Wash Their Feet

From today’s reading…

“It was the greediest of times, it was the laziest of times, it was the greediest-laziest of times.” ~Me

People are crazy. They think they know it all while remaining too lazy to become informed. They don’t trust anyone in any leadership position but they are too too lazy to take a leadership role.

There is no understanding or appreciation for the chain of command, for nuance, for strategy, or subtlety. Everyone wants the perks of leadership without putting in the work to get there or the responsibility of the position.

In this vacuum of morals, leadership, and just plain ol’ curiosity (because we are all numbed and distracted with porn, pot, and playoffs ) arises a special breed of individual comprised of those who want, expect, and demand total control once they seat themselves upon the pedestal in the ivory tower that was left vacant and free for the taking by anyone willing to lie, steal, and cheat to claim it for themselves. (But they have good intentions, so it’s okay. Besides, nobody else wanted this job, amiright? They are serving the public by filling this unfilled seat. They are…wait for it…public servants.)

So we get what we deserve. (Servants?” Ha!)

More like tyrannical takers and sycophants of civilization. (If this is what civilization brings us, it’s time to head for the hills.)

It’s a disgrace—it’s anti-American—to have 20 and 30 and 40-year career politicians and 30 and 40-year bureaucrats with titles like “Special Assistant to the Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs” manipulating and/or calling the shots in every government office from the U.N. to D.C. to City Hall.

We have professional public parasites who live to simply coddle their careers and pad their pensions to such gluttonous, nefarious degrees that it literally boggles the mind. It’s like trying to understand why a woman’s “I’ll be ready to leave in five minutes” equals the same “there’s just five minutes left in the game” that is tied and both teams have all their timeouts. (Okay. Scratch that example.)

“But Wes, there are some good ones in office. Really there are.”

If they’ve stuck around for decades, they’re not good. I’m sorry. These bureaucratic barnacles have developed herd immunity, but we’re their herds and they’re immune to the damage they’ve done to us.

These takers of taxes should be required to lay fallow for a season, i.e. leave the nanny-state nipple for a year or two and go make it on their own in and amongst the angst and anxiety, chaos and calamities they helped to shape, create, and inflict upon the herds they derided for so long from so far away.

It’s why Jesus sent his Apostles out with nothing and told them to live simply and to make themselves useful, even as they taught and preached. To serve the people, you must know the people. You must be willing to get your hands dirty. You must be willing to sweat with them, exercise with them, chit chat at the Piggly Wiggly, meet them for coffee, and wash their feet.

Sidebar: I used to wonder about the wisdom and effectiveness of the military moving the officers/commanders around every two to three years but now I see it. There are some cronies who end up working in the same position as a GS-whatever for 100 years, but by changing commanders frequently it helps to shake things up when he/she shows up with new goals, systems, and preferences.

These “public servants” have a funny way of serving. If they work for us, why don’t they return our calls? Why do they have armed security and an army of assistants? Why do they live in gated communities and are never seen in and with the public they serve?

These “public servants” are so greedy, so at-one and consumed with “the system” you can’t pull them out of their roles with an Abrams tank. (Ripley was right when she recommended they “nuke the site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure” when questioned about how to deal with the aliens in “Aliens.” Time to nuke 50% of the government positions from top to bottom. But. I digress.)

Today, stay in touch with your community, your family, your neighbors. Seek to serve. Remain humble. Live modestly. Walk the message of the one who sent us, because that’s the only way to…

Stay the course. Keep the faith. Endure.

Now go sell something.