Losing the Power of ME

The spark that inspired this post occurred several years ago when I attended a city council meeting in my town on the subject of widening the road that abuts my neighborhood.  I happened to be in favor of the widening but most of those present appeared to be against it (because tripling the population without expanding the roads somehow preserves “quality of life”).  A woman whom I recognized from my neighborhood got up to speak and began by saying, “I think I speak for everyone here when I say we are not in favor of this plan.”  This made me pretty angry.  Who was this stranger who presumed to speak for me?  How dare she? 

Since that time I’ve had to battle others who’ve attempted to usurp my power by virtue of some real or imagined association.  I was on the board of my HOA when the adjacent farm land became the subject of debate regarding its development.  A home builder was asking the City to re-zone the land from low density to high density so that he could squeeze more homes onto the site.  Needless to say many residents in my neighborhood were opposed to this.  At my urging, however, the Board took no position on it, and this did not sit well with some of the homeowners.  Essentially what they wanted was for the Association to fight the plan.  I had to explain that the HOA exists for the expressed purpose of maintaining the common areas of the neighborhood and enforcing the covenants – period.  It is not our duty to fight this battle but more importantly it is not our right to presume to speak for all of the homeowners with respect to what happens with the land next door.  What about the residents who were okay with the plan (and there were some of those)?  Sadly, the principle that each person owns the right and freedom to choose to be the sole spokesperson on his own behalf is a foreign concept to some. 

These experiences opened my eyes to the reality of the fragile nature of individual power and liberty.  We are in a constant struggle to preserve our own power, often in ways that we don’t even realize; which leads me to Lesson #1:

Any time you attach yourself to a group for one purpose you become vulnerable to those who would syphon away your power by hijacking the mission of your group, party or association, and this will come at the expense of your personal liberty.    

 

A prime example of this is the labor unions.  Supposedly created to bargain with employers on behalf of employees, unions are notorious for using (or should I say abusing) the power and money trusted to them to advance the political agendas and power of its leadership without regard to the personal political inclinations of its members.  What you gain in work benefits comes at the great cost of empowering those who wish to control the bigger picture. 

And then there are groups like the AARP.  The AARP began as an association of retired teachers needing health insurance but has since grown exponentially in membership and in political influence by expanding its services to offer a broad range of discounts and other benefits.  It admits to (or should I say brags of) being an advocacy group but frequently advocates on the side of issues and agendas that starkly conflict with the principles and ideals of many of its members, who may not realize what’s going on.  Those who agree with the AARPs activist agenda are enjoying greater power at the expense of those who don’t, and this same dynamic is going on in thousands of organizations throughout the country. 

Corporate executives are getting in on the game now too.  Not long ago Overstock.com issued a statement about “the company” standing in support of same-sex marriage, as if its employees are no longer entitled to their own views on the subject and must adopt the group view dictated by Overstock’s executives.  What brought this on?  Was there some issue about Overstock selling a rug or couch to a same-sex couple?  What gives Overstock’s management the right to presume to speak for all of its employees on an issue like same-sex marriage?  Whatever happened to each individual speaking only for themselves?  Ditto for Starbucks on the subject of race and every other company that has the audacity to presume to speak for all of its employees on matters of personal opinion unrelated to their work.  It’s a peculiar and perverse new style of corruption, in my humble opinion.

All of us are susceptible to the temptation to take power that doesn’t rightfully belong to us, there’s no doubt about that; but can anyone debate that those on the Left have elevated this loathsome practice to an art form?  Consider this quote from the Communist Party USA website:

“One of the most crucial ways of increasing the strength and unity of the working class as a whole is organizing the unorganized. Working-class unity depends on uniting all the diverse sectors of the multiracial, multinational working class in the U.S. … Speeding up the organization of unorganized workers is one of the most important challenges to labor and all progressive forces.”

“…and all progressive forces.”

“Unite.” 

“Organize.”

Turn your power over to us and sell us your soul for a few more easy dollars.  And the only question people ask is, “Where do I sign?” before the years go by and then they begin complaining about the sad state of the world.  So here’s Lesson #2:

Like flies to a dead body, every group or association that creates the opportunity to usurp the power of individuals and place it into the hands of a few will inevitably see progressives creep their way into leadership positions.

What’s most frustrating is that we don’t always have a choice about the associations we become party to.  Everyone has to belong to the club of citizenship somewhere, so it’s no surprise that the Left persistently preys on this special opportunity to rob us of our individual power and liberty and take it for themselves.  Just listen to Barack Obama in Tuesday night’s State of the Union Address (or as I prefer to call it, The Annual Scolding of all Non-Democrats) as he detailed a long laundry list of what he and his leftist cohorts have unilaterally decided our membership now obliges us to do or to give:

• “We” must provide “free” college
• “We” must retrain people who lose jobs (in addition to providing unemployment benefits) and provide “wage insurance”
• “We” must reward the businesses that Obama & Company approve of
• “We” must cure cancer
• “We” must prop up Obama’s donors in the “clean energy” industry
• “We” must invest in the future (they’ll define this for us)
• “We” must manage “our” coal and oil resources (which means they will manage it for us)
• “We” must put aside our instincts and ignore the reality of radical Islam

None of these things, and so much more that’s been demanded from us over the decades, were part of the bargain when the Constitution was ratified, of course.  And yet we live under the illusion (or pretense) that the Constitution acts as the by-laws for our little club.  So Lesson #3 goes like this:

The power of WE usually comes at a cost, and that cost is the power of ME. 

You can never escape the club of citizenship, so if you cherish your individual liberty and power you’d better stand up and defend the Constitution … and never stop.

~CW