… run and hide when light is shined on them.

But light is NOT the same as transparency, is it?

We will argue that it is not. Transparency is supposed to be a “character trait” of organizations: they are willing and DO let people look at how they do things. But that is controlled by the organization itself. They can pay lip-service to the concept, but in reality deny outsiders the ability to see what is going on. And frankly, that is how most government organizations act. “Open meetings” and “Open records” laws to the contrary. There are always work arounds to those laws. And some are incredibly simple.

But shining a light at something is pretty much the act of a second or third party, and therefore NOT really under the control of the agency or action being lit up. They can, of course, attempt to block the light. Sometimes those open records and open meetings can help prevent them from blocking the light that exposes what is really going on.

Rats and rodents flee from the light, because they instinctively know that if they can be seen, they can be hit, and if they can be hit, they can be killed. (Why does it take so long to teach infantry and engineer recruits that basic fact?) And when they run, they generally have to stop doing whatever they were before they got lit up.

The human rats and raccoons, the political roaches and millipedes and all their ilk that infest all human government? They too generally have to stop doing nasty things when they are exposed to the light.

But unlike the real, non-human rats and bugs, the humans have ways not just to flee and hide, but to block the light. Or to distort what the light is exposing.

And like the household and farm pests, as soon as the light goes out, they race back to their evil deeds.

Which brings us to the point of this diatribe.

Although they flee and hide, the light itself does not really do much harm to the parasites, the scavengers, the predators, and the disease carriers. Animal or human. (I know, I’m being generous to the political and government types.) The light only exposes them so that some action can be taken against them. To drive them further way, to disable them. Or to eliminate them. That’s right: to kill them.

For that, you need more than a flashlight. A flare. A searchlight or spotlight.

You need a flyswatter, or a club. Bug spray. A water jet. Something concrete. And not just to scar and scare them. They will just come back. When it comes to politicians and jack-booted thugs and bureaucrats and their patrons and clients? You need force. That can be social force, or moral force, or actual force. We here at TPOL believe this is NOT aggressive use of force: it is force used in self-defense.

We will never get rid of all the parasitic politicians, bureaucrats, elite, greedy thugs. Anymore than we will get rid of all the flies, cockroaches, rats, mice, silverfish or other nasty pests. But we can and must do a better job of controlling them. And starting by shining a light on them, and following up with action, is a start.