Utopia? Can't Find It On This Map.

Looking out my 14th floor window I can see a lone sailboat floating on the expanse of blue that is Lake Michigan, framed by two towers at the end of Navy Pier. It looks like a little white football that has been just kicked through the uprights for a field goal and is frozen forever in time in a news photograph. the heat and humidity have mostly dissipated today. It's 81 degrees under mostly sunny skies in Streeterville, with light lake breezes.

Sometimes a mere day can make a world of difference. Yesterday was a trying day, with loonies from the fringe sending personal attacks as e-mail because I dared to differ with them. My mind was in turmoil as I struggled with issues and those who would obscure the issues with nonsense. Today, at least one of the loonies sent an e-mail apologizing for said personal attacks, and general bad behavior.

This set a positive tone for the day and for human interaction as a whole. It suggests that we, as humans, actually have risen above our animal ancestry and there is hope for progress. It is sometimes, possible to discuss, and not rant. It is sometimes possible to disagree, and not resort to our primitive animal nature.

I am often reminded of the debt we owe to the Enlightenment thinkers and their belief, passed down to us, that humanity can improve its lot by using the power of reason. Yet, I often have a dark turn of mind and I find myself thinking of good old Thomas Hobbes and his take on the real underlying nature of humanity. "In a state of nature life is nasty, brutish, and short." I find very little evidence to dispel that notion.

There are those who would have you believe that no government at all is "the best of all possible worlds." Well thank you Monsieur Voltaire. We have seen what happened to Master Pangloss in his "best of all possible worlds." There are those who would have you believe that the best government is that which governs least. In such a world, who is to protect us from those who are in need of restraint? Who is to stop the eventual collapse of economies, governments, and societies because of greed and lust for power?

In a perfect world with perfect human beings, perhaps this lack of governing restraint is possible. Unfortunately, we do not live in such a world and as the illustrious Mr. Hobbes pointed out so long ago, we need governments to protect ourselves from one another. The world of the Republican Party, the world of the Libertarians, the world of Ronald Reagan is simply untenable.

Call me the Anti-Republican. Call me the Anti-Libertarian. Call me the Anti-Ronald Reagan. Just don't call me late for dinner, and don't tell me we don't need government controls to protect the rights of people.