JONTILLMAN.COM | part of the problem since 1976

Most people, if you ask them, have some sort of complaint, or a whole litany of them, about their government. Usually these complaints are sung along the common refrain of government being out of control and not representing ones interests or morals or ethics. I believe that these sorts of complaints are necessarily false, and are the result of shallow, unreasoned thinking, rather than of any true intellectual critique of the rule of government.

In short, while I do not agree with the actions, aims, or even the legitimacy of the current junta, I believe that a government is the perfect expression of the collective will of those it governs, or put more simply: people get the government they deserve.

Of course, there are likely to be exceptions to this rule, but it definately seems to hold true for America. Most Americans I have talked to about government and politics sing a song of disaffection and disconnection from their beliefs, perhaps with a contralto of unchecked growth and abuse of size and/or power.

Of course, as I have seen in my travels through the States, these things that Americans complain so bitterly of in their government are exactly those things that they worship in their markets and aspire to in themselves. To whit:

• Most, if not almost all, Americans, whether they be Businessmen or not, seem to hold in the highest regard, almost to worship, “Free Trade”, as it is commonly (mis)understood in the United States.
• expansion and growth are the only measures of business success in the United States that carry any social currency.
• Most people I have met, especially in the Business World, measure their self-worth by how much power they can assert, as expressed through the number of employees or direct reports they have at work, the relative size within an industry or community of their small business, or any nummber of other associated ways. (social dominance, conversational, etc)
• Americans seem gripped by a seige mentality, distrusting not just the “dirty Arabs”, but being quite convinced that everyone, from their neighbors to their colleagues at work to their own children are out to take whatever they have.
• Americans today have a deep and abiding love of comparison, classification, stratification and Us versus Them thinking. This is most readily apparent in the growing pseudo-political polarization of the country, but can also be seen in the lives and attitudes of individuals, if one knows what to look for. The whole country is playing power politics, and not just at the polling place, but in their daily lives as well.
• Americans also have an ingrained willingness to resort to violence, or threats thereof, in order to get their way. Much has been written about the obvious cultural expressions of this drive, American Football being the most obvious expression of this.
• There is an epidemic of inability to reason and weigh possible side effects of actions. We actually go out of our way to avoid considering the possible unintended consequences of our actions, even when those consequences are readily apparent, and definately to our own detriment.
• Americans are incapable of having a discussion. What Americans call discussion is actually a battle of marketing messages, whether personal, professional or political. No one seems willing to consider any other point of view, perhaps because they know them to be just as bankrupt and unreasoned as their own.
• The average American sees everyone that they do not view as (potential) competitor/enemy, as a resource to exploit for their own shallow ends. It has been said that the best way to know a man’s character is to observe how they treat those who can do nothing for them. I am afraid that most Americans come up sorely lacking by this simple measure.

How then can an American be suprised when they look up from counting their goods one day and realize that they have a government that seeks constantly to expand and grow its own power and take control of an ever-increasing number of aspects of ones life, views its constituents as little more than revenue generating automatons, takes an adversarial and hyper-competitive view of other nations, and if it were an individual instead of a collective, would be belligerent, boorish, and an embarassment to be seen with at a cocktail party?