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Saturday, January 23, 2021

In Love with Gov

The Biden administration promises to bring us a heavy dose of government control over every aspect of our economic lives and some aspects of our lives that have little to do with economics.

The prospect before us reminds me of a short video, actually a series of short videos, which satirize the progressive idea that more government and less freedom is good for us. The series is slightly dated, having been produced six years ago, but the message is still timely, especially with the arrival in Washington this week of an administration zealously committed to the big government philosophy.

In the first video a young woman named Alexis falls in love with a smooth-talking guy named Govinsky who turns out to be an overbearing, controlling lout who, despite his assurances of wanting only what's best for Alexis, gradually smothers her freedom.

Her friend Libby (Liberty) tries to warn her that "Gov" isn't what he appears to be, but Alexis allows herself, over a series of five episodes, to become more and more deeply dependent, and more deeply in debt, until finally she has an epiphany and realizes that her dependence on Gov has wrecked her life.

Each of the videos in the series is an amusing parable for our times. Government purports to care about us, to care about protecting us from all the hazards of life, but it often creates, as it did with Alexis, a dysfunctional relationship. Here's the first video: