In Which I Think I Might Understand
Driving around this morning my mind wandered to the town council meeting of the previous evening. Of everything that was said, shouted, screamed and shrieked, one phrase stuck in my mind. At one point Marilyn said
Boy, do I miss a government, of the people, for the people and by the people. That was a democracy.
Indeed.
What that statement implies, however, is that nobody else on that council got elected. None of the councilors, with the exception of Marilyn, talked to the people of Watertown, made their best case for the position and then sat back on election night and waited to see how the vote turned out. None of them.
Obviously, then, the only people who need representation in Watertown are Marilyn’s constituents. If they’re not getting what they need then the system is broken and cannot be called a Democracy. The other councillors represent no one but their own self-interest. They work only for themselves and have no accountability. They were never elected and therefore don’t have to worry about getting re-elected.
Thus, there is a grand conspiracy of…stuff…that controls Watertown and the rest of us poor slobs have no recourse but to shrug our shoulders and drink our Victory Gin. After all, only Marilyn’s district participates in true Democracy. Only Marilyn’s opinion speaks of truth, goodness and the American Way. The rest of Watertown lives in a sad self-deception of “reality” that I imagine looks like The Matrix.
Am I suggesting that Marilyn is Neo? Yes. I am. Or at least she think she is.
The non-Matrix view is different. Out of the seven councilors, Marilyn is but one. Yet she comports herself as if the other six should kowtow to her. When someone speaks while she’s speaking it is over the top yet when she speaks out of turn it should be understood that her rights are getting trampled on. She is the underdog and the rules don’t apply to the underdog.
When you are the minority, you get special privileges. After all, that’s what Democracy is all about. Right?
