Headline, August16, 2013

''' !! WHERE ARE MY $$$ ?? ''' : 

''' !! DA MAN ! YOU IZ DA MAN !! '''

Now gradually remove from all this any sense of public spirit or public obligation and replace at every level of government  -in the barracks. the courts, the city councils, the provincial prefectures   -with an attitude of ''What's in it for me?''

To see this transition starkly American terms, first consider the idealistic sensibility of a letter of introduction written from France by Benjamin Franklin to George Washington in 1777, on a matter of public business:

''The Gentleman who will have the Honour of waiting upon you with this letter is the Baron de Steuben............He goes to America with the true zeal for our Cause, and a view of engaging in it and rendring it all the Services in his Power. He is recommended to us by two of the best Judges of Military Merit in this Country.''

For comparison, consider the more contemporary sentiments in proposals e-mails from Jack Abramoff's lobbying team, also on a matter of public business in this instance, mounting a political operation to reopen the Speaking Rock Casino, in Texas, in return for millions of dollars in fees and political contributions. 

In 2002, the Abramoff team explained to its clients the Tigua Indian tribe: ''This political operation will result in a Majority of both federal chambers either becoming close friends of the tribe or fearing the tribe in short period of time.

Simply put, you need 218 friends in the U.S. House and 51 Senators on your side very quickly, and we will do that through both love and fear.'' Abramoff, who would eventually plead guilty to ''corruption'' charges, explained to his clients that favors might need to be topped off: ''Our friend............asked if you could help  -as in cover-  a Scotland Golf trip for him and some staff  -his committee chief of staff- for August. The trip will be quiet expensive ---------(we did this for another member----you know who) just 2 years ago. Let me know if you guys could do $ 50K.''

This is the story MacMullen traces, as through out the empire a lubricious glaze of venality came to coat every governmental surface. I don't know how it would be phrased in Latin, but more than one of  Jack Abramoff's e-mails became our main heading of the Headline Post. All this only just goes on to capture some of the spirit of the public service in the late empire. 

What then accounts for the change? No one factor but a combination of many, including the sheer growth in the government's administrative reach.

And the resultant transformation of  ''public service''  from the rotating duty of the upper class into a lifelong career for a larger group. A bronze plaque was affixed to a public building in Timgad, in Numidia now Algeria, a city built as a bastion against the Berbers, which literally provided a recommended price list for payments to ensure the prosecution and success of various kinds of litigation.

And the Author states : We don't have anything exactly like that now, I suppose, but have you ever received a fund-raising solicitation from one of the political parties, with degrees of access and other perquisites tied to a specific contribution levels?

Time and again imperial decrees throughout the later empire attempt to put a stop to a skimming, extortion, and the illicit use of office  -or, failing that, to codify what may be permissible. But the emperors are standing athwart the tide, and the imperial pronouncements have a doomed, forlorn, ritual feel to them. Modern newspaper headlines along the lines of Congress Votes New Curbs On Lobbyists convey something of the same formulaic quality.

How then does buying and selling of influence hollow out government? Some make the argument that whatever its moral shortcomings, the profit motive, including its corrupt dimension, is in fact an efficient economic mechanism: it gets things done. As one character argues in the movie Syriana, corruption is why we win. 

But as MacMullen points out, for a government to be effective on a national or an imperial scale, there needs to be a presumption that information is travelling accurately up and down the administrative chain of command.

And that every link in the chain between a command and its execution is reliable and strong. Putting power into private hands frequently ends up breaking that link. Making the exercise of power contingent on payment be definition breaks the link. 

Privatization today often makes itself felt in ways that would have turned no heads in ancient Rome. Naturally, it still includes influence peddling and bribery and the buying and selling of public offices.

Former California representative Randy ''Duke'' Cunningham, then in jail, infamously drafted a  ''bribe menu'' on official stationery, linking the size of Defense Contracts he would deliver with the size of payments he received.

The Post continues, so don't miss the next one, and do consider sharing the post with the entire world.

With respectful dedication to:  ''Transparency International''

See ya all on the World Students Society Computers-Internet-Wireless :  ''Crazy For A Great Future''

Good Night & God Bless!

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless