Wednesday, April 27, 2005
All Ya Need Is Laws
(The following essay was origionally posted at this site last year)
I heard an old collectivist standard again recently – "We have too much freedom!" This time the well-worn phrase was uttered in reference to the need for more environmental laws and regulations. Of course, statists can conjure many reasons to reduce other people’s freedom – civil rights (ironically), inequality, the environment, and the tendency of reality to present bad luck to almost everyone at some point in their lives.
"All ya need is love…" -- and more laws.
Occasional dreadlocks or multiple piercings fail to mask the underlying conservatism of temperament actually held by many pseudo-rebels of socialist conformity. Ironically, those yearning for more state authority have gotten their wish a thousand times over. Literally thousands of new laws have been, and continue to be, passed to control the most minute aspects of individual lives, and yet the cry goes on, "More Laws! We have too much freedom!"
While continuing to feign the role of unacknowledged "victim," the forces of statism have, over the decades, come to dominate the schools and academia, media, entertainment, and of course the government bureaucracy itself. They are now the ones "in charge," and yet they continue their whine that some "rich" bogyman is "oppressing the poor," despoiling the environment, and pushing old ladies down staircases. "He" can be stopped, of course, if we all just buckle down and learn to comply with the latest state edict.
There may indeed be "too much" of something..., but its not freedom. There's to little freedom -- and insight into history and human character -- to ward off the totalitarian schemes so many pseudo-rebels would gladly subject us to.
Maybe some armchair philosophers for the omnipotent state have too much time on their hands and too little regard for the lifestyles and choices of their fellow citizens.
I heard an old collectivist standard again recently – "We have too much freedom!" This time the well-worn phrase was uttered in reference to the need for more environmental laws and regulations. Of course, statists can conjure many reasons to reduce other people’s freedom – civil rights (ironically), inequality, the environment, and the tendency of reality to present bad luck to almost everyone at some point in their lives.
"All ya need is love…" -- and more laws.
Occasional dreadlocks or multiple piercings fail to mask the underlying conservatism of temperament actually held by many pseudo-rebels of socialist conformity. Ironically, those yearning for more state authority have gotten their wish a thousand times over. Literally thousands of new laws have been, and continue to be, passed to control the most minute aspects of individual lives, and yet the cry goes on, "More Laws! We have too much freedom!"
While continuing to feign the role of unacknowledged "victim," the forces of statism have, over the decades, come to dominate the schools and academia, media, entertainment, and of course the government bureaucracy itself. They are now the ones "in charge," and yet they continue their whine that some "rich" bogyman is "oppressing the poor," despoiling the environment, and pushing old ladies down staircases. "He" can be stopped, of course, if we all just buckle down and learn to comply with the latest state edict.
There may indeed be "too much" of something..., but its not freedom. There's to little freedom -- and insight into history and human character -- to ward off the totalitarian schemes so many pseudo-rebels would gladly subject us to.
Maybe some armchair philosophers for the omnipotent state have too much time on their hands and too little regard for the lifestyles and choices of their fellow citizens.
