FLEECE AND WHEEZE

I'm fond of the term fleecing the flock. It conjures for me the image of stripping someone bare of their usable qualities without destroying their capacity to revive so you can do it again later. Basically, it is extracting just enough life from the person to leave them wheezing, yet never to the point it becomes lethal. That way when they have recovered you can do it again and again and again.

That's why people are sometimes called sheep. You can fleece them or sheer off their fleece to go and sell it or whatever, but it will grow back. Then the next year you can do it one more time. Taxes are for me the most practical application. You take a little now, well okay a nice healthy chunk, but leave them enough to survive so next year you can do it all over again. In fact you never really stop with taxes.

And the best part for me is you really don't have to prove you can do any good with the money. It is the government after all. We don't have to waste time explaining.

There is this silly notion some people have that a government needs to be accountable to the citizens in some way. Nice sentiment, but not the least bit realistic.

I know our government is supposed to be about "we the people" and it is true. But who says we really know what we are doing? And it isn't like everyone could be contacted to ask permission every time the government wanted to do something is it?

So that is why we elect leaders and allow the government to hire help to take care of all that crap we don't really want to deal with. The price tag is taxes.

I like the basic philosophy of this approach. A democracy, if worked right by the leaders can be the perfect dictatorship. Yep, I said dictatorship.

Why do I say that? Because it is simple when you think about it. Essentially, we get the illusion of voting people into office. When in reality the vote is just window dressing. All the major decisions are made by a small group of very rich and powerful people. Which I think is the way it ought to be.

Meanwhile, we get the joy of all those noble ideals, which nobody can actually live up to. So that gives us that governing document we can claim represents freedom. Although in reality it in no way provide real freedom.

Instead it is the ultimate form of fleecing. It is because the document contributes to the general flow of distraction. And as long as we get our little slice of the pie, we won't really care if they are fleecing us.

Along the way when they get a tad too greedy we end up wheezing at times. But they will give us a few lies to help us going in such situations. Thus life goes on in the style which we deserve. They get the fruit of fleeing and as long as we don't wheezing constantly, it is pass the remote and escape with cable, waiting for that cell phone to ring at the Home Shopping Networks 800 number.