How many of you have seen "Rambo"? Not "Rambo IV," the latest blood-spattered installment that was released earlier this year. No, I mean the Cold War classic, the one released in 1985. For those of you who may not have gotten the 20th anniversary box set of the Rambo movies, let me fill you in. John Rambo is a Vietnam veteran who is charged with the seemingly impossible task of going back to Vietnam, ten years after the war ended, to find missing American soldiers. The buff Rambo heads into the jungle often shirtless, of course and spends much of the movie blowing things up and killing Communist Vietnamese soldiers left and right.
So what does this have to with government? Read on.
As I look back, what strikes me as remarkable about this film is that the villain of the movie is neither Communist nor Vietnamese. Instead, he is a wimpy American bureaucrat named Murdoch. Yes, a feckless government official who tries to stymie Rambo in his heroic quest. At the end, Rambo bravely rescues the American POWs and confronts the cringing Murdoch in his office at the end.
Rambo represents Hollywood's dramatization of a larger cultural phenomenon that took root during Vietnam and Watergate, flourished during the Age of
Reagan, and remains entrenched even after 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina even, amazingly enough, after Wall Street moguls came running with their tail between the legs to the government for a massive bailout last week. That phenomenon involves the reflexive denigration of public service, the frequent association of the word "public" with "inferior," and the widespread rejection of public sector work as meaningful or important.
Yet, the evidence shows that smart government regulation and administration not only can avert disasters such as the financial meltdown but also improve our quality of life. Take environmental regulations, for example. Despite howls of protest that such regulations would choke off business and lead to financial ruin, the environmental regulations put in place during the 1970s have led to cleaner air, cleaner water, expanded wilderness areas and national parks, rivers that don't catch fire ‹ and the American economy flourished (until last month, at least). Just ask folks who went to the Beijing Olympics whether or not such environmental standards matter.
The Rambo mentality lives on, but perhaps the financial crisis will lay it to rest. Let's hope so.
Chris Myers, 33, runs the U.S. Public Service Academy.
Write him at: asch@uspublicserviceacademy.org.
Also Interesting:
[+] We Neglect the Public Sector at Our Peril
[+] The federal workforce of tomorrow
[+] What does “service” mean to Obama and McCain?
[+] Where does government fit into Obama’s call to service?