What to do, what to do…..

 

     I keep telling myself I should leave government, politics, society, etc. alone because I end up getting frustrated.  But this has been on my mind and I just can’t seem to leave it alone, so here goes….

     More and more often these days, it seems to be an interesting (to say the least) time to be alive.  Looking around, there are diverging, and yet simultaneously converging stories and issues:  from the ‘Occupy Wall Street/local town’ phenomenon to bank and lending/borrowing issues, budget discussions (and the attendant hyper-rhetoric, we are coming up on election season again – or did it never go away?), to the continuing War on Terror, there are many different forces and elements working what appear on the surface to be different issues.  Many of them deal with different aspects of money and economics.  We here in the United States are currently dealing with very difficult times with no immediate indication of their end.  Generally speaking, we want to find out what went wrong and ‘fix’ it.  However, there is no agreement on the problem, and many different groups have solutions that are polar opposites of each other.  As I see it, in order for us as a country to identify the problem, we need to discuss and agree on the answer to this question:  what do we want the government to do?  How we answer this question will ultimately determine what the problem is, and what to do to fix it.

     There are those who feel the current system does not do enough for its citizens.  Generally speaking, they believe the focus and primary concerns of the state need to be adjusted in order to do more for those less fortunate and those fortunate enough to take care of themselves need to assist.  There are also those who feel the current system has been ‘hijacked’ from its original purpose and are doing too much.  They believe the focus and primary concerns of the state need to be brought back to when our country was founded.  They currently oppose each other on many fronts, and there may be some very disconcerting and distressing times ahead for everyone before this is all over.

    The economic issues we face as a nation, and the question I posed above, are not unique either in American or World history.  Nations have struggled with ‘debt’ and financing what it deems necessary since the concept of money, trade, and buying were conceived.  Most notably, ancient Rome and Greece struggled over many years (in fact it stretched over centuries) to define and determine what governments were supposed to do, what their powers were, and who should have that power.  Both societies moved from oligarchies or monarchies to representative forms of government (a republic or democracy).  At times, this struggle became strident (either in revolts or in the case of the Romans ‘secessions’) and could be classified in today’s language as ‘class warfare’.

     While there are easily recognizable differences between the issues of the ancient Romans and Greeks (hey, aren’t they having issues again?) and today’s America, there are some disturbing similarities.  Like the Late Roman Republic, who wins political office depends more on money than talent for governance.  Those who make the decisions about our country are driven more by those who paid to get them into office rather than who they are supposed to represent.  Like both ancient cultures, power seems to reside with a small contingent of the population, like an oligarchy.  Eventually, the governmental systems in ancient Greece and Rome changed because the systems in practice no longer worked or were outdated.  The direction they went (more or less freedom, using our modern definitions) depended on what system (democracy/republic or monarchy/oligarchy) was in place, if there was an invasion/war going on, and the specific subject of concern.  Are we looking at that sort of fundamental change coming for our country in the near future?  I honestly don’t know. 

     I have my own conflicting thoughts and feelings on the matter, and I’m not going to get into them.  We as a country need to address what we expect of our government to do.  I am concerned that we as a nation do not have a good track record regarding discussions (the American Civil War and the more recent ‘discussions’ regarding abortion as examples).  The ‘discussion’ turns into a conflict and the final ‘answer’ is forced on everyone.  I’d like it to be different , just once.  I’m not going to hold my breath on that one, though.