The Two Essential Evils

Oh, how the waves of politics twist and turn.

How the wrinkles of public opinion thrive and manifest themselves in shouting crowds and obnoxious talk show hosts; how the simple, humble roots of America have stretched their squabbly arms to form the puffy willow trees of today's society.  Of how it waxes -- it wanes -- and yet it waxes again, strewing ever more complex, as it expands to a glorious fractal that skids the definition of a ball of steel wool, so very clumped and unorganized; and yet, in fact, surpasses the likes of the wool itself.

What I'm talking about is the namesake of this blog, of course.  And despite how truly poetic and complicated politics has become, look closer and all you really see are two factions sissy-fighting each other.

The two essential evils of modern politics are government and private enterprise.  Both claim to act for the common interest.  Interview Apple, and they'll say their products better the life of the consumer.  Interview Obama, and he'll say his policies run for the welfare of the people.  But both government and private enterprise have had their run, and in many cases what they have done were not so.  Think 1870's robber barons, wild fraud and overspeculation in the 1920's, failure of supply-side economics in the 1980's.  Government, you're not off the hook either; President Grant's term accepted bribes all over.

Yet, at the same time, they are essential.  How would we do without private enterprise?  They're the minority, sure.  They serve themselves first and the people second, sure (that's simply Business 101).  But they're incredibly efficient.  Vanderbilt extended railroads all throughout the United States.  Carnegie created some of the nation's cheapest and highest-quality steel through his integrated production process.  NASA partitioned itself largely to private enterprise for low cost space drudgery, like refuelings and ISS repairs.  And heck, I hate Apple with a passion, but even I have to admit that they transformed modern entertainment and communications for the better.

And I don't think I have to go over why we need government.  Anarchy is no good medicine.

So I guess our two greatest flaws are here to stay.