The older I get the more I seem to see how military maxims and how to govern intersect.
There’s two in particular which I think are important to look at.
First: “Never give an order you know will not be obeyed.”
There are sound, sound reasons for this. To give an order you know will not be obeyed diminishes your authority.
So too with government. Think about how many laws we all break on a daily basis. From speed limits, to parking regulations to downloading software or music. All these laws they had to know no one would obey, tend to diminish people’s respect for the rule of law. It’s the old “slippery slope” argument, and the left loves to dismiss it as a base canard. The problem is, it’s not. Once you start breaking the law it can, not always but it can, become easier and easier to do.
No one sets out and says “today I’ll embezzle $1 million from my company.” Even Bernie Madoff didn’t start that way.
No, you decide you’ll cut one corner here or there “just this time,” and the next thing you know you’re in prison with some 400 pound guy named “Bubba” explaining to you how you’re going to be his wife — best to not start cutting corners at all.
So too with society. The disrespect for law and responsibility which starts with a plethora of laws no one thinks twice about ignoring leads directly to the Occupy Movement and the lawless camps it spawned. Civilization cannot exist without laws — but they must make sense and be easy to live within.
Which leads us to the second maxim: “Don’t give too many orders, once you’ve given an order on a subject you’ll always have to give orders on that subject.”
Basically, “don’t micromanage.” In the military this means giving broad orders and allowing your subordinates to figure out the best way to implement them — and not giving orders on basic day-to-day things like when to do laundry or telling a senior NCO how best to lay in a machine gun. He knows how to do these things and doesn’t need your help.
Giving too many orders not only destroys your authority, because inevitably you’ve given some that won’t be obeyed, but it also saps the initiative from your subordinates.
So too in the real world. The insane number of laws we all are subject to, and the stifling regulation businesses find themselves having to obey mean that both people and businesses are frightened to make a move for fear of falling foul of the law — with predictable results for job creation.
So what’s the point of all this, then? Well if you want a strong, robust country of free people who can take care of themselves then you have a perfect example of what not to do in this administration.
If, however, like the left, you are looking to create a totalitarian state, filled with cowed and compliant sheeple? Well then, the explosion of laws no one will obey, coupled with a bushel basket full of laws designed to hem us in will create that for you quite well.
The problem for the left, is that it can explode in their faces and create and ungovernable mass of lawless barbarians — and bring down Western Civilization in the process.
In my own experience, micro-managing anything reveals fatal character flaws in the individual. A certain neurotic inability to let matters progress and intervene only if necessary.
Or, expressed as an Army story I am familiar with: a new second Lieutenant is on the job and keeps trying to manage everything in sight. Finally an NCO takes him aside and tells him in no uncertain terms, “Sir, all we need for you to do is tells us what to do. We already know HOW.”
It’s a common failing of both new officers and newly minted NCOs as well.
Happens a lot in the civilian world too. Someone gets a little authority and typically starts micro-managing.
Feh. Hit “enter” too soon.
When a government tries to micro-manage everything, it’s not just all about control. In a deeper sense, it reveals to us that government and everyone within it believes that none of us are even remotely competent to manage our own affairs. One hell of a neurotic system of governance, viewing all of your Citizenry as incompetent.
I am not sure they are trying to micromanage us as much as they are trying to criminalize all of us. A cop buddy of mine once told me he could get anyone he wanted because the body of law is so complex and self-contradictory that it is impossible for anyone to comply with. All he had to do was look hard enough and he would find something.
It is a tool for destroying anyone who gets out of line anytime you choose.
In a timely way, Fox has a special with John Stoessel on this very subject. While being interviewed, Harvey Silverglate commented exactly on your point about criminalization, and claimed he could find any person guilty of three Felonies at the drop of a hat.
Minds me of a story about an AmerInd standing outside a drugstore in the American SW in full regalia, eagle feathers down to the floor. Every now and then as people went by, he would raise his hand and say, “Chance!”
Finally, this pretty young woman stopped and asked, “I thought Indians said ‘How’?”
The Redman said, “Me know HOW, just want CHANCE.”
;D
Excellent points, Pat. Well done. It’s even worse in governments. If a private starts telling an NCO what and how to do things, the NCO doesn’t have to pay attention. Those stripes *mean* something. But when some nobody on the bottom rung of the IRS tells a small business owner what to do … suddenly the IRS guy has “stripes” and call all the tunes.
We’ve got so many incompetents making so many decisions that hurt us it’s pathetic.
Explain to bubba how you’re gonna chew off his d***, and give him a very bad disease at the same time. Or how you’ll make him listen to Obama speeches 24/7.
“The problem for the left, is that it can explode in their faces and create and ungovernable mass of lawless barbarians — and bring down Western Civilization in the process.”
I’m beginning to think that they don’t consider that a problem. They consider that a feature.
Those two military maxims reflect the original principles upon which this country was founded. It’s ironic that they should still be taught and honored in our military, when the civilian part of the country has slid so far into the “there oughta be a law” mindset agreeable to making enforceable rules about everything.
Also, from Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged:
Rand understood, far better than many of our contemporaries, what the covert purpose of luxuriant lawmaking must be.