I was a student lobbyist, a ladder climber and homeless (Vanity, I guess)

When I was 17, I had a chance to be a student lobbyist. I was part of a group of students from several high schools in our state. As a student lobbyist I went to the state capital and spoke before a group of state legislators. The topic was ‘after school’ programs and coincidentally there was to be a vote on funding for such, that day. So the group went to the photo op, I mean hearing, and provided our two cents. After which we got to go see the state legislature in action.

At this meeting of the legislators, there was a relatively large stack of bills to be ‘passed’. From the titles of the bills to be voted on, many sounded rather important. However, none brought forth discussion on the floor, not a dissent or a platitude. Well for one thing, only about half of the State Elected attended.

So, anyway, this certain piece of legislation comes up for a vote and at that point there are dissenting comments to be made and a discussion among the attending members begins. The arguments made back and forth hit the one hour mark and still continued. At this point I had to go; I was sickened by the blatant disregard for reality and logic, the hypocrisy and lack of the sense of duty.

When I questioned some legislators that day, the answers I was given were dismissing or ludicrous. The piece of legislation that drew the most attention, that day, was pertaining to how politicians could campaign on the side of the road. And it appeared the two predominate parties were battling it out. It was a waste of tax payer time and money, in my humble opinion.

I guess maybe no one can see the same irony I see. I think elected representatives should do their jobs, instead of spending a great deal of time working on the next election, among other things.

Upon my egress from that amphitheater, wherein a great and tragic show was playing; a show where Ignorance, Stupidity and Foolishness were the players and Sophistry was the star. I would witness the presence of members; who should have been inside, playing their parts in the theatrical display. But were outside doing photo ops, wondering around lost (in this State probably ‘high’….okay maybe that was uncalled for) or pontificating on a variety of subjects to ‘Special’ visitors or other groups similar to mine.

And to think I paid my own way to this carnival, I got a per diem check but was in someone else’s name.

This was probably the solidifying moment when I became a hard core believer in Anarchy. You should probably look up the word; I think that if you look up the word origin you will find a different meaning. Originally anarchy had little to do with chaos, that is an over simplistic definition. Anarchy most simply means ‘without structure’, anyway another discussion. Sure anarchy still infers a lack of structured government. It was an idea, in that it was stressed that mutual courtesy and respect would win the day. In other words if each and every person treated each other with unconditional love; any form of government would work and none would be necessary. I know a pipe dream. But it is the most efficient and economical way to run a society. Should a label need be applied to me, I would have to go with Libertarian, in the truthful or correct sense of the word. I digress.

Although I was young I did possess a fairly good understanding of the political system and had long before learned to ‘bracket’ concepts and ideas. I learned to read early, I am an avid reader. Since I wanted to be like ‘Spock’, I would look up every word I did not know the meaning to, in the material I read. I would spend time reading dictionaries and encyclopedias.

What this means is, I do my own research and math, I am not prone to repeating talking points. If I appear biased, it is because I have a pretty good idea of what is essentially correct and efficient human behavior, and what is not. I also do not live with a ‘human centric’ belief structure. I know that what is, is; and on this level there is nothing I can do about it. Heat is fact; cold is a feeling. We are elementally bound by the physics of our spatial environment. I can see, touch, taste, smell and I can hear. Everything we know occurs in a spectrum. I have my personal ‘Unified Field Theory’.

Since high school I have interacted with government, from a local to federal level. Most of these interactions were as an independent contractor or sub-contractor. However, I also had three years in county government, where I was able to observe firsthand the variety of behaviors exhibited by the public, the government employee and the elected official.

I learned to tell the difference between those who were playing at being a politician, those that kind of ‘fell into it’, and those that are ‘hard core’ (power addicted) politicians; ambitious sophists as Socrates described them. I observed in many instances that, the more a politician wanted to climb the government ladder, the more humble he appeared on the lower rungs.

Many times I have been witness to actions that were not in the best interest of the people. An example of the contempt for the people held by an elected official, comes from one of my bosses, and was manifested in a statement he made personally to me. This occurred because of an issue that came up in my department, the details of which are trivial relative to the federal picture, but representative of the mindset that creeps into those that accept the foolish mantle of civic leadership.

In a plea to alleviate the potential for unrest in the community, over a taxation issue, I stated, “we need to inform the public, we need to make them aware.” To which the response was, “they do not want to know.”

If you cannot see the error of his statement regardless of how truthful and sad it may be, then I am at a loss.

Many times I went before these local civic leaders, on many issues. It got to the point where Human Resources Department was contacted and I was asked not to return to the second floor unless I had an appointment. The second floor is where the elected officials had their offices. They did make the request as nice as possible; I was after all, a county ‘pit bull’.

I also observed the average government employee developing an, us or them, attitude. I have concluded that almost any period of time spent in government service, particularly in today’s civic environment, produces adverse psychological effects on the human soul, and may cause PTSD (ok perhaps a little melodramatic there, but hey you did not see the things I saw.)

Do not get me wrong in the beginning I really liked my job and I quickly moved up the ladder. I went in my first year from ‘new hire’ to number three in the department. The elected official and his 'chosen one', were the only ones over me in a rather good size department.

I do not fool myself and think it was because of my great ability I was able to do this; although I am good and talented. It was because they were so far behind and off base as a government agency; that a well trained squirrel would have made a noticeable difference.

The stories regarding this time in my life with actual civil service employment are many and most do not reflect an efficient or caring attitude extended to the people by the government entity.

In return the people were negative towards the government and many of the employees, elected or not. I met many intelligent individuals who felt paying their taxes as a form of submission and not civic duty. Like I said they are intelligent, they understand the term ‘public good’ and they know maintenance is needed. They are aware too, of many misuses and abuses of the government systems.

Most people did not care which party the elected official represented, most believed them to be two sides of the same coin. And the worst thing about it all was, they submitted out of fear. I know they did not want to admit it, but when it came right down to it, they submitted out of fear. It was a fear they refused to identify; because to identify it means they must take action.

I can sympathize with them; look at some of the government buildings built. Do not give me that security excuse; you want security, build a damn bunker. It is a show of strength to the populace, not humility and not about providing the best civic service. “Quite wasting other people’s money you freaking parasites,” wish I knew the person to credit.

So my life continues over the next few years, I get divorced and live homeless on the streets for about six years. I have run with the law and I have run from the law, I have done a little time. I am a Libertarian.

I lived on the street by choice, for I always knew that I possessed the capabilities to get a job and a dwelling to live in.

On the street I had no bills; all I had to pay for was gas, car insurance and the basics. I was homeless on the west side of the “Big Island of Hawaii”, I could think of no better place in the world, at the time, to be. The stories I have from this experience are insightful and I should put them in a book, maybe, someday. Ok, moving on.

My life style afforded me an opportunity to read and study. This homeless period of my life is my ‘Socratarian Phase’, sort of, least I did not wear shoes for years.

Having never lost my interest in the workings of society and the social structures humans create, I was able to investigate and research whatever I wanted too.

One thing I found most entertaining was ‘topics of the day’. A topic would come up for example “Climate Change”. First, I would research it; then I would get into discussions; I would even stop and ask members of the general population about a topic.

The ability for a large majority of those questioned, to answer, was relative to the amount of ‘press’ a topic receives and how it is spread by ‘word of mouth’. In other words, there are relatively few times that I have asked questions, of members of a group or individually, in which the person(s) possessed knowledge on the topic and in fact appeared to have done some research.

I have found that most people do not know anything substantial about either the Elephant Party or the Jackass Party. By the way I keep copies of both parties platforms.

I have learned and quite accurately too; that when there are two extremes, obviously a balance should be found in the middle; unfortunately with humans there quite often never is an acceptable ‘middle ground’.

In conclusion, I have found the political system of current day U.S.A. to be like a ‘daytime soap opera’ nothing really changes but the faces, many simply due to age. You could miss four years and still not really miss a thing. Yes there is an end game somewhere, sometime, just watch and see.

There is no difference between the actors in the ‘soaps’ and the ‘actors’ in Washington D.C. The show is the most important thing to them and the competition occurring in their groups is intense. The only two variations I see is that government does not rely on ratings to, “stay on the air”, obviously, it would have been canceled. And government costs me money. I am not just talking taxes here, but in the way the inherent inefficiency of government affects the cost of all goods and services. Earlier I repeated a statement made to me by a County Commissioner, “they do not want to know.”

I see possibly a fresh interest by the general population regarding the social structure of their country, this gives me hope, however I also worry about a “Tyranny by the Majority”.

America I make a statement to you, when it comes to politicians and lawyers; “Buyer Beware.”

I stated, “we need to inform the public, we need to make them aware.” To which the response was, “they do not want to know.”

Translation: We don’t want them to know.

My experience is the same, especially in the corporate world.

The only thing that keeps me sane is that I see this world from a Christian perspective and very much like the world of “The Matrix”.

i.e. I don’t take it seriously, other than regarding the commandments of Christ and my relationship with Him and with other people.

Everything else is window dressing until he returns to set this monstrosity straight.

Its always best to be an autodidact. Otherwise you are simply learning what someone else feels is important.

Anarchy (in the philosophical sense), is conservative, because when society organizes itself, without interference from government or corrupt politics, it organizes itself, with dispersed power, according to Natural Law, tradition and common sense.

A lot of arrogance and disconnect from other humans, and some brilliance and much logical thought thrown in: I’m dx’ing you with autism spectrum.

You have correctly concluded in some places, but you have misunderstood the nearly infinite range of the human being (which I credit to us having that spark of our Creator in us all). You sell us short. I do agree that when humans start organizing into structures, I too am turned off by much of it and prefer to remain outside of most groups. But the individual human is a magical, brilliant person, though kindness and flexibility are ESSENTIAL to becoming a good person. A voluntary homeless person is not kind or flexible enough to be considered a good person. Being good is better than being smart or wise, in the end. It’s about love.

Interesting I do so enjoy the responses.

Often it escapes many that rants are nothing more then rants. A sharing of pain and pleasure, or happiness and suffering. However for the most part to tell others they are not alone.

Some find if difficult to ‘rant’ because they fear they will be viewed as a ‘pontificate’.

“A lot arrogance...”, maybe but mostly I think coffee

Never seems to be enough time....

Perhaps the following quote attributed to Socrates will aid in clearing some misinterpretation:

“I have never liked an ordinary quiet life. I did not care for the things that most people care about; making money, having a comfortable home, high military or civil rank, and all the other activities – political appointments, secret societies, party organizations – which go on in our city. I thought that I was really too strict in my principles to survive if I went in for this sort of thing. So instead of taking a course which would have done no good, either to you or to me, I set myself to do you individually in private what I hold to be the greatest possible service. I tried to persuade each one of you, not to think more of practical advantages, than of his mental and moral well being.”

I saw this quote when I was 12, and have held it to my heart (I admit, I did not live it as well as I would have liked), late 50’s now.

LOL. Yes. What is the nature, then of the vanity.

Oh, I do not deny it, the few that know me, know that I have said about myself many times, I am vain; however my vanities are not about appearance, personal or third person perspective. Well except maybe my hair. LOL

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