We've been hearing this a lot lately. Whenever there is talk of Balancing the Budget, or Fixing Medicaid, or debating Energy Policy the Washington Mouthpiece; President, House and Senate always accompany the rhetoric with a line about having a "Grown Up" dialogue. These comments are ostensibly aimed at the participants in the conversation, i.e. the President is telling the House to grow up, and the House is telling the Senate to grow up, and the Senate is telling the President etc., ad infinitum. However, we have discovered some other hidden meaning in these admonitions, a subtle yet potent directive aimed at the American People. Our all-seeing, all-knowing Government is trying, in a round-about way, to tell us to Grow Up.
As Mandates go this one would be perfectly acceptable to us. We think that Americans on the whole need to do some serious growing up. They need to pull their heads out of the Doll House. They need to wake up from that Sports Fantasy and those Celluloid Dreams before they can really take stock of who they are and what they need to do. The questions of Identity and Direction aren't often addressed in our Public Forums (Television) and if they are they are treated as if they've already been settled. For Example, Americans are hardworking, Americans are leading the way to the future.
We remember the last State of the Union Address when our President encouraged the American People to work harder. He said it was necessary in order to compete, and out compete the rest of the World. If we were to lead the way into the future then we were going to have to take on the mien and work ethic of Ants or Bees or some such insect to show the rest of the World how advanced and civilized we were. Of course that's not a direct quote but it is more or less the message he was sending. Forget that your company's CEOs are earning record salaries and bonuses, the secret to our economic recovery isn't the maintenance and growth of our middle class through wage increases and re-investment, it is the redoubling of the effort on the part of the Workers to further enrich the people at the Tippy-Top of the Economic Pyramid. That is Progress. So let project Ant Farm begin.
This is more or less the meaning of the Governments "Grow Up" rhetoric. It's not so much saying that we need to mature, that we need to treat each other with respect and deal with our problems with a careful, longer view, but rather it is a signal to the American People that they are about to suffer some renewed hardship. Let's take for example the talk about balancing the budget. For "Grown Ups" this is easy, you merely trim some fat, tighten your belt, work harder, and save your way out of debt. But to get the full view of this example we have to consider the Children who have put the family in this economic difficulty. What about the Defense Contractors and Bankers, the Businessmen and Investors (code for the Rich) who want, by virtue of their wealth or their perceived need, to skate through existence without any responsibilities to the American People (the Grown Ups who will be paying for their continued fecklessness), and without answering any of their misdeeds. In Growing Up we are asked to overlook the Children's role, or we're encouraged to see ourselves as mirror images of these Children, this is how we would act if we could, and therefore we should feel obligated to accept responsibility for their behavior.
This is perhaps the most Freudian Mandate so far. The Government is really trying to get inside our heads. We encourage you not to let this happen. You are the Weapon that they use against you. Remember that. It is by your own hand that you are subjugated.
So Grow Up America. It's time we gave these Children the spanking they deserve.
