Covid-19 and the madness of crowds

I couldn't have said it better myself.

But, we get what we deserve. 

I understand precisely what you are saying. This is an argument which was started around about the time that a very hairy looking chap decided that humanity would be better off by climbing down from its nice trees and become hunter-gatherers, and became the leader of a growing bunch of fellow hairy-looking chaps .

I will, though, use your example to try and be consistent in my arguments. I probably shouldn’t have to do this, but I will firstly point out to all and sundry that I actively loathe racism and societal harm to the most vulnerable.

The simple answer to your question (and it is not a simplistic debate, as I will explain) is that, yes, there were many people in your neck of the woods who would have considered desegregation of lunch counters to represent a tyranny on the part of US government in Washington. From that moment on, it became virtually impossible for a Democrat Presidential candidate to win a majority across a swathe of Southern States, and the roots of Trumpalot and his brand of populism can be traced back to this directly (unintended consequences, and all that).

My own view is that no matter how wrong we might consider local laws to be sometimes, governance of people should, wherever possible, be devolved to the lowest possible local level so that yes, should the good folk of Little Rock, Arkansas, for example, want segregation as opposed to the good folk of Memphis, Tennessee, who vote against, then that should be their right. I might not agree with said good folk, but that is the absolute consequence of my belief in a type of local democracy.

My view is that what is considered good for the people of, say, Cumbria in England by the government of London is very rarely the same as what the good citizens of Cumbria consider to be good for them. The same applies for trying to govern deepest Arkansas from Washington. My opinion is that we are far too centralised in our approach to governing, and that history tells us what happens to overbearing, over-centralised, and over-mighty bureaucracies - they fall, and said fall is usually accompanied by periods of massive human disruption such as war, pestilence, and plague.

Now then, the over-simplistic bit. I fully understand that a lot of people reading this post would want to jump in and say....”Hey Steve. You would be prepared to allow downtrodden black people to be forced to eat separately, to be segregated on buses, to go back to Jim Crow? Seriously, man?” To which my answer would be no, I don’t want that for the citizens of Little Rock, nor indeed anywhere. However, let us consider seriously the unintended consequences of national dictats. You will be aware, John, that there are vast swathes of the Southern part of your country where, even now, there are areas where only blacks live and congregate (usually quite poor), where only blacks eat, where only blacks get together to worship, and etc. In other words, society itself continues what are, in effect, Jim Crow without that even being part of the statute book. I know that the situation is nowhere near as bad as it was, but it does exist, as does the grinding poverty experienced by many people over there, a lot of which is caused by economic apartheid, something gleefully practised by governments and corporations worldwide and of all colours, hues, and ethnicity.

In other words, very powerful people tend to be very good at remaining very powerful people, form elites of very powerful people, do very well at sticking together, and do equally well at imposing their worldview on extremely reticent populace’s. It is such people and institutions that I tend to rail against. It explains, by the way, when I, a naturally liberal person (and I mean liberal in its classic sense, rather than the modern metropolitan type) voted for Brexit. It was not, as others implied here, a “immigration” thing. I couldn’t give a f**k where someone comes from. Indeed, my family is a mix of Maltese, English, and Ashkenazi Jew. I hold a Maltese citizenship. My reasons for voting to come out were an overbearing, anti democratic, and over centralised elite in the form of the European Commission imposing their values, rules, and norms on me.

To conclude, if the price of local democracy is local persons passing laws which I might find unpalatable, then so be it. The problems of racism have not gone away simply because Washington passed laws outlawing aspects of it. Indeed, many of the problems faced by repressed minorities have gotten a damned sight worse since the repeal of Jim Crow.

And very lastly, some might point out, understandably, that it is the height of hypocrisy for me, a civil servant, expounding such views and remaining a civil servant. They would be right. It is shockingly hypocritical, but, hey, it puts bread on the table, and it does not stop me wanting a better way of being governed, nor does it mean that I want to do away completely with national governments. I simply believe that it is always better if we seek to restrict as much as we can their power, and also empower local people to take as much control over their lives as is practicable.