Seeing "transparency" for what it really is

By Norvell Rose

There's a classic episode of the original "Twilight Zone" TV series that offers an eerily insightful context for considering the truth about President Obama's "transparency" doctrine. The episode is called "To Serve Man" and is considered by many Zonies to be one of the better of the series. The title is a clever play on the word "serve" and its dual meanings — "assist" and "provide as a meal."

Alas, the poor, gullible humans discover all too late that the visiting aliens' otherworldly book of knowledge is not filled with the secrets to successful living. Rather, it reveals the secrets of successful cooking. The mysterious, celebrated work is, in fact, a cookbook; and for the alien race of superior intellect (at least they have much larger heads), the unsuspecting humans are what's for dinner. "To Serve Man"...indeed.

So what does this twisted tale of our being "served" have to do with the President's oft-pronounced pledge of "transparency" and his "unprecedented level of Openness in Government"? (See Barack Obama's Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies on the White House web site: www.whitehouse.gov.)

Not everything, my fellow earthlings, is what it seems. As a matter of fact, dear dinner guests, some things are exactly not what they are seen to be. And "transparency" in government is exactly one of those not-what-it-seems things. That's the bad news. The good news is...pretty much the same thing.

On the surface, providing "transparency" in government sounds like a good and noble pursuit. And it would be, if it were a good, noble and honest pursuit. But for the President and his loyal league of obsequious Obamacrats, "transparency" has proven to be nothing more than a propagandistic slogan. A cheap stage prop. A magician's sleight-of-hand. The pledge has found meaning only in the absurd negativity of its inverse.

"Transparency," in truth, is proven to be utter opaqueness. It is not a door into the workings of government, but a wall the Obamacrats deceptively label a "door." No amount of redefining, re-branding, repositioning, or regurgitation of tired talking points can change that. The bizarre "Twilight Zone" reality is that this doctrine of the Obamacrats is not a declaration of superior governance. It is a cookbook with a recipe for concocting a bitter gruel whose main ingredients are cynicism, deceit, and the cruel arrogance of the political elite. They care not about their authority being justly derived from the consent of the governed. They are only interested in using "transparency" as one more diversion in their devious effort to make that consent unnecessary.

If one needed any more proof that "transparency" is a but hollow talking point and not a substantive principle, one need look no further than the healthcare debate. Mr. Obama's repeated assurance that the Congressional negotiations would be open to C-Span cameras turned out to be a joke. A not-so-funny joke made all-the-more dark and disturbing by the Obamacrats' attempt to spin into a positive the punch line — the one delivering a gut-punch to open and honest government.

Okay, there's the bad news. So, what's the good in all this?

The good — and I would argue — the near-great aspect of this fractured fairy tale of "transparency" is this now fully realized fact: The doctrine of "transparency" is a sham, a flim-flam. It is oily hucksterism meant to conceal, not reveal. It is not a principled guideline that has, despite well intentioned efforts, suffered a few unfortunate setbacks. It is a cynical — nay, subversive — smokescreen designed to cloak the dirty inner-workings of a decidedly corrupt government machine. And in a delicious turn of Shakespearian irony, the President has been "hoist with his own petard" (with thanks to Hamlet) — i.e, he has been exposed by the very apparatus with which he meant to hide his ill-conceived actions.

In other words, "transparency" was never meant to be. At least not to be what we were supposed to interpret it as being. And now, thankfully, the lie has been exposed. The lie of this Administration, in collusion with the Democrat leadership in Congress, being "committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government," is discovered for the pompous perversion that it is.

This revelation, this discovery, is the near-great news. The Obamacrats massive-government motives and intentions are now brilliantly transparent, thanks to the stark failure of their "transparency."

However, now that we are clearly seeing "transparency" for what it really is — a lie that makes a mockery of its supposed intent — now that we are recognizing this perversion, is it too late?

In the "To Serve Man" episode of "The Twilight Zone," the long-awaited translation that identifies the aliens' cookbook comes too late, at least for first spaceship full of earthlings. These unwitting, walking meals have already bought the notion that the visitors' intentions are what they seem to be — to serve man by bestowing upon the inferior race the knowledge and methods of far superior beings. The first shipment of human cattle are already herded into the transport that will whisk them away to a distant planet and a delicious dinner.

Not to imply that, in the Obamacrats' "transparency" charade, anyone is going to be served up on a platter. But it is painfully obvious that open and honest government could itself be cooked. However, it is equally certain that there is a fast-growing, grassroots recognition of the pernicious lie perpetrated by the radical left — the malicious masquerade, the lie-as-truth doctrine called "transparency." The uncertainty we must now address is this: Will enough perceptive and principled Americans refute the lie and, unlike in "The Twilight Zone," refuse to get onboard?

© Norvell Rose