ManicDDaily

Continuing to think about the deficit of trust in government.    (See prior post.)

Part of the problem (aside from a pusillanimous, self-interested congress, the unfettered flood of special interest moneys, and periodic out-and-out scandals) is that many people’s day-to-day interactions with governmental institutions have an unpleasant aspect–taxes; speeding tickets; waiting at one of those blinking yellow lights for an endless road repair; the Post Office, which, if not exactly unpleasant, often involves lines, and a high background level of frustration.  (The phrase “going postal” did not arise out of a void.) 

Then too, there’s seeming arbitrariness of government — the perception that some people unfairly get benefits while others are denied. 

Which brings us to the judicial system.   I happen to be someone with faith in the U.S. court and justice system.  I believe that it is (more or less, fundamentally, at least in principal) sound (certainly compared to many other countries.)    But its high costs combined with its power and political underpinnings can make its verdicts both terrifying and burdensome.   When they are eventually delivered.  It tends to have a velocity equivalent to molasses in a snow storm.   (Extremely expensive molasses, a very long snow storm.)   A  friend of mine living in Queens has recently spent over eight months and thousands of dollars in legal bills evicting a tenant who never paid a single dollar’s rent.  

I’m not writing here about judicial reform, or nuisance suits, or even unscrupulous lawyers.  I understand that many landlords perpetrate horrible abuses on tenants.  (I’m a tenant.) 

The point is that these factors engender an instinctive distrust for all government, not simply the difficult parts.

Unlike corporate brands, which people readily differentiate, with clear preferences for either Coke or Pepsi, Burger King or MacDonalds, Toyota (oops!) or Ford, many seem to conflate different levels and types of government–federal and local government (where money has especially undue influence), the  executive, and judicial branches, the state trooper and the FEMA social worker, the random INS or TSA worker and Obama himself. 

It’s a problem that can only be solved by individual effort; all involved (both workers and citizens) genuinely trying to do better.  

I’m not holding my breath.