My view of any authoritarian institution – be it a church, a government, or a person's office – is driven by how it regards the individual (more specifically – how it regards me). There seems to be a continuum by which another body might judge a person, ranging on one side as "child" and on another as "responsible adult."
When I was in my early 20s, I was a dedicated Libertarian because I felt that the government should view people as responsible adults. That was naive of me, I now realize, because a lot of adults aren't the least bit responsible. They want (or need) to be treated as children. Some of this comes from their nature; some of its comes from the way the government trains them to behave.
I find being treated as a child by an authoritarian figure to be undignified, which is why I bristle at most of them. The reason I'm thinking of this on this morning is because I was engaged in an email exchange with an individual I respect quite a bit about the Goldman Sachs report referenced in yesterday's comments section.
Even though Slopers are understandably cynical about Goldman Sachs, it's still interesting how GS's public face is part of the "green shoots" club, but their reports created for their own clients paints a picture of doom 'n' gloom that would find itself quite at-home here on Slope. My friend wrote to me, in part:
fascinating to me is the two-tier information flow—the flow that I see from
private equity, venture capital and high net worth money managers VERSUS what
the media (led by CNBC) outlets are telling investors. As with this GS report,
all of my “insider” talks have essentially the same bearish/troubled data and
all of the public, media-generated stories (of course led by the President and
Washington “insiders”) are doublespeak and misleading spin.
I couldn't have said it better myself! Because everyone, from Obama on down, is going to treat the American public as children that need to be fed graham crackers, patted on the head, and told that the boo-boo is going to be made all better. A little Bernanke Bactine is all you need!
Whereas the elite – – those with money, those in the know (and those with the good sense to read quality blogs……..) – – will be told the truth. And it will set you free.
