In December, 2011, Vaclav Havel died. He was the leader of the 1989 "Velvet Revolution" that overthrew communism in Czechoslovakia and brought democracy to that country. He became the first and only president of Czechoslovakia and the first president of the Czech Republic after Slovakia became independent.
It is a paradox that media in the United States gave limited attention to Havel's passing, although he defeated communism. Yet, the media gave extensive coverage to the death of the North Korean communist leader a couple of weeks later.
Communism, or for that matter any dictatorship government, can be viewed as the ultimate form of government regulation. Havel referred to communism as an attempt to impose "holistic social engineering." (Havel, The Art of the Impossible, p. 203). "It was an attempt, on the basis of a few propositions masquerading as the only scientific truth, to organize all of life according to a single model, and to subject it to central planning and control regardless of whether or not that was what life wanted." (Id. at p. 89).
Havel also said: "By its very nature, life is infinitely colorful and varied. We are constantly being astonished by something new in the rich fabric of social relations, interests, and activities. It simply cannot be predicted, yet alone be planned for or regulated....Democracy is a system based on trust in the human sense of responsibility, which it ought to awaken and cultivate. Democracy and civil society are thus two sides of the same coin." (Id. at p.145).
Government regulation in the United States of commercial and personal activities, including water and wastewater operations, is an ever-expanding phenomenon. Administrative agencies engage in rule-making based upon staff input and often with limited public comment or a public evidentiary hearing. If a hearing is held, evidentiary rules often are relaxed or ignored. As a result, rule-making can have a potential for unspoken agendas, social engineering and unreasonable burdens on those affected.
Those in the water and wastewater operations community-no matter how small or large- have a responsibility to monitor rule-making proceedings that may affect them and to address questions and concerns to the regulatory agency involved. Most agencies have some mechanisms to present these concerns in rule-making proceedings, and if not, court challenges may be available. The time to challenge a regulation which imposes costs in excess of benefits or is unreasonably burdensome, for example, is not when an operator is sued for non-compliance. It is when the regulation is being considered for adoption.
Havel did not disdain all regulation, particularly environmental regulation. However, his message was that environmental regulation must be free of broad social engineering and pie in the sky dreaming. " I believe you should read the message coming to you from our part of the world as an appeal to protect the world against all those who despise the mystery of Being, whether they be cynical businessmen with only the interests of their corporations at heart, or left-wing saviors high on cheap idealogical utopias. Both lack what I would call a metaphysical anchor, and a consciousness of our obligation to it." (Id. at 80-89).
And, so, a thoughtful man has passed into history, but he gave us something to think about.
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