In the military, one of the key components of indoctrinating cadets to be future officers is subjecting them to rigid traditions which force them to depend on, cooperate with, or wait for others.
A notable example of this can be found in cadet dining etiquette, where trainees, regardless of how hungry they are, must enter a mess hall, proceed to the most distant vacant chair, and then fill up a table with other cadets before eating or starting a new table to sit at.
Why are cadets asked to wait for each other? Is this just a form of hazing? After all, with all the grueling physical training, drill practice and academic cramming that cadets are subjected to, shouldn’t a desperately hungry person be allowed to eat right away? Nope, in fact, just the opposite.
The reason this is done is because it forces cadets to be considerate of each other’s needs and time, because the sooner they hurry up and help others eat, the sooner that they themselves can eat.
These traditions, combined with others, later become habits where men and women placed in command of others prioritize discipline, honor and service to others before self. So when an officer gets certain privileges that lower ranking troops do not have, it is understood that higher privileges also mean higher responsibility, and thus one can respect, and not resent, the rank of a superior.
Why do I mention this? Because in the absence of discipline, honor and service to others, privileges only breed resentment. This holds true for both military and civilian governments. The public meltdown over the proposed salary increases to the Honolulu City Council are a perfect example of this, because the outrage is less about “someone is getting a raise and I’m not” and more about “these guys already have it good, so why are we giving them more at our expense?”
To be honest, most elected county and state legislators have an easy job. When you really think about it, we’re basically paying someone to have opinions, vote occasionally and give congratulatory certificates at birthday parties while receiving a salary at taxpayer expense.
Technically speaking, even the county mayors and governor of Hawaii have an easy job, because all the intellectual heavy lifting, administrative planning and sheer grunt work are done by the people under them.
These guys just get to stand at a podium (or in front of a whiteboard), virtue signal or claim credit for whatever is trending in the news that day, and then urge residents to vote on American Idol. If that’s not a cushy job, I don’t know what is.
By contrast? There are major nonprofit board members whose position responsibilities and technical expertise far eclipse the average city council member, and yet, many of them do it for free.
There are executive directors of international charities who make less than $80,000 a year and don’t even have a secretary, yet they somehow competently read their own email, take their own phone calls and engage in complex policy planning or fiscal management.
But somehow, Honolulu elected officials need to make six figures to basically be the government-subsidized version of an Instagram influencer, or else they’ll be tempted to take bribes or work multiple jobs and have conflicts of interest.
This is why the average Oahu resident who works back-breaking hours as a construction worker, night shift nurse or public school teacher can’t take seriously our local government.
Outside of Honolulu Hale, if you want something, you earn something. And usually, “earning” something means you’re going to lose something else that’s precious to you in the process. Elected officials and their friends have everything, while ordinary people have nothing.
This social stratification of haves and have-nots also extends to the inequality of justice, where when residents want something, it’s always a heavy lift for our elected officials to move on it or implement it.
We have to protest just to get their attention, and usually, that doesn’t work anyway. We have to throw people out of office to get what we want, and that too doesn’t pan out, since the corporations and large special interests put these supposedly underpaid elected officials in to do their bidding, not ours.
We give taxpayer dollars, and in return, we get more stuff banned, get more rights taken away from us, and get crumbling infrastructure — and more excuses — in Honolulu.
Most Oahu residents get it that rising inflation and economic upheaval means people need to be paid more. No one in the public is out to block people from being paid their worth.
But with Honolulu government, it feels like we’re paying for nothing, when the city is in disrepair, when public services are hobbled, when no one takes our phone calls or responds to our needs, but somehow, we still must give that same government more that gives us nothing.
It’s not the pay that upsets residents; it’s the lack of performance that accompanies that privilege and pay that breeds resentment.
Just what exactly are we paying for when elected officials get everything, and residents get nothing in Honolulu?
We don’t have a monarchy in the United States because this is supposed to be a meritocracy. Privilege without discipline, honor and service before self creates a system of haves and have-nots.
Leave A Comment