Time for a Reboot

It never fails.  You’ve been plugging away, working on your budget, writing that blog post, or just surfing when your operating system claims that it’s installed some new software and you need to reboot your system for it to take effect.  Or an application stops responding, and you find that the best thing that you can do is to end the offending program and start fresh.

The interesting thing is, despite how much we don’t like restarting an application or an operating system, it’s perfectly natural.  You see, all systems have built within them the need for change, because we are far from perfect.

Whether it’s your computer, the seasons, or the economy, all of these complicated systems occasionally need a reboot, and our current situation is no different.

Economic Reboot

Believe it or not, corrections and times of recession serve a cleansing function.  They take what works and allow for it to continue, and they correct what’s wrong, or what’s gone into excess.  If there were no recessions, then waste would aboud as companies would be “too big to fail” and those that wanted to start with new ideas or new concepts would be unable to do so.

Far from being a thing to be feared, it’s something that should be embraced.  Now, while it’s true that no one wants to lose their job, if you look at the big picture, and keep yourself flexible, you’ll find that that we emerge stronger from these things.  We need to be prepared for them, not cowering in fear of them.

<LectureYourself>Insert tired old conversation about how we shouldn’t be living in debt, and we should be saving and having an emergency fund.</LectureYourself>

Political Reboot

Is it possible, then, just like the Economy needs to be corrected because of excess, and your computer has memory leaks that causes it to have to be rebooted, and even nature needs winter in order to facilitate spring, that government occasionally needs a reboot?

The American system of government is an amazing thing.  It’s not perfect, but it was the first system to take into account God’s role in a nation without implying the need for a dictator.  It took into account basic liberties and responsibilities, as well as making something that could grow.  It understood human nature for excess, and attempted to build into the system a way to not only control those excesses, but allow for the occasional “soft reboot” of having someone new take control in a bloodless fashion.

The problem is, that even with this system we have a government that has grown beyond what it was expected to handle, that is being exploited in ways never dreamed of, and has so much dead weight that you could probably be imprisoned for something at least once a week, if there were the resources to catch you for something on the books.

Is It Imminent?

Is a reboot for our nation coming– a chance to scratch a lot of it and start over?

It’s something to consider as you think about the amount of money we’re spending– our great grandchildren’s money– and the debt we’re in.  I don’t believe our country will be able to continue in much the way that it has because of consolidated power and frustration with government.  Top it off with the growing cultural divide, but no way to account for differences because we force laws on a nation of millions of people with many different beliefs that are core to these individuals.

Again, I believe that there were safety valves in our nation’s documents to account for this, but they have been pushed aside for the consolidation of power and the desire to nationalize “rights”.

If we’re not careful, we may not have a bloodless revolution in order to go back to core principles, and we could be in for a mess.