Feckless:
Lacking purpose; without skill, ineffective, incompetent; lacking the courage to act in any meaningful way.
As another hurricane hurtles towards Florida – possibly a catastrophic Category-5, and this after the destruction wrought by Hurrican Helene a couple of weeks ago – we read of the bizarre, irresponsible, if not outright intentional, behaviour of FEMA, the ‘Federal Emergency Management Agency’, which is not only apparently doing little to help, but blocking others from doing so.
Is this because Florida is a ‘red’ – that is, Republican – state?
But God brings good out of all things, and Americans seem to be finding their mettle, and working around the stultified federal agents. As the Church has taught, one of the worst aspects of socialism, with its violation of the principle of subsidiarity, is a weakening and infantilization of the human spirit: ‘The ‘government’ will take of everything’, from education, to health care, to protection and disaster relief.
Well, as we have seen, it won’t. Not only does ‘the government’ do most things badly (and should stick to the few things it might do well, in subsidiary fashion), but when they turn bad, they have a lot of power to do very bad things. Maybe the calamities we have experienced of late – and we pray for all those affected – are the beginning of the end of the socialist nanny-state.
As the Sea-Wolf exhorted the once-feckless Humphrey, ‘a man’s got to stand on his own two legs‘. Not only that, but, as the hymn sings, may God also help us to help each other.
(The original text and music for this hymn were by Charles Wesley).