I was 11 years old we’re having dinner
at the table as we had every night and I
don’t know what I asked but I asked you
know my mom and dad looked at each other
and my dad said yes after dinner you and
I are going to have a little talk go to
a side room he closes the door and my
dad tells me about the birds and the
bees now this is before internet so I
I don’t know how I responded to these
revelations but I do remember that the
next day I came home from schools of
five minutes walk and I said to my
mother mom I have seen three pregnant
women I had never seen a pregnant woman
before and if you go back in your own
lives thinking about how you have been
growing up and as you get older it is
parents and teachers and friends who
help you to see things that otherwise
may not register because you don’t have
a concept of it and that is the case
with government and with citizens well
look around you I don’t know how many
people there are I’ve heard there’s over
a thousand if you know five people in
this audience it’s much but I understand
you just made a few friends and but when
you look around we can see whether
you’re tall or not so tall we can see
where the African American Caucasian we
cannot see whether you’re a Republican
or Democrat whether you are Muslim a
Christian Jewish Hindu Buddhist there
are many things about each other that if
we do not see just as there are many
things about government that we
generally do not see but if you think
about this roomful of people
let’s assume for the moment most of you
are American so you could say this is a
community of Americans but ladies and
gentlemen it is an imagined community of
people an imagined community of people
is something that is contrasted to a
physical community of people and for
most of humanity’s existence on this
globe that is about the past two hundred
thousand years people live together in
groups of about 30 to 50 individuals you
knew one another really well you knew
who to turn to in times of distress and
need you knew who to go to if you needed
to have a conflict settled between two
individuals but you did know that you
needed one another for survival now we
live in societies the past 10,000 years
that are far larger than 30 to 50 people
and that’s what I call an imagined
community
and it is in imagined communities that
governments emerge to take over those
tasks roles and services that hitherto
had been performed on the basis of
self-governance among people themselves
now as it just so happens government for
most of its existence so the past 10,000
years is the property literally of those
in power and bureaucracy is the
instrument with which people can hold on
to power and I’m inclined to think that
it is in our collective memory so deeply
ingrained that we think of government as
overbearing as a bureaucracy as so
nicely imaged and not transparent right
in the novels by Franz Kafka that we
tend to not see that government actually
nowadays is very different its role in
position in society then if historically
was and its governmental bureaucracy
well sure but keep in mind that any
mom-and-pop store is not a bureaucracy
but anything that is larger than that
say 30 50 60 other nominee people but if
you grow to a certain size an
organization cannot but operate as a
bureaucracy so Microsoft Boeing Walmart
Target Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of
America United Airlines the Red Cross
they are all bureaucracies as we have
these images of bureaucracy we have
images of the people who work there so
politicians political office holders
like power they like to hold on to power
and in fact I only know two people who
actually stepped away from significant
power that is Cincinnatus you see him
and once he had settled the troubles in
Rome he gave back his symbol of power
the fuscus you can see that in the
sculpture in Cincinnati to go back to
his plow and the second person who did
that is George Washington I have that
bust in my office why because he stepped
away from power even though his
contemporaries wanted him to stay as
president he stepped away we’re not the
hereditary monarchy we’re a republic
we’re people elected
in office and where power rotates an
auto rotate nowadays what I think of
when I think about politicians they have
learned how to kiss babies now we have
images of people who work in government
as well civil servants bureaucrats so
there was in the early 20th century
roughly at the same time that Franz
Kafka wrote his novels a French composer
Erik Satie who writes this piece the
SONA tina.bill critique have you ever
heard of a piano piece about bureaucracy
seriously that’s it
now he wrote a narrative on top of the
and you’ll see part of he the narrative
and this bureaucrat ghost gets up goes
to work sits down in his office thinks
about the spaciousness and joys its
spaciousness of his office about his
next promotion and the salary race that
will come with it he’s not thinking at
all about why he was appointed there in
the first place we tend to think that
bureaucrats are lazy right that they are
incompetence but they are not I’ll tell
you now I’ve looked up some numbers just
to get a right perspective from this so
in December 2017 there were two point
eight million people civil servants
working in federal government another
1.3 million in the military five million
in state government and a whopping 14
and a half million in local government
ladies and gentlemen in terms of
personnel size local government is big
government it’s where the rubber meets
the road it’s where you get your
services and who are these people in
local governments it’s your garbage can
collectors if they’re not hired by the
municipality itself its contractors but
they’re still paid for through taxpayers
right
it is our police officers such as we
have in the Glen college every year
through the public safety Leadership
Academy
it is schoolteachers such as this
kindergarten teacher here and I picked
this photograph because our daughter is
a kindergarten teacher and our son wants
to be a high school teacher right these
are our civil servants who do things
every day that make a difference in our
lives even though we don’t see it and we
generally take it for granted where
politicians have learned to kiss babies
civil servants daily changed diapers you
better believe it
I’ve seen it often enough now people
could say rats girl issue wrong
civil service no good if there weren’t
good for the for the private sector
that’s how to end it up in government
but ladies and gentlemen that really is
not the case I’ve had civil servants for
special programs that we designed in
class when I was still working in Europe
and social worker school teachers
military diplomats even elected office
holders all of them are very competent
they you could say wait a minute you get
a self-selected category here these
people take those classes because they
are interested no I’ve met plenty also
outside a classroom setting and almost
all of them that I know and have met
over the years are competent and they
actually frequently go an extra mile to
so in a democracy such as that of the
United States government and citizens
need each other and they are partners in
protecting and advancing that democracy
we need government because we cannot
take care of one another anymore in the
imagined huge communities in which we
live we need governments for
infrastructure for education for
healthcare for financing fundamental
research that the private sector is not
interested in immediately and government
needs us to participate in the business
of government in helping to make policy
to engage with one another and above all
to be civil to one another which is
really difficult in a society where we
tend to it seems emphasize more the
differences between one another than
what actually connects us we’re human
and we’re citizens now in a democracy
government and citizens restrain their
own urges right in a democracy if I
restrain my freedom
you are free in the words of John Stuart
Mill allegedly my freedom to punch you
stops at your nose in the words of Nina
Simone freedom is to have no fear ladies
and gentlemen you go home this afternoon
at 4 o’clock
yeah or later then the chances that you
get home safe are sky high that has
everything to do with government and you
can take for granted that it is safe no
I know there are some school shootings
in this country in this society but
generally it is a fairly safe type of
society despite the fact that there are
so many people living on top of one
another now I know that Thomas Hobbes is
right but I add something to this
without government life will be nasty
brutish and short and it will be the
survival of the fittest and the
strongest not the way our government and
society operate
nowadays I think of democracy as a
garden and it is a garden where
government and citizens together take
care of the garden of democracy now that
sounds like kind of a you know soft type
of image but in that garden we are the
seed we are the fertilizer and we are
the farmer that harvests and not only
that we also make the fence and the
fence in the garden of democracy is
government and when parts of that fence
break down because interests whether
they be business interests or private
interest groups or foreign governments
interest seeking to divide the people we
take care of government that we mend
defenses when they need mending now I
think that governments do most of the
time pretty much everything right now
how boring would it be when you would
read in the newspaper every day 99% of
what we’ve done today government has
done right I could imagine that that is
something that you would write in a
dictatorial system just a hammer it in
well what we get in the news of course
is the things that go wrong it’s the
sensational we hear about a case of
corruption we hear about waste of
taxpayers money now let thought Nets
let up not skew your understanding of
the role and position of government in
society because most of the time
government’s do things right and I’m not
talking about governments far away I’m
talking about the garbage can collector
and the schoolteacher and the social
worker now I’m not criticizing the media
either the media should report what goes
wrong because then government has the
opportunity to do tomorrow just a tad
better than it did today so keep in mind
as you go home and you’ll get home safe
that it has everything to do with the
garbage can collector with the people
who maintain the playgrounds with the
schoolteachers with the social workers
with the police officers with the judges
without government life would be nasty
brutish and short thank you [Applause]
at the table as we had every night and I
don’t know what I asked but I asked you
know my mom and dad looked at each other
and my dad said yes after dinner you and
I are going to have a little talk go to
a side room he closes the door and my
dad tells me about the birds and the
bees now this is before internet so I
I don’t know how I responded to these
revelations but I do remember that the
next day I came home from schools of
five minutes walk and I said to my
mother mom I have seen three pregnant
women I had never seen a pregnant woman
before and if you go back in your own
lives thinking about how you have been
growing up and as you get older it is
parents and teachers and friends who
help you to see things that otherwise
may not register because you don’t have
a concept of it and that is the case
with government and with citizens well
look around you I don’t know how many
people there are I’ve heard there’s over
a thousand if you know five people in
this audience it’s much but I understand
you just made a few friends and but when
you look around we can see whether
you’re tall or not so tall we can see
where the African American Caucasian we
cannot see whether you’re a Republican
or Democrat whether you are Muslim a
Christian Jewish Hindu Buddhist there
are many things about each other that if
we do not see just as there are many
things about government that we
generally do not see but if you think
about this roomful of people
let’s assume for the moment most of you
are American so you could say this is a
community of Americans but ladies and
gentlemen it is an imagined community of
people an imagined community of people
is something that is contrasted to a
physical community of people and for
most of humanity’s existence on this
globe that is about the past two hundred
thousand years people live together in
groups of about 30 to 50 individuals you
knew one another really well you knew
who to turn to in times of distress and
need you knew who to go to if you needed
to have a conflict settled between two
individuals but you did know that you
needed one another for survival now we
live in societies the past 10,000 years
that are far larger than 30 to 50 people
and that’s what I call an imagined
community
and it is in imagined communities that
governments emerge to take over those
tasks roles and services that hitherto
had been performed on the basis of
self-governance among people themselves
now as it just so happens government for
most of its existence so the past 10,000
years is the property literally of those
in power and bureaucracy is the
instrument with which people can hold on
to power and I’m inclined to think that
it is in our collective memory so deeply
ingrained that we think of government as
overbearing as a bureaucracy as so
nicely imaged and not transparent right
in the novels by Franz Kafka that we
tend to not see that government actually
nowadays is very different its role in
position in society then if historically
was and its governmental bureaucracy
well sure but keep in mind that any
mom-and-pop store is not a bureaucracy
but anything that is larger than that
say 30 50 60 other nominee people but if
you grow to a certain size an
organization cannot but operate as a
bureaucracy so Microsoft Boeing Walmart
Target Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of
America United Airlines the Red Cross
they are all bureaucracies as we have
these images of bureaucracy we have
images of the people who work there so
politicians political office holders
like power they like to hold on to power
and in fact I only know two people who
actually stepped away from significant
power that is Cincinnatus you see him
and once he had settled the troubles in
Rome he gave back his symbol of power
the fuscus you can see that in the
sculpture in Cincinnati to go back to
his plow and the second person who did
that is George Washington I have that
bust in my office why because he stepped
away from power even though his
contemporaries wanted him to stay as
president he stepped away we’re not the
hereditary monarchy we’re a republic
we’re people elected
in office and where power rotates an
auto rotate nowadays what I think of
when I think about politicians they have
learned how to kiss babies now we have
images of people who work in government
as well civil servants bureaucrats so
there was in the early 20th century
roughly at the same time that Franz
Kafka wrote his novels a French composer
Erik Satie who writes this piece the
SONA tina.bill critique have you ever
heard of a piano piece about bureaucracy
seriously that’s it
now he wrote a narrative on top of the
and you’ll see part of he the narrative
and this bureaucrat ghost gets up goes
to work sits down in his office thinks
about the spaciousness and joys its
spaciousness of his office about his
next promotion and the salary race that
will come with it he’s not thinking at
all about why he was appointed there in
the first place we tend to think that
bureaucrats are lazy right that they are
incompetence but they are not I’ll tell
you now I’ve looked up some numbers just
to get a right perspective from this so
in December 2017 there were two point
eight million people civil servants
working in federal government another
1.3 million in the military five million
in state government and a whopping 14
and a half million in local government
ladies and gentlemen in terms of
personnel size local government is big
government it’s where the rubber meets
the road it’s where you get your
services and who are these people in
local governments it’s your garbage can
collectors if they’re not hired by the
municipality itself its contractors but
they’re still paid for through taxpayers
right
it is our police officers such as we
have in the Glen college every year
through the public safety Leadership
Academy
it is schoolteachers such as this
kindergarten teacher here and I picked
this photograph because our daughter is
a kindergarten teacher and our son wants
to be a high school teacher right these
are our civil servants who do things
every day that make a difference in our
lives even though we don’t see it and we
generally take it for granted where
politicians have learned to kiss babies
civil servants daily changed diapers you
better believe it
I’ve seen it often enough now people
could say rats girl issue wrong
civil service no good if there weren’t
good for the for the private sector
that’s how to end it up in government
but ladies and gentlemen that really is
not the case I’ve had civil servants for
special programs that we designed in
class when I was still working in Europe
and social worker school teachers
military diplomats even elected office
holders all of them are very competent
they you could say wait a minute you get
a self-selected category here these
people take those classes because they
are interested no I’ve met plenty also
outside a classroom setting and almost
all of them that I know and have met
over the years are competent and they
actually frequently go an extra mile to
so in a democracy such as that of the
United States government and citizens
need each other and they are partners in
protecting and advancing that democracy
we need government because we cannot
take care of one another anymore in the
imagined huge communities in which we
live we need governments for
infrastructure for education for
healthcare for financing fundamental
research that the private sector is not
interested in immediately and government
needs us to participate in the business
of government in helping to make policy
to engage with one another and above all
to be civil to one another which is
really difficult in a society where we
tend to it seems emphasize more the
differences between one another than
what actually connects us we’re human
and we’re citizens now in a democracy
government and citizens restrain their
own urges right in a democracy if I
restrain my freedom
you are free in the words of John Stuart
Mill allegedly my freedom to punch you
stops at your nose in the words of Nina
Simone freedom is to have no fear ladies
and gentlemen you go home this afternoon
at 4 o’clock
yeah or later then the chances that you
get home safe are sky high that has
everything to do with government and you
can take for granted that it is safe no
I know there are some school shootings
in this country in this society but
generally it is a fairly safe type of
society despite the fact that there are
so many people living on top of one
another now I know that Thomas Hobbes is
right but I add something to this
without government life will be nasty
brutish and short and it will be the
survival of the fittest and the
strongest not the way our government and
society operate
nowadays I think of democracy as a
garden and it is a garden where
government and citizens together take
care of the garden of democracy now that
sounds like kind of a you know soft type
of image but in that garden we are the
seed we are the fertilizer and we are
the farmer that harvests and not only
that we also make the fence and the
fence in the garden of democracy is
government and when parts of that fence
break down because interests whether
they be business interests or private
interest groups or foreign governments
interest seeking to divide the people we
take care of government that we mend
defenses when they need mending now I
think that governments do most of the
time pretty much everything right now
how boring would it be when you would
read in the newspaper every day 99% of
what we’ve done today government has
done right I could imagine that that is
something that you would write in a
dictatorial system just a hammer it in
well what we get in the news of course
is the things that go wrong it’s the
sensational we hear about a case of
corruption we hear about waste of
taxpayers money now let thought Nets
let up not skew your understanding of
the role and position of government in
society because most of the time
government’s do things right and I’m not
talking about governments far away I’m
talking about the garbage can collector
and the schoolteacher and the social
worker now I’m not criticizing the media
either the media should report what goes
wrong because then government has the
opportunity to do tomorrow just a tad
better than it did today so keep in mind
as you go home and you’ll get home safe
that it has everything to do with the
garbage can collector with the people
who maintain the playgrounds with the
schoolteachers with the social workers
with the police officers with the judges
without government life would be nasty
brutish and short thank you [Applause]
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