Everything Is Under Control

And I do mean everything. In this story from the Associated Press, writers Charles Babington and Emma Vandor detail many of the subjects that were discussed at the recent G-8 summit in L'AQUILA, Italy. I would like to say that I'm surprised by the subject matter, and by the obvious control-oriented conceit of all the world-renown politicians involved. But I'm not. On the leaders' plate of subjects are the “unprecedented and concerted action” of government spending programs, the security of Iran and North Korea, the rise in global temperatures, the Kyoto Protocol, the plight of developing nations, an “enhanced global framework for financial regulation,” executive pay, the definition of “risk capital” and volatility in oil prices, among some other lofty subjects. After reading the article, I had to wonder to myself if there isn't anything that our government overlords think they can't control.

Totally irresponsible government spending? No problem. We'll just reel it in at some future time... and we'll decide on that later. Iranian and North Korean dictators who refuse to be contained or pacified in any way? We can take care of that also. At some future time. Global warming concerns us greatly, even though we ultimately don't know what causes it. We'll talk about it again – eventually. Oil price volatility? Again, no problem. We'll just make the Saudis an offer they can't refuse – Godfather style. Who else could they possibly sell to? When all of these are met, we'll then turn ourselves to managing risk and executive pay for the masses, because we believe they take on too much risk, and we think some of them get paid too much for doing it.

I have to stop and ask a question here. When and where, exactly, does all of this ridiculousness stop? In the words of Ayn Rand, “The creator's concern is the conquest of nature. The parasite's concern is the conquest of men.”

So good luck parasites. I'm not yet forty years old, and I fully understood years ago that one thing that cannot be contained is human nature.