Anthony Jay’s and Jonathan Lynn’s Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister series are fantastic libertarian resources for great quotes and reflections on the role and value of government (sic). Whatever the feeling of the shows’ creators, the situations and discussions they put their characters in reflect a fairly skeptical and often times anti-government bias.
I was struck by a conversation between Sir Humphrey Appleby (Nigel Hawthorne) and Bernard Woolley (Derek Fowlds) to prevent the Prime Minister from speaking about his proposal to scrap the Trident nuclear missile and replace it with a bigger army staffed with conscripts, a conversation that speaks volumes about modern “defense”:
Sir Humphrey: Bernard, what is the purpose of our defense policy?
Bernard: To defend Britain.
Sir Humphrey: No, no, it is to make people believe that Britain is defended.
Bernard: The Russians?
Sir Humphrey: Not the Russians, the British! The Russians know it’s not. It’s for all our simple ignorant people shuffling out of homes, busses, factories and the cabinet room. The aim of the defense policy is to make them feel secure.
Bernard: But if there’s a better way…
Sir Humphrey: We have a magic wand. it’s called Trident. Nobody understands anything about it except that it costs 15 billion pounds, which means it must be wonderful. Magic. All we have to do is write a check and then we can relax. But if people in government start talking about it, do you know what will happen?
Bernard: No.
Sir Humphrey: In the end, they’ll start thinking about it. They will come to realize the problems, the flaws in the reasoning, the nation will start to get worried. Agitation. Questions. Criticism. Change.
Bernard: Change?
Sir Humphrey: Change.
The Bush administrations various wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (and maybe Iran in the future) are its “magic wand,” the purpose of which is not to defend Americans, or make them safer, but to make enough of us think we are beging defended. And nothing more.
6:04 am on June 10, 2006
