This is not about me, but I can not remove “me”, or anyone else from what needs to be said, so I start with me. I have never been nor have I ever wanted to be an "I told you so" person. It has seemed primarily associated with egotistically demanding credit, and guilt tripping others about having been wrong or not competent enough. So, even though I am still not willing to be that person on a personal level, I have no trepidation about shining a light on government for falling down on the job, primarily because of political party partisanship, when political parties are obviously corrupt and becoming more corrupt as time passes while the corruption remains unaddressed. That translates into the political parties doing what they are doing, through neglect, to facilitate the development of government tyranny - claiming the entire time the potential for tyranny does not exist, and that they are not exacerbating the potential for the tyranny they deny while contributing to it. Does the term “cognitive dissonance” come to mind?
Why is this on my mind? And why a harsh look at a harsh but denied reality? Because the process of unchecked increasing corruption is being denied. I would like to be wrong about this, of course. I truly would. Please prove me wrong. That none of the evidence points in that direction does not make that an easy task. Consider that each tiny hole which goes unnoticed, in every little brick in the wall between corruption and no corruption, weakens the wall, like the unnoticed start of a cavity in a tooth that weakens a tooth. It is our job to be vigilant about the tiny little warnings of problems instead of neglecting them, so that we can prevent them from developing into huge problems. An example was reported in the news this morning. The really great news is that the cleaning of masks with hydrogen peroxide gas has started - thousands at one time in a few hours! It is not a recently proven effective process. However, the news is that it has just now received government approval - probably approval for financing to make scaling possible. So, it has just been implemented. One of the people who created the process honestly says they had not considered scaling. But what was the use if government refused to approve the high value and use of the safe and effective procedure?
Since the battle against CoVid-19 became imminent, then peripatetically started, repeated thoughts of the plagues that we know have decimated populations periodically throughout human history, have come to mind. So too does the more recent handling of potential pandemics in Africa which did not become worldwide catastrophic disasters also come to mind. And perhaps the reason these thoughts come to minds is in recognition of the huge extent of acquired knowledge, skills, and technologies since medieval times - health oriented, but also communication oriented, and everything else that makes lives easier and often more hygienic at the same time - all of which have evolved to being reality since plagues ravaged entire populations. Along with and because of the progress there has also been an evolution of universal common sense that progress has fostered in populations, worldwide. This recognition gives rise to questions. Why are we not driven to ask why a culture of unpreparedness and ignorant bungling exists regarding the reality of the current battle with the "enemy" identified as such last year while there was still time to decide when to initiate appropriate preparedness plans? Why? Can it be attributed to incompetence or ill-intent, or both? Did we have preparedness plans in place? And if not why not?
Another stark contrast these questions shine a harsh light on is why our nation is so quick to provide funds for military combat based on flawed, misleading "intelligence" - supposedly accurate information from supposed "trustworthy" nations considered "friends" of our nation, even in preference to reliable information from our own people. Evidence demonstrates our nation has misplaced trust in some nations which have been hard at work for decades proving they are neither trustworthy nor friends. It has been ongoing since the armistice of World War II. It continues to be unconscionable that we fund the battles other nations want to fight which never were ours, but also are not worthy battles because they are motivated solely by greed and control that depend on retributive deprivation of those already in control who were not depriving those who want control, or anyone else.
Asking these questions actually demonstrates how far down the road of corruption our nation has traveled given that our nation has become a willingly handmaiden in support of such illogical unworthy battles for which it has allowed other nations to dictated our participation, including demanding that we take responsibility for engaging in combat which harms others and our own people. Of course part of that demand is the financing of our participation which depends on depleting our nation of funds needed to maintain our own infrastructure and domestic needs. So these questions also demonstrate how much mistrust of government competency and intentions being on the path to corruption has created, rightfully so, as a pervasive attitude in we, the people. It can only be understood when we recognize it is a matter of corruption steadily creeping in that has been ignored for decades, like tiny holes accumulating in all the brinks in the wall between corruption and non-corruption which, collectively, eventually creates a point of no return leading to the wall crumbling.
So I suppose thoughts of instances of “the plague” in millennia past come to my mind as a lesson in stark contrast now that we have now gone to battle, in a world war, on a different level and on a different front with a much more elusive enemy we are united, worldwide, in needing to defeat - at least to manage in ways that prevent ongoing catastrophe. So why the unpreparedness and bungling as a hallmark of crisis management which, because that has been the reality of response, has also created the foundation for catastrophic disaster that could have and should have been mitigated from the start?
And why were we not prepared as a nation, as individual nations, to realize the culture of unprepared bungling would be predictable? Why were we not prepared as nations to minimize disaster from the start? Why were all our national agencies not coordinated in the past, and not trained through field exercises (yes, like the military) to be prepared to effectively hit the ground running when/if it ever became necessary to do so? Why?
Looking at how catastrophic world wide disasters have been avoided, even as recently as the past decade, because of the comprehensive ways the dangers were managed and mitigated in Africa, would be one place to find guidance. Looking to common and effective military logistics for organizational preparedness is another place to seek guidance. Those who have been elected and appointed to represent the quality of life of the constituent needs and wishes, equitably, of we the self-governing people, need to use their time wisely to give up competitive party partisanship for the purpose of asking one another these question and more.
And as importantly we, the people, need to take our responsibility to direct those we elected and who have been appointed to seek functional solutions through preparedness by connecting with people and experienced organizations that have effectively managed and prevented the problems of unpreparedness, and the chaotic bungling unpreparedness it creates when crises threaten to rise up to confront us, rather than after they overwhelm us due to our lack of required preparedness.
Because government is tasked by we the people to do so for the benefit of all, funded by our taxes, it needs to seek direction from people and agencies which can provide effective good leadership and direction about how to transparently implement preparedness, how to train to be ready to implement effective procedures that work, and how to mandate effective functional coordination through needed oversight. Government just needs to give the coordinating of that responsibility for success the priority it deserves, then to just do it. It is not necessarily easy. But it really is that simple.
Why is this on my mind? And why a harsh look at a harsh but denied reality? Because the process of unchecked increasing corruption is being denied. I would like to be wrong about this, of course. I truly would. Please prove me wrong. That none of the evidence points in that direction does not make that an easy task. Consider that each tiny hole which goes unnoticed, in every little brick in the wall between corruption and no corruption, weakens the wall, like the unnoticed start of a cavity in a tooth that weakens a tooth. It is our job to be vigilant about the tiny little warnings of problems instead of neglecting them, so that we can prevent them from developing into huge problems. An example was reported in the news this morning. The really great news is that the cleaning of masks with hydrogen peroxide gas has started - thousands at one time in a few hours! It is not a recently proven effective process. However, the news is that it has just now received government approval - probably approval for financing to make scaling possible. So, it has just been implemented. One of the people who created the process honestly says they had not considered scaling. But what was the use if government refused to approve the high value and use of the safe and effective procedure?
Since the battle against CoVid-19 became imminent, then peripatetically started, repeated thoughts of the plagues that we know have decimated populations periodically throughout human history, have come to mind. So too does the more recent handling of potential pandemics in Africa which did not become worldwide catastrophic disasters also come to mind. And perhaps the reason these thoughts come to minds is in recognition of the huge extent of acquired knowledge, skills, and technologies since medieval times - health oriented, but also communication oriented, and everything else that makes lives easier and often more hygienic at the same time - all of which have evolved to being reality since plagues ravaged entire populations. Along with and because of the progress there has also been an evolution of universal common sense that progress has fostered in populations, worldwide. This recognition gives rise to questions. Why are we not driven to ask why a culture of unpreparedness and ignorant bungling exists regarding the reality of the current battle with the "enemy" identified as such last year while there was still time to decide when to initiate appropriate preparedness plans? Why? Can it be attributed to incompetence or ill-intent, or both? Did we have preparedness plans in place? And if not why not?
Another stark contrast these questions shine a harsh light on is why our nation is so quick to provide funds for military combat based on flawed, misleading "intelligence" - supposedly accurate information from supposed "trustworthy" nations considered "friends" of our nation, even in preference to reliable information from our own people. Evidence demonstrates our nation has misplaced trust in some nations which have been hard at work for decades proving they are neither trustworthy nor friends. It has been ongoing since the armistice of World War II. It continues to be unconscionable that we fund the battles other nations want to fight which never were ours, but also are not worthy battles because they are motivated solely by greed and control that depend on retributive deprivation of those already in control who were not depriving those who want control, or anyone else.
Asking these questions actually demonstrates how far down the road of corruption our nation has traveled given that our nation has become a willingly handmaiden in support of such illogical unworthy battles for which it has allowed other nations to dictated our participation, including demanding that we take responsibility for engaging in combat which harms others and our own people. Of course part of that demand is the financing of our participation which depends on depleting our nation of funds needed to maintain our own infrastructure and domestic needs. So these questions also demonstrate how much mistrust of government competency and intentions being on the path to corruption has created, rightfully so, as a pervasive attitude in we, the people. It can only be understood when we recognize it is a matter of corruption steadily creeping in that has been ignored for decades, like tiny holes accumulating in all the brinks in the wall between corruption and non-corruption which, collectively, eventually creates a point of no return leading to the wall crumbling.
So I suppose thoughts of instances of “the plague” in millennia past come to my mind as a lesson in stark contrast now that we have now gone to battle, in a world war, on a different level and on a different front with a much more elusive enemy we are united, worldwide, in needing to defeat - at least to manage in ways that prevent ongoing catastrophe. So why the unpreparedness and bungling as a hallmark of crisis management which, because that has been the reality of response, has also created the foundation for catastrophic disaster that could have and should have been mitigated from the start?
And why were we not prepared as a nation, as individual nations, to realize the culture of unprepared bungling would be predictable? Why were we not prepared as nations to minimize disaster from the start? Why were all our national agencies not coordinated in the past, and not trained through field exercises (yes, like the military) to be prepared to effectively hit the ground running when/if it ever became necessary to do so? Why?
Looking at how catastrophic world wide disasters have been avoided, even as recently as the past decade, because of the comprehensive ways the dangers were managed and mitigated in Africa, would be one place to find guidance. Looking to common and effective military logistics for organizational preparedness is another place to seek guidance. Those who have been elected and appointed to represent the quality of life of the constituent needs and wishes, equitably, of we the self-governing people, need to use their time wisely to give up competitive party partisanship for the purpose of asking one another these question and more.
And as importantly we, the people, need to take our responsibility to direct those we elected and who have been appointed to seek functional solutions through preparedness by connecting with people and experienced organizations that have effectively managed and prevented the problems of unpreparedness, and the chaotic bungling unpreparedness it creates when crises threaten to rise up to confront us, rather than after they overwhelm us due to our lack of required preparedness.
Because government is tasked by we the people to do so for the benefit of all, funded by our taxes, it needs to seek direction from people and agencies which can provide effective good leadership and direction about how to transparently implement preparedness, how to train to be ready to implement effective procedures that work, and how to mandate effective functional coordination through needed oversight. Government just needs to give the coordinating of that responsibility for success the priority it deserves, then to just do it. It is not necessarily easy. But it really is that simple.
