Spent last week lobbying Congress for reform at the three Service Academies. Four West Point grads visited members of the Senate and House for the MacArthur Society of West Point Graduates (USMA), the Calvert Task Force (USNA), and Stand Together Against Racism and Radicalism in the Services (STARRS) (USAFA). We spoke with friendly members, so it was pleasant. Personally, it was an eye-opening reminder about the ways of the world. The world isn’t about equality, it’s about power.
Flash of the Obvious: The world runs on power. Power and money are inextricable. Power is hierarchical. Money is fluid. Money can buy power. Power attracts money. Rank hath its privileges and is real if unseen without uniform or unspoken by titles.
Everybody knows that, right?
Furthermore, Washington is Rome 2.0. Or, 3.0 if London was once 2.0. The city of the greatest global power and prestige may not be the financial capital, but it prints money and directs the flow of trillions of dollars. Yes, trillion with a “T”.
Yet, irony upon mystery, the people in power are just regular folks. You went to High School with them.
They have one skill – getting elected. They seek power. There is no other common denominator. They fit on a normal curve, I believe, of intelligence, expertise, honor, etc. with a skew towards the lawyers over-sampled amongst them. That means it takes all kinds to be there on The Hill. Yet, they’re different because of the power of office.
Enter the dynamics of power. Time is tightly managed for people in real power. Time is a commodity. Finite and valued. Getting on the calendar takes the pull of power to visit a person in power. The visits are choreographed with staffs well trained to hit their marks moving visitors in and out on cue.
Many lobbyists and some connected-tourists flow through the halls and crowd the basement cafeterias. Foreign languages are heard over many shoulders.
The staffs serve in crowded spaces amusingly called offices. The experienced senior hands are calm and cool. Keeping the high number of very young, very ambitious so young means there’s significant turnover in the lower ranks.
Each face to face time with the elected was unique. As they are. The only commonality I saw was their focus on getting to the heart of the matter quickly and their hard eyes when they listened. They were weighing and calculating as we speak. I’ve seen that before in my long life. It was interesting to see it in this context.
The atmosphere of urgency and lack of control for events – voting on the floor, committee meetings, etc. struck me. If I had filled an inside straight, which we know is rarely done, I’d have been in these halls in December 2007.
How curious to me that I sought it then and am repelled by it now.
Repelled? Yes.
I’m so unsuited for these halls of power, that it actually repels me. Which is kind of odd, because I spent half my life working in the absolute hierarchy of the Army and supported the Army as a contractor. However, I felt comfortable in my skin as a soldier. Didn’t feel inhibited.
Yet, when there’s no official, active military rank, I rankle at the intrusion of having to acknowledge rank whatsoever. I don’t see any man as being my “better.” And, I’m not better than anyone else.
I live away from Washington, and Richmond for that matter, where I’m on my own in every respect.
Furthermore, I was raised to never be beholden to anybody. You have clan kin, family, to lean on if necessary, but don’t be in debt to any outsider. I wonder if that is a reflection of having Depression-era parents, being at the end of 8 generations of farmers, or being Southern, or some of all above.
The absolute egalitarianism I have in my daily life doesn’t exist in the capitols of power and money. I’m so glad that I’m not there.
Visiting Washington is a trip to a unique human zoo. Interesting to see, but not good to live in – behind the bars.
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