It's the Government's Fault?

Recently, I installed government approved software on my lap top in order to file my taxes.  I created quite the little nest around my computer; receipts and documents everywhere.  All the things I needed to file my taxes.

I don't know about you but there is something about doing my taxes that creates a little bit of anxiety. After all, this is the government.  For most of us, I think we have a little lack of trust in the government and we feel a little bit like the government is out to get us.  Regardless, I entered all of my receipts and completed all the forms online, kept copies of everything in my 2016 file and then pressed "file" and had this all transmitted to the Canada Revenue Agency.  My taxes were filed for another year.  It actually was simple and not worth the anxiety that I had created in my mind.

However, almost immediately after I filed my taxes online, something happened to my computer.   My computer started acting up and it wasn't starting up or shutting down like it normally did.  Every action that I did seemed to take several times longer.  My mouse wouldn't work.  And, most importantly, my blog wasn't getting the traffic that it normally did.

I came to the only reasonable conclusion.  The government had planted a virus on my computer from their tax software.  The government was truly out to get me - where it hurt.  I tried to uninstall the programs, but couldn't even do this.   Government is evil.  Finally, after a few frustrating days, the worst thing happened.  My computer just shut down and it appeared that it shut down for good.   It was obvious, the government was threatened by my online activity and had no choice but to remove the threat.  I was devastated but determined that I was not going to let them win.  I would find a way. Power to the people.

I was anticipating the worst when I took my lap top to a computer servicing store while I stood in line and was looking at their price list.  Virus removal.  $99.99/hour.  Diagnostics and Repair.  $109,99/hour.  I just knew that I was looking at 10 hours of professional work.  After all, I knew about computers and I tried everything I knew to fix this and I couldn't.  This was going to be a major job, if it was even possible to fix.  Damn government.

I handed over my beloved computer to a man I just met, but now trusted completely.  He did a few preliminary checks and told me the news.  My power cord obviously was defective and that was my issue.  I needed a new power cord.   I nearly kissed this man.   I couldn't believe there was an easy solution. Unfortunately, this store didn't have any in stock as they were a specialty item, however, he referred me to a store across the city that likely had these.  I was elated with this solution, elated to drive halfway across the city; elated to take number 87 when the next number called was 62; elated to only be charged $72.99 for a new power cord !!  I was just so happy to get home and get "plugged in" again.

Only when I plugged in this new power cord did I notice something.   My previous power cord had been disconnected from the socket.  It turns out, I wasn't the victim of a government conspiracy, I had had a blonde moment.

Common sense should have told me to do a routine check on my computer and one of the steps should have been ensuring that the computer was properly connected to a power source.  I totally disregarded common sense and jumped to a conclusion that it was the government's fault.  Thankfully, for me this only cost me about a hundred dollars.   But, I think a lot of us are quick to "blame the government" for things that may not be the government's fault.   It is just easier to blame the government.   Blaming the government becomes a little bit addictive to us.   We take a loved one to Emergency and there is a huge wait.  This, obviously, is the government's fault.  We experience major potholes in the spring.  Again, this is obviously the fault of the government.  It goes on and on.

What we fail to realize is that ultimately we are the government.  The government is formed from people that we elect to come up with rights and responsibilities of all peoples within the jurisdiction of the government.   If we don't like the government, then, it is really are fault.  We haven't let the government be aware of what are our prioritizes, what are the real important things for us.   Usually, this means compromise.  But, our best way of making sure we have input into the government is to exercise our right to vote.  Its a start and then we have the responsibility of keeping the government  accountable for the priorities that we want to be set.

In my case, I blamed the government when it was really my fault.   Actually, it was nobody's fault.  It was just an absence of common sense.