Morality and Government
Up here in the wilds of Northern California, the religion of being against government runs almost as deep as the faux Christianity, which effuses itself all over everything. Everyone prays for everything and everyone up here, even the sinners, although my sense is that Jews, blacks, and homosexuals mostly get prayers of relocation. You’ll even find the Christian fish symbol sprinkled liberally -- or should I say, plentifully -- throughout the telephone yellow pages.
When I was looking for a chimney sweep, I found three of the five display ads in the telephone book featured the fish. When I asked the one guy who answered his own phone what the fish meant, he hesitated, and then explained that his was a Christian business. I asked what that meant as far as cleaning fireplaces was concerned; did he bless ‘em? I managed this in a genuinely curious tone. He laughed nervously, but admitted that blessing my fireplace was not part of his program. I wound up going with a fishless sweep who happened to be a college professor in business management during his off hours, or vice versa.
As much as they wear their first religion on their sleeves, the folks up here are also ready to bad-mouth government as a second creed. The feds, the state and local. And not without reason, since all seem committed to failing on the big issues, and making small matters worse. The fish wrap that masquerades as our newspaper features a never-ending stream of letters illuminating the local intellectual incontinence of people who have too much time on their hands ranting about this screw-up or that. Mostly they think that government should be smaller and less intrusive.
Unless it comes to telling women they don’t have a choice. Or figuring out some way to prevent people of the same sex from enjoying each other in the privacy of their own homes. They would also urge the school board toss out trash like "Huckleberry Finn" and any other books that might stimulate a child to think for hisself. It’s that stimulation part that’s most dangerous, you know. And you can imagine the community’s position on sex education. Hey, I got married and had kids without knowing anything about sex, right honey? Absolutely right, dear.
There is considerable hypocrisy extant in the complaints about government, what with a third of the workforce receiving salary from taxpayer funds of some sort. Another third of the population up here is cashing Social Security checks. And then you have the myriad impoverished and ne’er-do-wells who are receiving public assistance as well. Which is a whole bunch of folks — probably considerably more than half the population -- who are receiving government largesse, earned or not.
The loudest hollerin’ against government is about the perceived assault on the Second Amendment, which the locals interpret to say Constitutionally guarantees the right of every God-fearin’ Amuric’n regardless of criminal history or mental capacity to own his own weapons of mass destruction. It says so in black and white, right there in that Constitution thang. If only they could read.
Of course it’s the same old argument — government should enforce my morality — but with the narrow scope of thought up here, any entreaty for balance doth fall on self-deafened ears.
And that’s SetonnoteS...I’m Tony Seton.