“The way of paradoxes is the way of truth. To test reality we must see it on the tight rope. When the verities become acrobats, we can judge them.”
—Oscar Wilde
As DOGE walks the tightrope – cutting and canceling government contracts across Alabama and America – certain political truths hang in the air for all Americans to judge.
Such a show hasn’t been seen in American politics for quite some time, so long that the DOGE acrobats have admittedly alarmed many Americans.
Though many may find issue with DOGE for a myriad of nuanced reasons, I surmise the most scandalized Americans (other than the fraudsters themselves) are those bleeding-hearts who cannot fathom how cutting government could ever be in the common good.
Indeed, I suspect that when many liberals look at DOGE, they only see cruelty, ignorance and wickedness at work – if not patently absurd paradoxes at play.
Yet, is not the way of paradoxes the way to truth? Let’s consider two.
DOGE Paradox 1: Public institutions often serve private interests while private institutions often serve the public interest.
This paradox dissolves swiftly by simply thinking of the “public” sector as the “government” sector. That the government has somehow monopolized the moniker of “serving the public” is a testament to the success of socialist propaganda over the last century.
In truth, government institutions can be motivated by the very greed, avarice and mercenary gain so often associated with private interests. Men do not suddenly lose their self-interest and vice once they join the ranks of “public” service!
Similarly, private institutions can be motivated by nobler ends often attributed to governments. Not only do private churches, charities and hospitals often serve the common good, private enterprise often serves the public more effectively than any government or non-profit (ever heard of SpaceX?)
Commercial enterprises need not be animated by profit alone. Yet, even when the profit motive dominates, does not providing the public with a much-needed service often bring the highest returns? Does not the baker bake his bread to the benefit of all because of self-interest?
This paradox is further unknotted by simply understanding that the distinction between the public and private sectors is more a question of means rather than ends or motivations.
The public sector relies on “political means” (taxation and force of law), whereas the private sector usually relies on “economic means” (production and trade). However, the lines between private and public are blurred when both sectors collude, and that is when the distinction here becomes most stark.
Corporations cannot tax their customers nor effectively control their competitors without the help of the government’s political means. Many government officials, elected office-holders, and unelected bureaucrats alike cannot advance themselves without selling their “public services” to some private interest’s economic means.
The lobbyists and activists that overpopulate Washington, D.C., are a testament to this incestuous alliance between so-called public and private players. For too long, this alliance has used the “political means” wrapped up in appeals to the “common good” as a way to bigger and better paydays for an elite few – all while failing to provide real results for the American people at a reasonable cost.
DOGE is undoubtedly the bane of this crony alliance, daily uncovering and dismantling the alliance’s waste, fraud and abuse. Think of some of the consulting contracts DOGE just canceled. Don’t bleeding-hearts want to see rank cronyism brought to heel?
DOGE is restoring the common good by bringing accountability to the “political means” used by public and private players alike to pull off their legal graft. Yet, even if one agrees with what DOGE is doing – is the common good really all that unifying?
DOGE Paradox 2: The things which we most hold in common divide us the deepest.
Though counterintuitive, this paradox can be resolved by understanding how human desires often imitate one another only to sow division.
Mimetic desire can bring about the greatest divisions and rivalries. For a simple example, think of two men who end up desiring the same woman for the same reasons. Even if the two men are greatly alike themselves, even if they are friends, this particular common desire could prove quite disastrous.
But what if it was more than two men? What if a common desire could spool out into worldwide division, discord and war?
Think of Helen of Troy with all her suitors jockeying for her hand in marriage. Think of how the Apple of Discord pitted the vanity of three goddesses – Hera, Athena and Aphrodite – over their common desire to be named “the fairest of them all.” Think of how Paris, Prince of Troy, was forced to choose between the three deities, only to give in to the promise of beauty and love. Think of how the Trojan War then commenced once Helen was stolen by Paris as his divine prize.
Even our oldest stories show how desire, held too in common, can tear a world apart.
Now think of how America's fight over the national interest drives so much discord throughout the nation. Think of how politicians jockey for the same positions of power. Think of voters who must choose “who is the fairest of them all” – who better represents the common good. Think of how many liberal voters believe DOGE is destroying the public good by cutting public institutions. Now think of how many voters believe that the public good is being served by cutting those very same institutions.
Yes, that is exactly what is happening as DOGE walks the tightrope.
The mistake too many liberals make about DOGE is that the common good is only served by an ever-expanding and more expensive public sector – and never served by reining in the “political means” abused by public and private players alike for their self-interest.
If only more well-meaning bleeding-hearts would watch the tightrope with Jon Stewart's eyes – then they may judge that their progressive ends and motivations are not necessarily contradicted by DOGE’s balancing act to bring solvency and efficiency to the government.
Joey Clark is a native Alabamian and is currently the host of the radio program News and Views on News Talk 93.1 FM WACV out of Montgomery, AL M-F 12 p.m. - 3 p.m. His column appears every Tuesday in 1819 News. To contact Joey for media or speaking appearances as well as any feedback, please email [email protected]. Follow him on X @TheJoeyClark or watch the radio show livestream.
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News. To comment, please send an email with your name and contact information to [email protected].
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