Pardon me all you twenty-something boys out there because the analogy I am about to use may be offensive to some of you. It is well known that for some biological reason, young men seem to gain a lot of weight through their twenties and early thirties. Their waistlines expand exponentially until sometimes one can fail to recognize them if one has not seen them in a few years! These young men tend to have huge appetites for all sorts of things: food, sex, money, beer -you name it.
Many of these young men will begin to not like the man in the mirror at some point. They may be motivated to do something about it and enrol in a gym or dietary program of some kind in order to look and feel healthier. Others learn to throw their weight around to gain any advantage they may from carrying extra pounds. Many will just give up and accept their new acquired looks as if they were part of their pre-destined lot in life. Paradoxically, such an attitude may have positive emotional benefits, even it may have negative long term health implications.
Now imagine a young man who is permanently in his twenties, continually gathering weight, throwing his weight around, demanding more and more food, air and space. At some point, such a young man will either eat up his entire tribe or the tribe will have to give him a reality check before things get out of control. Such a young man is an apt description of any government, especially the Zimbabwe government in recent times.
Now, there are those who think that a better metaphor for the Zimbabwe government would be that of a super-massive black hole eating up all matter in its neighborhood and wandering across the galaxy in search of more matter to swallow. For me that seems a little like overkill and gives the impression that we cannot do something to stop the government. The reality is that we do not need divine intervention to deal with a gluttonous state which is threatening to turn into a cannibal.
It is well within our power to prevent the government from chewing us all up, something which we allowed it to do in recent years until foreigners came to our rescue. To do this, we must return to our original analogy of the growing young man. With a combination of good advice, reasonable rations, exercise and plain tough love, it is possible to give the average young man a chance to develop into a healthy adult who cares more about his tribe and his world and less about his self-destructive tastes and wants.
Therefore we must allow the Zimbabwe government to shrink by attrition and design; devolve the state machinery so that the local people are more aware of the cost of government. Government services, including schools, should be allowed to reflect regional affordabily and needs. Any individual or group that wants to start a school at their own expense should be able to do so without central government permission or license. Driver's licenses should be issued locally.
The central government may continue to set standards without imposing them upon populations who cannot afford them. The police should be funded by the local tax and rate payers so that they are more answerable to the local people than to the whims of some political heavy weight who decides who is to be arrested and who is allowed to get away with murder.
In other words, the cost of government should be a daily experience of the people so that they can remain vigilant againt wasteful and self-serving government spending.
Many of these young men will begin to not like the man in the mirror at some point. They may be motivated to do something about it and enrol in a gym or dietary program of some kind in order to look and feel healthier. Others learn to throw their weight around to gain any advantage they may from carrying extra pounds. Many will just give up and accept their new acquired looks as if they were part of their pre-destined lot in life. Paradoxically, such an attitude may have positive emotional benefits, even it may have negative long term health implications.
Now imagine a young man who is permanently in his twenties, continually gathering weight, throwing his weight around, demanding more and more food, air and space. At some point, such a young man will either eat up his entire tribe or the tribe will have to give him a reality check before things get out of control. Such a young man is an apt description of any government, especially the Zimbabwe government in recent times.
Now, there are those who think that a better metaphor for the Zimbabwe government would be that of a super-massive black hole eating up all matter in its neighborhood and wandering across the galaxy in search of more matter to swallow. For me that seems a little like overkill and gives the impression that we cannot do something to stop the government. The reality is that we do not need divine intervention to deal with a gluttonous state which is threatening to turn into a cannibal.
It is well within our power to prevent the government from chewing us all up, something which we allowed it to do in recent years until foreigners came to our rescue. To do this, we must return to our original analogy of the growing young man. With a combination of good advice, reasonable rations, exercise and plain tough love, it is possible to give the average young man a chance to develop into a healthy adult who cares more about his tribe and his world and less about his self-destructive tastes and wants.
Therefore we must allow the Zimbabwe government to shrink by attrition and design; devolve the state machinery so that the local people are more aware of the cost of government. Government services, including schools, should be allowed to reflect regional affordabily and needs. Any individual or group that wants to start a school at their own expense should be able to do so without central government permission or license. Driver's licenses should be issued locally.
The central government may continue to set standards without imposing them upon populations who cannot afford them. The police should be funded by the local tax and rate payers so that they are more answerable to the local people than to the whims of some political heavy weight who decides who is to be arrested and who is allowed to get away with murder.
In other words, the cost of government should be a daily experience of the people so that they can remain vigilant againt wasteful and self-serving government spending.
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