“Too bad that all the people who know how to run the country are busy driving taxicabs and cutting hair.”
- Burns, quoted in Life
I enjoy this quote because it feels just as sarcastic as it does genuine and either way it contains a great truth. It’s hard to say (without any background on the context or intented meaning) whether he was being completely serious, satirical or a mixture of both.
However he intended it to be interpreted (and he probably inteded both the sarcastic and genuine meanings) it has great meaning to me this election. I have another quote (which I’m sure will come up in the future) that deals with politics and deals with a similar idea, and both quotes express an idea that I believe. I truly feel that political and government entities have lost touch with the reality of their post in society.
On the serious side of this quote, the people who know what needs to be done in this country, the true voice of America, is caught up in the daily routine. They go to work, do their jobs and go home. Nothing great happens to improve the nation, nothing spectacular comes along that changes their life. Those who would do the best job running this country are to busy trying to get by in life to actually do the job.
Now, I think the heavier meaning (the more significant aspect) of this quote is in the sarcasm. Think about how easy it is for us, as bystanders and witnesses to all that happens in the government, to criticize our leaders and say we could to better. Even if the government is out of touch with the reality of our lives, they are doing what they believe to be right (at least some of the time, anyhow) and I like to think they are doing the best they can.
Just like the beer can wielding armchair quarterback yelling at his television set Sunday afternoon, many average Americans (especially in the service industries like taxi drivers and hair stylists) tend to pass their time with their customers discussing issues they know very little about and giving their “professional” opinion about how a particular negotiation might have been handled better, or how a particular bill should have been drafted to more fully benefit the community (meaning, benefit them personally).
Perhaps what Burns was getting at was this: Every one of those political backseat drivers could end their argument by saying, “Of course I could do a better job of running the country, but I’m too busy cutting hair, earning my dollar, to actually do anything about it.”
