Bricks Without Straw

Before getting into the topic for this blog, I suppose some analysis on last night’s State of the Union address is expected. It is hardly worth an entire blog as there was little of any substance to comment on.

As expected, the address was little more than a campaign stump speech, but that is not without precedent from both parties. The President seemed to be trying to move to the right to appeal to moderates, at times even seeming to sound Tea Party type themes. This seemed to confuse his supporters in Congress, whose traditionally enthusiastic applause seemed muted, as if they were confused by what he was saying. The things that were more in line with his usual rhetoric were so in line that they were almost word for word repetitions of former SOTU speeches, giving the air of meaningless theater. Even Joe Biden neglected to applaud at appropriate times, as if he was day dreaming. I myself fell asleep about three quarters of the way through, so if anything consequential was said at the end, my apologies for missing it.

In the Biblical account of Moses and the Exodus, reference is made of an angry Pharaoh forcing his Hebrew slaves to continue making their daily quota of bricks without the provision of the straw necessary to produce them. The slaves not only needed to continue their exhausting work, but they needed to work all the harder to glean the straw needed to complete their production; practically speaking, an impossible request.

Inasmuch as the fruit of our labor is involuntarily seized by our Overlords, we are to that degree slaves to those Overlords. That we are granted benefits from those fruits, and the fruits of others’ labor, does not diminish our slave status; the Master always feeds his livestock. In a civilized society we volunteer to some extent to be so used, and in that way we can function as a nation. There is a point though, where the producers in the nation no longer feel as though their contributions are voluntary. We long ago passed that point for most in the private sector, and though many felt subservient to those who governed, they toiled on, making bricks for the Pharaoh. Satisfied with the profits they were permitted to keep, most were willing to pay their tribute, even though they knew that much was simply wasted. The economy was vibrant enough to accommodate waste… this is no longer true.

Some broke the rules, they became greedy. They cheated “Pharaoh” and their fellow slaves. This angered everyone, and “Pharaoh” always responds to anger. But instead of punishing the few who break the rules, the response is generally put forward that the existing rules were not harsh enough, and that new and more numerous rules are needed. In the words of G.K. Chesterton, “If men will not be governed by the Ten Commandments, they shall be governed by the ten thousand commandments”. The number and severity of rules hardly affects those who are willing to break them, and so the wrong people are punished. Entire industries are vilified, but often it is the least culpable who suffer the most.

To quote a recent commenter, “The organization of any political entity rooted in a particular ideology automatically gives rise to its own opposition”. This oppositional reflex is seen throughout our society whenever anything of a grand scale is attempted. Too often the same is true of smaller scale projects. Instead of a cooperative attempt to help endeavors to be accomplished responsibly, dogmatic opposition from government and special interests so mire the process in a prohibitive prosophobia that only the most tenacious will proceed. All the while the machinery that builds the economy is slowing and all the speeches and demands of Pharaoh will not enable the slaves to make bricks without straw. Remember the eventual outcome of the Biblical tale was the Exodus. Long before Atlas ever Shrugged, the slaves, the workers, the producers; they all laid down their burdens and told Pharaoh to make his own bricks.