A lot is made of politicians serving their own self interest. It's true it can be destructive but it can also be beneficial. In these darkest days before the dawn (that is, January 2009) it's important to put this dynamic in to the proper perspective.Self interest used to be manipulated by Princes through appointments to high office and favours of power. (I used the British spelling there 'cause we're talking about the old days see?) If you wanted your family to enjoy prestige and safety, you had better keep your subjects quiet and in line with policy. This also did wonders for the keeping of your head attached to your shoulders.
The fore-fathers of this nation realized their particular whig-covered heads were far enough away from their Prince they could probably get away with seizing all the power for themselves. It turned out they were right and our still young Republic was born. We then had to create an entirely new system of doling out favors (American spelling this time) to reward our people's self interest. We called it Capitalism and it worked out pretty good for a long time.
The central tenet of this new system was that if there was a problem that effected enough people, some smart guy would come along and figure out how to make a buck off it. The (eventual) byproduct of these entrepreneur's profit making schemes would be that the problem would more or less be addressed. Sometimes more, sometimes less.
In the middle of the last century some other eggheads decided they could do us one better and tried to create a system that was in everyone's interest and we would live in a grand utopia. Great, grand, SOCIAL utopias. But guess what? It didn't work this time. It was such a disaster we eventually had to fight a bunch of wars, both literal and economic, just to bring these dudes to their senses. I think their names were Marx and Engles, or something.
You see, the problem was they tried to take self interest out of the equation. They didn't see it was a central part of life. Making no room for the reality of it, it manifested itself instead as tyranny wielded by the very power figures that were supposed to have been the safeguards of society. So it took a while, but we eventually forced that genie back in to the proverbial bottle and we returned to business as usual.
The current tug of war our country is experiencing between so called "liberals" and "conservatives" can really be boiled down to those who believe that government can and should be used as a tool to enforce social justice and those who think it will all work itself out naturally if only we rely on our own self interest.
So what side is which? Ironically, these roles are often reversed depending on if we're talking about social themes or if we're talking about economic themes. Most "social liberals" tend towards "economic conservatism" and most "social conservatives" tend towards "economic liberalism".
Who's right? All of us. And, none of us. But hey, that's America baby. The one thing we can all count on is that as groups and individuals we will all pursue those courses of action we see as in line with our own self interest. And that's as it should be. We'll all get what's coming to us in the end. That I can promise you.
Psst. Hey Bushy, you're fired.
Fauxbama out.
