Comments by Scoper...

AND YOU ARE FREE!
(to do as we tell you)

The above title was one of the many icon-bashing, anti-institution lines from a comedian who some said should have been institutionalized himself.  Bill Hicks, sadly, died of cancer at age 32, still angrily suspicious of "the powers that be." The line came back to me as I read about the Sheriff of Denton County, Texas.  Here's where Hicks' cynicism meets reality.

The Associated Press reports that Sheriff Weldon Lucas, using his department's "code of conduct," recently ordered his employees to vote in a local election or face disciplinary action.  I don't have Hicks' ability to vocally rage against such unmitigated gall (a rage that eventually got him banned from the Letterman show.)  But I do have fingers and a keyboard. 

Lucas sent a memo to his underlings saying he would be checking county voting records to see which ones showed up at the polls.  And he minced no words in an interview:  "If they don't, they are getting in trouble for it."  The memo, not too subtly, referred to denials of promotions as one such "disciplinary action."

That's the intimidation part.  To make the intimidation worthwhile, Sheriff Lucas had earlier sent a letter to his employees endorsing a particular candidate. 

Bill Hicks was also from Texas.  He'd have loved raggin' on this guy. 

It says in the little Scoper biography that I make it a point to vote.  I do, because I think the late Robert A. Heinlein made a lot of sense when he wrote: "There may be no one you want to vote FOR, but there's bound to be someone you want to vote AGAINST."  Either way, I appreciate having the right.  People died for it, and that's not lost on me. 

But what's lost on Sheriff Lucas is the implied dichotomy: that the right to vote is also the right NOT to vote, if that's what the individual chooses.  CHOICE is the freedom part of the equation, and if you're truly pro-freedom, it doesn't matter WHY someone decides not to vote.  In the United States, we also have the constitutional right to own firearms.  I choose not to.  Is that a problem?

As for voting, you may wring your hands in despair over ignorance, apathy, over-satisfaction, deep disillusionment, or fear of jury-duty. (All of those have been suggested to explain low turnout.)  But why trouble yourself?  If you vote and your neighbor doesn't, your vote counts that much more. 

"Ah, but it's the duty of every citizen to vote!"  Possibly.  If it makes you feel better to moralize in such abstracts, go for it.  It's far more important to me that those who do choose to vote elect the best possible leaders. 

But Sheriff Weldon Lucas' approach is terribly disturbing.  There are two possible explanations for it, and I'm not sure which one is worse.  At first glance, he comes across as some piss-ant Political Boss wannabee.  Maybe at second glance, too.  But it's also possible that he might feel morally justified in using his position to coerce others into making choices that they might not otherwise have made.  That's a symptom of what I call the "greater-good syndrome" (some call it "ends justifying the means,") and it scares me most of all.  Here's an example:

In Mecklenburg County, North Carolina last year, for a time, everyone showing up for jury duty (under penalty of law) was shown a videotape which tried to persuade them to vote in favor of an upcoming bond issue for courthouse improvements.   When confronted, some bureaucrats must have barked their shins backpedaling.  "Well, you know, nobody was actually FORCED to watch the tape, it was for, uh, educational purposes. Yeah, that's it."  It was soon quite clear that the people missing work to do their civic duty were NOT under the impression that viewing the pro-bond propaganda tape was voluntary.  It's not like they could get up and leave. It raised a bit of a stink, and the tape was pulled. 

Incidentally, the bond issue passed, as perhaps it should have, but score one for true freedom, and score one against "You are free to do as we tell you."  The ballot box is a powerful tool for making your views known, but it's not the only tool.  Sometimes, you've gotta raise that stink. Bill Hicks did; I'm sorry he's gone. 

(As a reward for reading the whole essay, here's the bit of monologue that inspired its title:  "Go back to bed America, your government has figured out how it all transpired, go back to bed America, your government is in control again.  Here, here's American Gladiators, watch this, shut up, go back to bed America, here is American Gladiators, here is 56 channels of it, watch these pituitary retards bang their fucking skulls together and congratulate you on living in the land of freedom.  Here you go, America - you are free to do as we tell you!  You are free to do as we tell you!")
 
 

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