Robert LeFevre, one of the bright stars of the freedom movement who is now gone, but whose legacy remains, once said with regards to liberty that most people like freedom for themselves, but as soon as they feel a fear that someone else may try to take away their freedom, they become tempted to act like a tyrant first and try to take away the freedom of those they fear. In other words, in their fear they become the very thing they were afraid of and become the embodiment of the opposite of freedom. This is what people who really love freedom and liberty need to guard against in their own lives.
I would imagine that everyone is afraid of something. Many people live under the belief that if just the right "laws" are passed and enforced, life will be safe. They believe they will then be protected from those things they fear.
This has never been the case in the entire history of civilization, but hope springs eternal, and those who wish to rule the rest of us feed on this hope for safety.
A while back someone wrote "We wouldn't need so many laws if there weren't so many idiots." This is apparently a very common opinion, but it ignores reality and the law of unintended consequences.
"Laws" create "idiots" by protecting some people from the full consequences of their actions, and by giving a false sense of security to others; encouraging them to not take responsibility for their own life. The existence of these "idiots" and the tragedies that inevitably result are then used as justification for more "laws" which in turn create more "idiots" and more tragedies. It's the same old drama that has played out for thousands of years all over the globe.
What cost "safety"? You could reduce the frequency of hangnails by cutting off every finger to ever develop one, but most people would recognize the price as too high. You might make life "safer" by outlawing liberty, too, but that cost is immeasurably higher.
The reality is that bad things happen. You could criminalize every last shred of liberty and freedom, and even if you refused to admit this is a bad thing in itself, other bad things would still happen every single day without fail. No "laws" can change this. There is no Utopia. No one is able to guard you from harm better than yourself. Accept your responsibility, for it lies with no one else.
I would imagine that everyone is afraid of something. Many people live under the belief that if just the right "laws" are passed and enforced, life will be safe. They believe they will then be protected from those things they fear.
This has never been the case in the entire history of civilization, but hope springs eternal, and those who wish to rule the rest of us feed on this hope for safety.
A while back someone wrote "We wouldn't need so many laws if there weren't so many idiots." This is apparently a very common opinion, but it ignores reality and the law of unintended consequences.
"Laws" create "idiots" by protecting some people from the full consequences of their actions, and by giving a false sense of security to others; encouraging them to not take responsibility for their own life. The existence of these "idiots" and the tragedies that inevitably result are then used as justification for more "laws" which in turn create more "idiots" and more tragedies. It's the same old drama that has played out for thousands of years all over the globe.
What cost "safety"? You could reduce the frequency of hangnails by cutting off every finger to ever develop one, but most people would recognize the price as too high. You might make life "safer" by outlawing liberty, too, but that cost is immeasurably higher.
The reality is that bad things happen. You could criminalize every last shred of liberty and freedom, and even if you refused to admit this is a bad thing in itself, other bad things would still happen every single day without fail. No "laws" can change this. There is no Utopia. No one is able to guard you from harm better than yourself. Accept your responsibility, for it lies with no one else.
"“We wouldn’t need so many laws if there weren’t so many idiots.” This is apparently a common opinion, but it ignores reality and the law of unintended consequences."
ReplyDeleteI want to refocus this.
If there's so many idiots, then the people making the laws will be idiots and the laws will be idiot laws - a complete waste of time.
It's like, 'people are evil, we need laws to restrain ourselves.' Yeah, if people are evil, then people will only make evil laws we'd be better off without.
What? You say we are, empirically shown, better off without every law we've tried the test on? Fancy that.
Who'da thunk, eh now?