For over 30 years I have sat back and watched our government in operation, growing at a rapid and frantic pace. I have talked with people from all walks of life, from different political flavors, economic backgrounds, and education levels. I have talked with people who have had little contact with government agencies, people who have had some contact, and people who work within the government.

Curiously, its the people who work within government that seem the most confused by it. More than once I have heard from government employees, that they would have to get outside help if they had to navigate some other branch of the government. It seems that one branch never knows quite what the other is doing, and no one really communicates with anyone else. Hum! Where would this leave the average guy then?

Sit back for a minute and imagine the government as an octopus, with each agency and department as a tentacle. All of the tentacles are intertwined and not communicating with each other. I often have silently wondered if maybe the government has accidently strangled itself to death, and just doesn't know it yet.

From the political canditates, we hear about this solution or that solution for some little problem, some tax plan for some special interest group. Not one political candidate seems to embrace the entirety of the government and its effectiveness. Is it so big and cumbersome that the candidates also cannot envision the whole of government?

We worry about stock market crashes, "date sensitive software," computer glitches, embedded chips, bio terrorism, nuclear attacks, and attacks from foreign governments. Maybe what we have to fear most is the "octopussy effect" or strangulation death of our own government.

-- suzy (suzy@nowhere.com), February 13, 2000

Answers

IS this a variation on the "if you give them enough rope they'll hang themselves" or "the capitalists are so greedy they'll sell themselves their own rope to hang themselves with"?

Well, which is it, comrade?

-- INever (inevercheckmy@onebox.com), February 13, 2000.

Hey, the sooner they strangle themselves, the better!

-- Y2kObserver (Y2kObserver@nowhere.com), February 13, 2000.

Lots of tentacles, for sure, but is there a coordinating brain?

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), February 14, 2000.