OPINION:
Medieval English chronicles tell a tale in which King Canute set up his throne in the ocean’s surf. To demonstrate his relative lack of power to various courtiers, he commanded the waves and tide to stop.
It goes without saying that the water eventually found Canute, then king of England, Denmark and Norway, and forced him to move up the beach.
The federal government and its leaders are facing a similar moment in three distinct but equally important domains.
The first is the flash mob that has assembled against the development of artificial intelligence. Some concerns over AI are probably warranted. Some are ridiculously overblown. I have yet to have anyone explain to me how, exactly, a computer program is going to kill all of humanity.
Some of the concerns are stoked by the regime in Beijing to slow us down in this particular race. Others are all about the Democrats — mostly, though not exclusively — wanting to make sure they get a share of the action.
Most of the efforts have suggested a pause — who knows for how long — in AI development. Others have proposed the fanciful notion that the federal government should regulate AI development, as if that skill existed anywhere in the federal government.
Here is the problem: People will not stop something they believe will help humanity — and themselves — merely because the government says they should. Creators of any kind will always find a way to create and innovate. The government cannot prevent people from thinking, dreaming or planning.
Then there is the problem of consumer demand. The same people who claim to be worried about AI are the ones who send 25 billion texts a year, download hundreds of hours of video and constantly demand new products and content. They are not prepared to settle for stasis in either technology or their own lives.
In another part of the enterprise, the Federal Reserve just raised the federal funds rate by a quarter of a percentage point to restrain inflation. The only problem is that the White House and Congress do not set interest rates; markets do, and for the past few months, the bond market has been sending a clear message that the federal debt and deficit are unsustainable.
To date, the actions of the Fed have been woefully short of what is needed.
The federal government, which answers to the tidal forces of the bond market whether it wants to or not, needs to get its fiscal house in order sooner rather than later.
Finally, President Trump recently lamented that the three people he nominated to the Supreme Court have not always voted the way he would prefer.
All of us have experienced people — even our friends — not doing what we want them to do, so it is easy to sympathize with the president. At the same time, God gave people free will, which means there is a good chance other people will disagree with you from time to time, even if you are the president of the United States.
The reality is that the federal government, just like King Canute and just like all of us, is subject to limits. To pretend that it can control creativity and thought is insane. To proceed as if we can control markets no matter what sort of economic malpractice we entertain is irrational.
To imagine that people, even your friends, will agree with you all the time leans toward the delusional.
Mercifully, we all have limits, even the federal government.
• Michael McKenna is a contributing editor at The Washington Times.
Follow the author
Please read our comment policy before commenting.