Gracious Tyranny

Gracious Tyranny


I really like my car. I can get into my Detroit Clunker any time I want to, turn the key, endow life to my belch-fire eight engine, grasp the ergonomically correct shifter knob, authoritatively yank the transmission into drive, lead foot the pedal, and head out to anyplace my prerogative dictates. Does this sound somewhat familiar? Of course it does. We all do it as many time as we wish, sometimes, many times in a single day. And when we head out, we traverse on endless ribbons of concrete and asphalt that go to any one of the greatest or least of places within any part and parcel of this vast country, and we go without impediment of any sort, save our ability and desire to do so. It has been said that the private automobile and the web of highways and byways are the ultimate practical enabler of personal freedom because if a place where you are located becomes undesirable or oppressive, well now, you just load up the old freedom machine and take off to a more friendlier place and time. And if the authorities don’t like the thought of your unauthorized rearrangement, well, they can just smell your departing exhaust. Getting into our private vehicles and going to wherever we want to go is such a commonplace occurrence in this country that we hardly ever think about the importance of the personal privilege that this represents in regards to our practical individual freedom and liberty. I am now going to ask for your indulgence as we use the above ordinary account of your personal automobile usage as a surrogate to illustrate the thought processes, rationale and justification that the “progressives, socialists, liberals, et al”, that have now gained prominence in our Governance and national life, would employ if they selected personal automobile usage as a “crisis” that required fixing at the national level. The surrogate example of your personal automobile usage “fixing” is intended to illustrate the same thought process, rationale and justifications that are now being employed by our Federal Government to “fix” your personal health care, usage of the environment, real and personal property rights, cap and trade, legal and illegal immigration, financial meltdown, failing economy, unemployment, ad infinitum. Be advised, there will be even more urgent “crisis” to be identified later on that require national “fixing”, as fortuitous situations warrant. In all fairness I hasten to point out that the “Progressive” movement started in the 1900s, and now fully employed in our Government, is not a wholly evil movement regardless of what Mr. Glenn Beck alludes to in his book, “Glenn Beck’s Common Sense.” The Progressive movement is responsible for child labor laws, woman suffrage, and a rather impressive list of worthwhile accomplishments that enhances our personal freedom as well as promoting civil justice for all. However, like all good things when taken to the extreme, they can injure and cure with equal vitality, but I digress. Let’s say that a Governmental Educated Idiot (or Idiot Savant), perhaps even one of the current 24 National Czars, commissioned a select panel of “experts” to study the cost effectiveness and social morality of our current personal transportation system. Select portions of the expert study began to trickle out which showed the costs that our personal automobiles were incurring on the environment and economy were staggering, notwithstanding the social injustice that was being done to those unable to afford a personal automobile equal to that of the more affluent of our society. The study clearly shows that the estimated costs being incurred were beyond anything approaching a cost effective way of transporting people about and the social unfairness of the current personal transportation system was a disgrace to an enlightened and civilized people. A series of recommendations began to surface from the Government that not only highlighted the cost effectiveness of public transportation over the current private transportation system but also how a national regulated transportation system would slash the appalling carnage on our nation’s streets and road that are now exceeding 43,000 a year. This tragic loss of life on our highways is a loss we can no longer endure as a Nation and the Government must act on behalf of the people to fix this inexcusable loss of life and treasure due to the inefficiency and unrestrained nature of the current personal transportation system. The study also pointed out that those who now drive on the nation’s roads have not had any kind of uniform national training to ensure safe driving across state lines and this situation will be addressed by a national public transportation system that will have uniform trained and licensed operators of public transportation vehicles and systems to safeguard all citizens. Of course, in order for the new Public Transportation System to become effective, private transportation must be suppressed through “true cost” taxation on private automobiles and supporting infrastructure along with other fair and appropriate Governmental means to supplant a Private Transportation System with a viable National Public Transportation System. I could go on and on, but there is no point of further burdening you with more conjured Governmental scenarios that should be frightening to a freedom loving people because they are as real as today’s news. One salient that should be remembered at all costs, the mortal enemy of liberalism is personal freedom, and this is why we are slowly coming under the sway of what I call Gracious Tyranny, i.e., it’s a Tyranny because an Oligarchy of an elite few are perverting the democratic process to assert complete control of the nation’s society and culture, for the Gracious good of us all, of course.