Flies, Compost & Elections

Flies, Compost & Elections

by Zvi Baranoff

I have been told all my life that you catch more flies with honey then you do with vineger. Living as I do, I have a few insights about flies. I use a fly trap that is baited with a mixture that is made from putrified eggs and yeast and smells like decaying roadkill. If all you want to do is attract flies, a big pile of manure will do the trick quite handily. These are things to keep in mind as one considers elections, and how to turn the compost pile without getting too much shit on the boots and tracking it into the home. It’s good to have a practical outlook about such things.

The thing about elections is to a large extent they mostly don’t matter. Sometimes they matter some. Sometimes they matter a lot. Around half of Americans don’t vote most of the time which shows how we feel about all of that. Nobody for President would be a big winner if we were to count non-voting as a choice but our electoral system doesn’t work that way.

One needs to be realistic about what to expect from government before considering casting any vote. Myself, I expect little good from government and see large potential for harm. I maintain, I think, a fairly healthy distain for, well, most forms of organization and anyone telling me what to do and how to think. Government has a legal monopoly on the use of force to those ends.

There are governmental programs that consume resources by the truckload without solving the problems that they were supposedly created to address. Consider the War on Poverty and the War on Drugs. Talk about your Hundred Year Wars! Other governmental programs prop up large corporations with subsidies and incentives - corporate welfare - as environmental quality of this planet suffers from corporate exploitation of Mother Earth.

What do I want from my government?  Maybe anyone elected to any post should take Hippocrates's Oath. First, do no harm. If, in addition to that government can help facillitate good, that is the way to go. I am all in favor of problem solving and practical solutions. Government, particularly local government, has the potential of being a helpful element in such.

Mostly it is good when government stays out of the individual’s (my) way. Staying out of the way of how corporations operate however is a whole other thing and there’s the rub.

Over the last several decades some very nefarious folks have grabbed the reins of popular discontent. With a barely grazing touch of truth and an emotion ladened appeal that manipulates and misrepresents the causes of distress, politicians periodically ride the waves of discontent to seize control of the mechanisms of power. Ronald Regan came to the presidency with the slogan “Government is the Problem” and ushered in whole new levels of government interference in all of our lives. The War on Drugs was racheted up to new levels and prisons where built and filled, the military was expanded and debt was increased. Government is the Problem hacked away at social programs but Government consolidated and got bigger nonetheless and all the more at the beck and call of corporate interests.

The Sirens’ songs call again and again. Their songs are Pro Life, in favor of School Choice, support Freedom Fighters, believe in States Rights, oppose government overreach, love God and Country, want smaller government, denounce political correctness and advocate Free Speech, support the Right to Work and are anti-Establishment, especially against pointy headed liberals. The seemingly grassroots Tea Party fought against Health Care reform with the slogan “Keep Your Hands Off My Medicare”. Fascists marching in our streets chanting “Blood and Soil”. Like Odyseus’s sailors, we heed the Sirens and are dashed on the rocks.  

The political manipulators use themes that express libertarian values and tribalism with the goal of seizing and controlling the mechanisms of the State. They use the power of the State in a most non liberating manner.

At election time voter choice is essentially binary. Often it comes down to something seemingly like the paper or plastic choice at the grocery store. Someone will be elected and we will still have a government and it will probably serve corporate interests.  Yet, as distasteful as electoral politics may be, and as unpalatable a dish it will serve, abstaining is not a moral choice. Neither is voting for None of the Above third party candidates. We have to recognize the limits to the electoral system and do the best we can with what we have to work with. We cannot afford to sit on the sidelines.

We are at a critical historic juncture. Actions we take now are pivotal. Dystopia is a not a choice and there is no constituency calling for more pollution, poisons, wars, prisons, poverty and all that, but there are politicians that are likely to steer the ship onto those rocks if given the helm. Ideally, we support candidates that will defend the planet, protect civil rights, facilitate non coercive cooperation and have a vision of a sustainable future for humankind. On occasion we need to hold our noses and vote for the lesser evil. It is a matter of medium and long term strategy. Much of the task to transform our economy and culture is outside the providence of government, but the type of government we empower will deeply effect the process of transition. We can cope with a government that doesn't help much but we cannot abide a government that blocks the way or crashes the ship. Remember, we are all in the same boat.

We are resilient and surely can find a pathway through this muck. Imagine a livable future and it can happen, but visualization is only the first step toward actualization. We can visualize world peace all day long but if we don't take effective action we might as well be visualising whirled peas. There is real work to do. Some of it is electoral. It might not be pretty and it will involve compromise and at times it may remind us of piles of manure but someone needs to shovel the shit and I don't see anyone else to do the work but you and me. Turn the compost pile, plan the garden and don't be distracted or dismayed by the flies.