this country has ballooned government in lock-step with the right. Look at the voting records. Look at how spending has increased.

A very close friend of mine, call him Mua'Dib, is so vocal about more government, it is one of 3-4 things he talks about. The others are irrelevant.

I have tilted at his windmills for too long. I have told him when you ask for more government, you will get it and not like it. Prophecy fulfilled. Each time I said this in the past, his reply is "You have to be careful who you vote for."

How's that working out, Usul?

See Get To The Point above.

RIGHT

The right - you have loudly demanded more government as if government will magically (government is magic, or rather sleight of hand) cure all the ills facing us.

The right in this country has ballooned government in lock-step with the left. Look at the voting records. Look at how spending has increased. Who did it?

I have a friend on the far right who swears government is the problem and it must be reduced. Call him Gipper. He can talk about 3-4 things, one being government. The others are irrelevant.

His words do not match his actions because he literally demands more government that will get rid of the problems he sees. I have told him that when you ask for more government, you will get it and not like it. Prophecy fulfilled. Each time I said this in the past, his reply is "You have to be careful who you vote for."

How's that working out, Dutch?

WOOPS!

I just read what I wrote. Apologies. I got them reversed. Mua'Dib is on the right and Gipper is on the left.

Um. No. I had it correct the first time.

No, the second time is the proper placement.

Wudja. Hold on. What? Wait. Is this?

Bah. You figure out which one is which. I have something more to say.

ANARCHY

I have a friend who is a total anarchist. He does not want any laws. Call him Sid.

I point out Somalia is a place where anarchy is the order of the day. (See what I did there?) He says no, Somalia is a failed state.

Mr. Vicious, pray tell what is the difference, I ask.

His mouth moves. Sounds come out. He has created his own language, which he and he alone understands. Through this language, I guess he explains why he is correct and I am a buffoon with less understanding than Mike the famous headless chicken. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_the_Headless_Chicken

INTRODUCING THE PROBLEM!

Here is the problem. As Pogo said many decades ago, "We have met the enemy and he is us." Nature abhors a Hoov - er, vacuum. Power does the same. Something is going to fill that void.

People.

Humans will either lead or follow. That very, very few I mentioned earlier are willing to just get out of the way. The leaders and followers will not tolerate that so they hunt down the very, very few and kill them.

Yep. Check human history.

People will NOT leave well enough alone. Gotta tell someone else what to do, when to do it, how to do it, where to do it and the reverse, not do it.

Why? Because the dude with the biggest stick said do it or do not do it. Otherwise, get hit with the stick. Sometimes a group of people will rise up and hit the big stick dude. Then, they start telling people the whats, etc., and whatnots, etc.

Again why? Because they said so. Big stick, remember?

People will NOT follow the rules. Check out my FB page for the posts I call, "People who park like hammerhoids." (That is how I want to spell the word and this is my column.) These people just flat out ignore parking lines and parking spaces.

Some of them would drive through the store if they could get their vehicle down the aisles.

Each time I take a picture, I say, "And you are why we need laws." More & more people are submitting pictures for me to post. Keep it up. Each time I post a submitted picture, I say, "And you (the driver) are why we need laws."

Karl Marx screwed it up. The truth was and is there. His dialectic even calls for a continual rollover and roll over of those in charge. He just put on rose-colored glasses to temper what he wanted to see. 

The truth is, the struggle to rein in government will always be with us.

Why? Because see everything above.

Meanwhile, we have more government.

I hope you are happy because you got what you asked for and it is literally killing us. 

I sure ain't happy about it.