On Quantum Physics and Local Government

Newton’s gravitational and other theories have long have long been successfully used by scientists and layman alike. They are still very useful in explaining planetary movement and navigating space travel. Newton’s theories are about how the universe operates on the grand scale.

However in the early 20th century we found that very small things, like atoms and their component parts such as neutrons, protons, quarks and other such sub-atomic particles, behave in ways unexplainable by Newtonian physics. The search is still on for a grand theory that explains physics at both the cosmic and sub-atomic levels. The universe works one way when viewed on a very large scale but another way when viewed at the sub-atomic level. The rules of one don’t apply to the other.

Local governance functions in a similar manner. On the national level general principles are often applied to the formulation of broad goals and policies. Formal ideological constructs are used by large organized parties (such as Republicans and Democrats) to formulate policies and programs with large scale national impact. Social Security, Foreign and Defense policies, the Federal Reserve, Keynesian economics or general tax policy are examples of big picture views of what’s good public policy.

However, governance looks very different at the local town or city level than at the national level. At the local grassroots level grand strategies and ideologies are less applicable.
This, I believe, is why party affiliation or ideology is rarely influential in local town politics and government. Candidates for local office do not run as a member of a political party and the coalitions that form locally around issues are always a mixture of Democrats, Independents, Republicans and Libertarians etc. Participants and organizations active in local issues often combine and re-combine around different issues.

Viewing the same participants and organizations as they operate on the local versus the national level you would think you were looking at two different worlds – and that’s because you are looking at two different worlds. Local dynamics operate under different rules and realities than do larger national dynamics.
Another interesting similarity to physics is the randomness and unpredictability that exists in the quantum world of sub-atomic particles as opposed to the more predicable nature of big picture planetary Newtonian physics. Quantum physics is a lot more confusing than our conventional understanding of the world – randomly changing, appearing erratic and seeming to operate in several different universes simultaneously. Sound like local politics?

There may well be a good reason for the seeming tumultuous nature of local politics. Local governance generally involves the more immediate and personal. Specific local needs and desires are very important to us and, in fact, are often of more powerful and direct concern than the structure and content of national programs.

For me that is why local governance, no matter how strange, unpredictable and mysterious it often seems, beckons our active engagement. Local government deals directly in vital proximate issues related to schools, elder services, water, sewer, roads, public works and on and on. In other words all the things that actually touch us physically and/or emotionally every day.

Local public issues are the very stuff of our everyday lives. If we don’t get them right we are not going to have a successful community. We must have a sense of local satisfaction and security as a base from which to pursue the national goals we aspire to in order to truly fulfill our unique and larger scale American destiny – a work still in progress.

Kevin McCarthy resides at 155 Fairoaks Lane and can be reached at: mccart9@gmail.com. Kevin is also a member of the Cohasset Board of Selectman (BoS) but his above comments are his own personal views and are not attributable to the BoS.

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