An article titled How Big Government and Big Business Stick It to U.S. Small Businesses along with a conversation I had with my sister, Julia about our high school years. The article stands on its on. I believe what it says is true, but this article is about a peripheral phenomenon that has to do with society at large and being on the inside or on the outside. Julia and I agreed that just about everyone in our high school felt like they were outsiders. Everyone felt like the sports kids, the band kids, the academic kids and even the church kids were part of some ill-defined, but cohesive group some set of common knowledge and connection that made them part of “the club.” The reality was that no one really felt very much connected to anything at all. Everyone was desperate to figure out how to gain membership to the club were inadequate to the task. The other reality is that there was no club.
I think the article about big business and big government is really just about adults playing that same high school game. The difference is that there actually is a club at this level. Many people have the connections, knowledge, mentorship and motivation to get into the club. It is not formal, but it exists. You can see it particularly clearly in politics. The small business man or community member goes to congress and becomes a monster. It transcends party lines. It is true in business, too. That is not to say all people in big business and/or big government sell out in that way, just a lot of them do. The funny deal is that it is no different from high school in that it is all about people who are in the club versus those who are not and who gets to chose which is which.
The sad part is this phenomena exists not only in business and education, but in the church, the military, sports (which is, arguably, just big business and big government) and just about everywhere else in society where people organize themselves to do good things.
Betty Blonde #414 – 02/6/2010
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