Bigwigism: kill that noise

Stop genuflecting before power. It’s not becoming of a citizen of a democracy.

Hey, kids, leave them rocks alone. No democracy does this.

My mother lived in Vermont on a back road in the woods. There was some issue before the state legislature that she wanted to weigh in on, so she walked down a dirt road and stopped by her neighbor’s house, who was in the state senate. The senator’s husband plowed her driveway and we hired him to drive his horse carriage at when I got married.

My grandmother told me she went to visit the parliament building in New Zealand, then had lunch in the cafeteria. The woman standing behind her was the prime minister, in the cafeteria, waiting in line.

On the bigwig continuum from Vermont and New Zealand at their best to Napolean Bonepart or Julius Ceasar sacrificing a half million lives so his name will live in history, there are a lot of petty politicians who really dig having a staff, an office and the respect they get by adding “judge” or “district attorney” or “supervisor” or “councilman” to their titles.

This is a hero. Name an airport after Sophie Scholl.

Washington DC and state are named after a guy who probably tortured and murdered innocent people in order to fix his lousy teeth. He also did not give his slaves clothes. I know all the arguments against condemning the “father of the nation” for his failings. He was a man of his time, etc. Some people knew slavery was wrong in the 18th century. Gabriel Prosser knew, and he was not a slave himself. Why not call the city Posser DC? Talk about a brave, resourceful American hero: why not that state north of Oregon, Prosser?

If you are going to name huge swathes of land after someone, raise the individual up as an undeniable hero, the mere elevation of a flawed individual is likely to cause problems. You’re either going to have to make sure DNA analysis of those human teeth yanked out of a slave never happen, or do mental gymnastics to explain why one man is allowed to yank the teeth out of another living man’s head without anesthesia or antibiotics because he has money and is white.

Several sets of teeth. Human teeth. From a living human. Murder.

Bigwigism: to bow down to the powerful who, in turn, get off on their own power.

It happens everywhere and in every period of history, but that doesn’t make it a productive aspect of human social interaction. You’re naming an airport after a guy who won an election. What did he really do that was so great? Lick boots more thoroughly than the one who lost? Raise more money from the oligarchs? Why name an airport or a bridge after some guy who just went to work like everyone else, except that he was a powersexual who lusted after his own ego? The Supreme Court is now and always has been a bunch of politicians in robes. Some presidents are better than others, but none of them should have their heads carved into a sacred mountain.

Nice title you got there, Mr. Big. Does this guy look like he is impressed?

As a people, we have to stop being so respectful of power. Bigwigs are stuffed shirts. There is an awe epidemic in society. The Roman Emperor Hadrian was traveling, when a woman called on him to hear her appeal, as she claimed as a right. He did not have the time to deal with her. Her yelled response — “Then stop being emperor” — immediately made him stop and listen to her petition. Our petty emperors don’t stop. They don’t have to answer questions, so they don’t.

The sound of the questions we don’t or can’t ask is deafening. So much of our social order is simply illogical and can not stand up to questioning. So, no questions are allowed.

I would say the core problem in American society is bigwigism. In business, government, culture, everywhere, the bigger your pedestal, the bigger your presence, the higher in awe you go. The mass accepts this formula. The bigwigs themselves tend to play along.

Let’s say you won an election, or acquired a billion dollars, lead troops in some pointless battle and made some good and some bad decisions. Nice work. You get a pat on the back. But that’s it.