Introspection is the Enemy of Happiness – Especially in Government

“Introspection is the enemy of happiness.”

A very coldly cynical line spoken by Sterling Archer, the lead character in the astonishingly funny “Archer” animated spy television series. 

It is also very true. While Socrates famously said that “The unexamined life is not worth living,” an unexamined life – one free of introspection, self-questioning, reviewing one’s actions on a regular basis – is in fact a very easy life to live.

Introspection leads to doubt, concerns whether or not one is doing the right thing, is one living life the best one can possibly can?

And, if we are honest, none of us quite lives up to our own theoretical standards, hence introspection being the enemy of happiness.

Now, it can be argued that the unexamined happiness is fleeting, physical, and not actually truly real, but it is wonderfully convenient to live a life free on self-consequences.

Government and power elites and the nabobs and solons and socialist socialites and their wheedling allies who currently control the globe obviously live lives free of introspection.  And, in part, they can do so because something is happening now that didn’t happen before: no one bothers to create, let alone check boundaries.

Hence investigation being the enemy of the powerful as it forces them to look at what really is happening. 

It is introspection, even if may be forced.

And that’s why real investigations  do not happen often anymore and when they do they are ignored.

Even the absence of investigation is allowed to slide. For example, weeks before the 2021 vote on the possible recall of Gov. Gavin Newsom, a legislative committee was supposed to hold a hearing looking into exactly what happened at the EDD, the state unemployment agency.  First it was delayed, then delayed again until sometime after the vote.

To this day, that hearing has never happened and the legislature has not looked seriously at the disaster that was the EDD during the pandemic.  

Some bills were passed, but nothing substantive – like buying a new computer (see above) – has been done, save the one thing the EDD seems to be very proud about – adding eight languages to the system.

One, ironically, is Korean, which should make Kim Jong Un very happy as it will make North Korea’s next looting of the EDD a little simpler.

Even California’s once lauded Little Hoover Commission – think of it as a grand jury for state government operations – has seemed to stop trying to bother to look at systemic (word used properly) issues.  This year, they have reported on AI, and “food insecurity,” amongst other comparatively minor issues to what they should have been doing.

No one officially probes California’s First Partner’s obvious gross conflict of interest problem about who funds (like the demonic Pacific Gas and Electric) her documentary film company and why it is getting paid by the state to show its absurd gender films in schools. One could argue that Jennifer Seibel Newsom is an independent person free of official state entanglements, but that would be a lie – it costs $5 million to fund the Office of The First Partner.

Of course, the same aversion to finding out the truth operates on a national scale

Much of the media is perfectly willing to put anything on the air, especially when it fits their overwhelming bias, without challenging the truthfulness of the statement.

But when it doesn’t –  crickets.

For example, one trillion dollars (not a typo) has been “misspent” on various government benefit programs nationwide during the Biden administration.

Investigations occur, but if no one knows about them and if no one knows about them, what national sound do they make?

The joy of being part of the rulingers of a single-party state is that everything and anything can be done  – willy nilly – and there will never be a worry because no one will be allowed to “officially” ask questions.

And since the there are no official questions,  no one else will have to discuss the issue publicly because much of the media has decided that only what comes out of the mouths of officials is, well, official. 

As Sir Humphrey Appleby once said – in the British political sitcom everyone should watch “Yes, Minister/Prime Minister (funny bit for fee on YouTube, everything on Amazon and/or Britbox),” everything is questionable – all one has to do is is ask a question.

The corollary has become eminently clear –  if no questions are even asked then everything is unquestionable.

That is reliable deniability.

The absurdity of the situation is clear, and has devolved into “if no official said it then it’s a lie.”

At the state level, some Republicans try to hold the San Francramento (note – LA is not part of that neologism) blob accountable but they are dismissed as cranks.

Sometimes this is actually correct and the focus of some electeds can be on getting headlines that will make their base feel emotionally justified but sometimes it would be better to focus on actually succeeding in a policy effort.

This is also beyond true at the national level, but it can be in an even sillier way as some Republicans would rather “own the libs” for a nanosecond on he internet rather than work to defeat the libs.

The argument – no matter the topic or issue –  may be correct, but – with the current media landscape – one may as well yell at your dog for not paying enough for the property you sold him. 

It just comes off as odd.

But – no matter what –  the investigations, the introspection, must continue, it must occur.

To paraphrase Socrates, an unexamined government is not worth having.

And to prove, in case you haven’t seen the show, how funny and well-written Archer is, here are two clips – to be watched in order –  involving him being diagnosed with cancer and then finding out he was being given counterfeit drugs – created by an Irish gang in Brooklyn – to fight said cancer.