New beginnings have to start somewhere. Many times, we don’t know the first step to take. We’re either afraid or have seen too many failures in our past. Life is a balance between sure-footedness and hanging by a limb. If we had to start all over and recreate a perfect (or at least better) society what would that first step look like? Who will save us when we fail? The more I look at the world and politics, the more I see one evident truth: We’re just a bunch of kids trying to fake it till we make it. But that naivete doesn’t justify poor decision making by our leaders.
In the novel “Lord of the Flies,” a group of young boys gets stranded on a deserted island. Left to their own devices, they create a hierarchical society with laws and codes of conduct. As in any society built on the need for survival, it quickly devolves into a power struggle that leads to deception, in fighting and war. One boy finds a conch, or large shell, that he uses to convene the other boys. It becomes the symbol of power, for only the boy with the conch gets to speak. Mutiny breaks out and in attempt to consolidate power and strengthen alliances, they create the fable of an evil beast that lurks in the jungle. Nothing consolidates power and moreover, the power of persuasion, such as a common enemy.
Though it is right to convene and agree on the ills that threaten our civilization, we must resist the temptation to revoke the rights of society members thinking that doing so protects the rights of others. These calls misdiagnose the real problems in our community and worse, waste time and energy that could have been better spent looking at the real problem. Last week Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham chose to revoke the 2nd Amendment to the US Constitution pushing the limits of a poorly conceived health order. Madame Lujan Grisham is a trained legal expert who has certainly studied constitutional law and knows full well that, in the words of New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez, her mandate would not hold muster.
What was this about then? Why scream and hoot and holler when you know—not only that you are wrong (the Governor has since partially rescinded her health order), but that you threaten the rights of every single New Mexican? Has our society degraded into the childlike society governed by a bunch of misguided power-grabbers? Is this a smash and grab for the conch to justify power and the right to speak the loudest?
The economist, historian and sociologist Rainer Zitelman, in his latest book, says it best: “The moment the government proclaims that it is responsible for every respect of the well-being of its citizens…it puts itself under pressure to act in every crisis to suppress any and all symptoms to the fullest possible extent.” We all know that something must change in our society to manifest the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for everyone. But removing rights and unilaterally revoking the US Constitution pushes us in the wrong direction.
It is said that lobbyists and money are the real puppeteers of politicians. Ask anyone on the left what’s really happening, and they’ll say it’s all orchestrated by the Koch brothers and dark money. Ask anyone on the right and they’ll say the media and politicians are paid off by George Soros. Some people think this was a stunt to see just how far health orders can go or maybe even see how far “right wing” gun owners would react? Or just how much New Mexicans are willing to be suppressed.? Whatever your opinion on what is really happening and who is pulling the strings, if you want to limit the power of outside influencers, we ought to limit first and foremost the power of government and the political class.
At the end of “Lord of the Flies,” the boys are saved from their own wretchedness and that of the island by an adult. In their shame and loss of innocence, the young boys see the full extent of their actions. They have committed mutiny against each other, failed to be rescued due to greed, built a civilization and torn it down one law at a time. They have failed to create a better society when given the opportunity to do so. Let’s hope the same thing happens to us and an adult comes to save us from ourselves.
Javier Sánchez is the former mayor of the City of Española, NM, and the co-owner of La Cocina New Mexican Restaurant.