On Brookline

Ive seen the kingdoms blow like ashes in the winds of change
But the power of truth is the fuel for the flame
So the darker the ages get, there’s a stronger beacon yet - Emily Saliers

Once in awhile, a piece of writing comes along that knocks me out of the crushed velvet recliner.  A piece of writing that is provocative not because of the revelations it brings, but the sheer courage it takes (from lots of people) in the revealing.  Such is the case with Ron Suskind’s The Way of the World.

Oh sure, Suskind has the goods on Bush and Cheney — they’re criminals.  But that’s merely the subtext to a more compelling storyline; that in this current environment of fear and recrimination among those who serve the public, some are beginning to emerge from their closets of secrecy to try on the garments of truth-telling.

The Dying Cult of Secrecy

The seminal moment in Suskind’s work is not when people in government drop the dime on the megalomaniacs in the White House…the Bushies are demented and they’re reckless.  Who didn’t know that?

Beyond the scoops Suskind imparts, his work centers on the deleterious effect of secrecy in public affairs.  We have forsaken the principles and moral authority required of the richest and most powerful nation on Earth.  And we let those who dared to expose the brutal ignorance of the stooges who have caused this irreparable harm get the shit kicked out of them.

We have become, in no small way, the cowards who shrink when our patriotism is challenged, when our words don’t fit with the dogma of the day, or when we fail to say that the absolutely clueless are just that.

Suskind posits that a new hope is beginning to build, as the pendulum swings from excessive secrecy in public affairs to more transparency.  He’s right to hope; but I fear we have a long way to go before we see the reality.

In The Way of the World, The Energy Department’s Chief nuclear weapons intelligence officer, Rolf Mowatt-Larssen says:

Secrecy is a dying cult.  And it’s going to kill us.  it’s time we stopped treating secrets as some kind of asset, to be traded or hoarded.  In this one area, if in no other, everything has to be in the sunlight.  That’s the only way to protect ourselves, or some other country, from having a catastrophic event.”

Holy cow, this is the guy who knows scores of secrets concerning clandestine nuclear arms trading, and he says that we will become more secure as a nation through more transparency in government.  That’s got to be significant.

Ah, transparency.  What a terrible, terrible hex it casts on those who serve the public.  Suskind calls the current approach to governing one that resembles the accounting practice of keeping two sets of books — one for the public and one tallying the private affairs of those who govern.  One set of books, argues Suskind, would result in an informed public forcing responsible decisions on our captains of government.

Delusions Trump the Truth

I don’t think so, because the truth doesn’t matter anymore.  The truth is that the first debate between John Kerry and George Bush during the 2004 presidential campaign Bush was revealed as a bumbling idiot who has delusions of the messiah.  We all saw it.  He was re-elected.

The truth is that we have chosen time and again to put absolute idiots in charge of the public apparatus, only to produce disastrous results.  There is a reason they are in these positions, though.  A person with a brain and a conscience wouldn’t let him or herself be pimped by the moneyed interests.

Our system of governance is a cesspool of corruption and self dealing.  And this only serves to strengthen an incumbent for re-election.

The truth is that selfishness has become institutionalized.  We cast our self interest as munificent against less noble partisans, but it’s still all about getting some for our own.  Ours is a society that spends more money on jails than food programs. Ours is a country whose government’s chief enterprise is blowing stuff up.  Ours is a culture that has become so deluded by bloodlust that we think killing people in the name of freedom is man’s highest purpose.

While these delusions persist, transparency and ambitions of truthfulness matter not.

The Convenience of our Delusions

As long as we’re being truthful, let’s face the fact that Brookine lost its progressive bona fides several years ago. We only become concerned with our neighbors when we think they might do something to effect our property values. We only care for those less fortunate as long as their kids don’t demand more school services than (my) kid is getting. And we are quick to address problems in matters like like civil rights, discrimination and abuse of power in other communities while ignoring them in our own.

No one believes more in public transparency (and I would dare say works harder to ensure it) in Brookline than I do.  But I don’t see how it makes a difference.  If it did, we wouldn’t let stand the shame of our firefighting crew buying their own firehouse furniture while we buy $700 thousand in new furniture for clerks and managers at town hall.  We wouldn’t pretend concerns over the treatment of blacks by Brookline police are simply the product of “Brookline’s Al Sharpton” (i.e., Arthur Conquest) pooping off.  We wouldn’t let the real estate industry run the town, as it currently does.

The truth can’t set you free, if you think you’ve no need to be liberated.

No, the need is for us to confront the convenience of our delusions and cast away those childish things we hold as absolute — our exceptionalism, our selflessness and our tilt to reason. Or that the will of the people is paramount.

In this Age of Regret, it is no longer a matter of trying to hold those in power accountable.  That time is for us.  We can release ourselves from the grip of the new American oligarchy, but only if a sufficient number of citizens believe they’re in its clutches.

Truth is, as truth does.  And whatever we’re doing, it’s not enough.