not treachery
an infallible instinct for
doing the wrong thing
Is it me or has Government of the people, for the people and by the people hit a rock in the water?
There are not a lot of qualifications for elected office listed in the Constitution of the United States.
Cleary brains, compassion or desire-to-do-the-right thing are not required.
Groucho Marx once said something along the lines of not wanting to join any club that would let people like him in as members.
Groucho once was refused membership in a Hollywood county club as he was Jewish.
Groucho asked that since his children were only half Jewish could they go halfway into the swimming pool?
Right now, anyone who expresses any interest in elected office should be disqualified from running.
Who would want to sign up for such abuse?
I guess such thinking is what got us where we are today.
Ben Franklin saw it coming when he said about George Washington, “The first man put at the helm will be a good one. Nobody knows what sort may come afterwards.”
Dr. Franklin continued, “The executive will be always increasing here, as elsewhere, till it ends in a monarchy.”
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Today’s haiku has its roots in a quote from George Orwell from his essay on Great Britain at the start of World War 2, “The Lion and The Unicorn” first published by Searchlight Books, 19 February 1941.
Mr. Orwell wrote of the British Government at the time that:
What is to be expected of them is not treachery, or physical cowardice, but stupidity, unconscious sabotage, an infallible instinct for doing the wrong thing.
They are not wicked, or not altogether wicked; they are merely unteachable.
An infallible instinct for doing the wrong thing!
BOY! HOWDY!
I ran across the quote in another article which included a chilling coda to this thought.
Where Mr. Orwell wrote that they [Government] were “merely unteachable,” this line was added.
“Back when [they] at least partly understood such criticism.”
I scream and yell at the news images of the actions of Congress over and over.
I have to remember they don’t even understand what I am yelling about let alone care that I am yelling.
No Haiku For You 