When reason, morality, ethics, and the law are replaced with feelings and emotions; humanistic diaphanous solutions that never can stand the test of time replace sound policy and fill the void. Those willing to “sell their souls to the devil” will many times win in the short run—but not in the long run.
When a single person can control the flow of information and be a conduit between a private corporation or group of investors and the mechanisms of government, and even run interference between elected and appointed officials and a private interest— as they say in the Nuclear Navy, BOHICA—Bend Over, Here It Comes Again.
When elected or appointed officials assume the role of “lobbyist” and advocate, or when they place themselves in a position of “friend” of an applicant or vendor doing business before a government decision making quasi-judicial body, the will of the people is subordinated to “special interests”.
I was at such a meeting last night where appointed officials acting as a “quasi-judicial body” ruled not surprisingly in favor of a large out-of-state multinational corporation against most homeowners, neighbors, and citizens of Garden City. Certainly, members of the golfing community -60% that live outside of Garden City were opposed to the neighborhood interests.
But what was most interesting to me was the comments of the commissioners. They talked about being committed to community interest vs property interests. They talked in abstract terms as though they knew what was best for “the common good”. The very principles of contract law and property rights were never addressed by the City Fathers. I guess when your ox isn’t being gored, it’s easy to tell people that they must sacrifice for the common good. What are they sacrificing?
My argument isn’t with “The Man in the Ring” who I am always prone to respect for the risk that they take, but individuals in government acting as “agents” for the man in the ring. C. S. Lewis summed up the difference between the damage that Robber Barron’s do—they do a great deal of good just as developers do when they apply the tools of their trade appropriately and ethically, but those who represent WE THE PEOPLE who tell us what is best for ourselves, our families, and our property.
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be “cured” against one’s will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.”
Without honorable virtuous people in government, the robber barons for all the good they can do, will take advantage of a process that insiders in government control. Who knows to what end or reason? Such a process never ends up well. Look across all the major cities in our country. Developments that end up bankrupt and at best congested and riddled with all the problems of “closeness” — traffic, parking, crime, and you name it. During Covid would you rather have lived in a home with a yard or in a 750 single family development on 22.5 acres? Would you rather wave to your neighbors as they pass by in a car or walking their dog, or fight daily for 1.2 parking spaces for your home?
In twenty years after all the developments are built, and all the homeowners in Harris Ranch, Bown Crossing, Avimore, and the Plantation keep hanging up black “No Up Zoning signs”, the developers will be sitting back drinking “Old Fashions” in Palm Desert—or Maricopa County Arizona!
As a great man once said—”We get the government we deserve”
