Who Really Won the Cold War?
Common lore holds that the U.S. and West won the Cold War that ended 20 years ago.
For those who recall the height of such in the 1960s and 1970s, a common tactic used by the communist regimes and their dictatorial proxies was to have paperwork requirements for those within their borders (“are your papers in order, comrade?”). Papers could be anything from identification to any other document used to trip up and imprison a perceived adversary of the state.
That was mostly then. But one recent morning I was thinking about now. And I’m not sure much is different from the old Soviet Union and today’s society; at least from a paperwork perspective.
When I leave my house in the morning and drive to the train station, I need 3 pieces of paper: driver’s license, auto registration, and insurance card. All come with a monetary bounty but let’s save that for another discussion.
When I get to the train station parking lot, I need a parking sticker.
To not get thrown off the train I board to the Emerald (New York) City, I must have a train pass.
At Newark Penn Station, a metro card is used to get on the PATH to enter Mayor Bloomberg’s Masada.
After being belched out into the streets of lower Manhattan and making it to my building, I must have an identification card to enter.
When I make it to my office, appropriate fingerprints and password are required.
Thus, I count 7 pieces of paper and a finger and memorized password to safely ensconce myself in my office each day.
So while the U.S. may have won the Cold War, it seems to me that the bureaucrats have prospered.
-I.M. Windee
