a silly little story...

setting: a carnival

"step right up, step right up! a dollar for 3 coconuts! knock down cans with the coconuts and you'll get a prize! definite win!"
"hi! can i have 3 coconuts please."
"sure. that would be $1.50."
"?? isn't it a dollar?"
"taxes!"
"err... right."
*forks out a dollar fifty"
"ok! throw right away!"
*attempts to throw coconuts*
"HEY! these coconuts aren't coconuts! they're made of LEAD!"
"well now, i didn't say they were REAL coconuts now, did i?"
*after much heaving, 2 coconuts miss, one strikes and a few cans topple over*
"yes! what do i win?"
"hmm, sorry, you only knocked down 3 cans. no prize. thank you for playing!"
"didn't you say it was a definite win? here here, it says on your sign, just knock down one can and i'll win a prize."
"right? does it?"
*changes figure on sign from 1 to 7*
"!!!"
"sorry, it says you need to knock down 7 cans before you get a prize!"
"what! that's ridiculous. i'm done playing."
"sorry! that'll be 3 dollars if you wish to stop! read the fine print!"
"what!"
*forks out 3 dollars unhappily*
"well then, come by later if you wish to play again!"
"no way!"
"well, you have to. didn't you read the sign coming into this fair that you need to win something from the coconut throwing competition before you can leave?"
"what!"
"opps, i guess i'll need to go right in front and make some changes to that. be right back!"

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when in conversation with anyone, we make the following assumptions:

* the person we are talking to is willing to talk to us
* the person we are willing to reply us in as informative a manner as possible
* if the conversation involves or requires action to be carried out, the completion of the conversation should involve action to be carried out in accordance with the conclusions drawn
* if no action can be carried out or if the involved party is unwilling to carry out the action, explanations need to be provided if the conclusions drawn were reasonable; if the requests made were unreasonable, the requester should make reasonable conditions instead, reasonable being defined in the same manner by all parties involved

shouldn't government be the same? should we not be given responses acceptable and reasonable to the generally educated mind? should we not be entitled to fair, just and correct action, and not merely rote responses? we are intelligent people. we appreciate what has been done for us, what has been good for us. yet continued claims that our country would be nothing without certain individuals have been and drawn and stretched to an extent that bewilders logic. beyond that, has not more than 4000 years of recorded history and development only served to bring under the spotlight the glaring deficiencies of the human spirit and mind: a failure to appreciate the bigger picture, a failure to take the risks and acknowledge faults to strive for the betterment of all.

what we get goes like this:

government: action is carried out, passed almost un-notice, rubber-stamped by a willing bureaucracy
questioner: why is this so?
government: response #1 - because *red herring / unreasonable response / illogical response / self-pandering / an actual reasonable response*
questioner: but that doesn't answer the question! it doesn't make sense...
government: response #2 - political requests should be fielded by those in political parties or such institutions, response #3 - unpatriotic, how dare you question
if questioner follows up on response #2, then
government: response #2a - political type associations - watched, monitored, mocked; response #2b - political parties - undermined by refusal to issue permits for public discussion, undermined by redrawing electoral boundaries (statistically shown to favor party with large share of vote, but in a completely lop-sided way)

we are not fools, even though we may be treated as such. we need to look beyond, the grasp, as i borrow the term, a time for greatness. i refuse to be part of folly, to live like fools and simply exist day to day for mammon, for mere survival. perhaps in years to come, history will adjudge this period as a counter-renaissance or counter-enlightenment, when we had the wherewithal and capabilities, but we squandered everything for haute culture, for baubles, for gaiety and mad laughter.