“I call it the law of the instrument, and it may be formulated as follows: Give a small boy a hammer, and he will find that everything he encounters needs pounding.”
Abraham Kaplan 1967
A disorganized mob composed mostly of young people poured into the streets. They were not in a good mood. Their country was engaged in an unpopular war. The world economy was seemingly forever trapped in a downswing. They had been promised much, but in their minds they had received little. They were disappointed. They were angry.
Some of these demonstrators seemed a bit out of place. They were college students like many of the others, but were much older. Instead of graduating in 4 years and getting on with their lives, they were on the 14-year plan. They took the occasional class at the university, but spent a disproportionate amount of time drinking coffee and smoking in the student union building or in neighborhood dives, talking among themselves, a Greek chorus of like thinkers. Somehow their majors kept changing, so they never graduated or got on with their lives. Many needed a shower. All were smarter than anyone else, just ask them, and they eagerly pronounced that they had all the answers, if only folks would listen.
Randomly distributed through the protesting crowd, a smaller collection of people attempted to direct and incite the mob. They all seemed to have the same assortment of talking points, as if they had been prepped for this role, and although none had any visible means of support, they were well funded from somewhere. When these people were done shouting into the microphone, the mob may not have known exactly what they wanted to say, but at least they knew which slogans to chant in unison.
On the outside of the demonstrations looking in, the old folks scowled in silence. They had seen tougher times than this and they had simply rolled up their sleeves and got on with things. To them the mob of young people were spoiled over-indulged brats. And they wondered about the future of a world they had worked so hard to improve, that they would soon turn over to the care of these naïve whiners.
Meanwhile the mob railed against their ineffective government that seemed unable to fix all their problems, and they railed against the great corporations and Wall Street, for they had been diligently educated to think that corporate greed was the source of all the world’s problems, and therefore the cause of their current disenchantment. And they watched themselves on the television at night and felt important.
And the people who worked got up each morning during these demonstrations, and they quietly went to their jobs, and they quietly prospered, and they watched the news each night too, noted the demonstrations, and shook their heads in disbelief and frustration.
I was in some of those demonstrations, many many years ago, and I saw how it worked. And as long as I was completely surrounded by like thinking people, I dutifully fell into step with them.
I won’t be attending any of the demonstrations that are “spontaneously” breaking out these days, conveniently timed to influence the coming election. Perhaps I’m simply one of those people who gets up and goes to work each day and has no time for such things, or maybe I’m just an old codger standing off to the side scowling. But I don’t see much difference between these latest demonstrations and the ones I attended.
Again, the aged college students on the 14-year plan are in attendance, and they are smarter than everyone else despite complaining that no one is listening to them. Many are in need of a shower. They are still spouting the same tired old slogans they borrowed from Marx.
Those few people who are directing and inciting the mobs look much the same. They are again well versed in their talking points and well funded from somewhere.
And the bulk of the mob are college students or recent graduates who continue to think like college students. They feel they have been promised much and yet delivered of little. They were told that they could do more with their lives if they obtained an education, and they interpreted that to mean they were entitled to everything, and when that everything didn’t instantly land in their laps, their entitlement sense became incensed. Instead of going home to watch themselves on television, they now pull out their latest model 4G phone or tablet computer and watch themselves demonstrating live. They may be impoverished, and terribly oppressed, but they are doing it with all the toys.
The why of these demonstrations isn’t quite clear, but those involved obediently vent their anger against the great corporations and banks, and Wall Street in general with predictable vehemence. And most seem distressed that their president and his side of the congress cannot yield their mighty hammer and fix everything they think wrong with the world.
You remember the hammer. That’s how this piece got started so very many words ago. The president wants to use his hammer to pound every problem into submission. Apparently, it is the only tool he has, so every problem is now a nail. The president’s hammer aims to drown our problems with money. Your money. More government spending. More government jobs. More manipulation of folks with government money and hence government control. Government fixing everything and then everyone will be so grateful that they vote the president and his party into power again. And individuals will fade away and government will be all.
Disregard the cost. We should simply raise the debt limit. We should raise taxes, just so long as somebody else has to pay them. Tax the rich, because we have all been taught that it is the rich we should hate for all the harm they bring us. Leave our grandchildren in debt for eternity while we disassemble a system that has improved the lives of each generation as it took its turn.
The president makes his proposals for massively expensive government projects that never work, but he says will solve our problems, and his opponents vote them down. And the president’s minions in congress and the media cry out, “OK, vote down our president’s genius, but where are your proposals for how government can solve all our problems? Let’s see them.”
So hung up are these folks with the hammer that they see no other way into the future, other than government control.
Perhaps we need different tools. Or perhaps we simply need more perspective. What if reality states that things go good and then bad in the natural course of things? Economies go up and down. Climates warm and cool. Great nations rise and then fall. What if the notion that you can fix this is the myth?
What if we realize that although government can surely screw things up, it rarely actually fixes anything? Where does that leave the president’s hammer?
And what becomes of all those entitled whiners marching in the streets when the reality settles upon their shoulders that somebody else will not be fixing their problems for them. And they better get busy working on it themselves. Do you wonder if America still has what it takes for us to do this?
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