Sunday, October 11, 2020

I have no tolerance for bureaucracy

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for September 9, 2020)




This week I was reminded how intensely I dislike bureaucracy. People who impose bureaucracy on the rest of us are as useful to society as plague-spreading fleas. You might believe bureaucracy has a place and is beneficial, but you'd be mistaking government for society; its opposite.

I have no tolerance for bureaucracy or authoritarianism. My preference doesn't threaten anyone; yet those who thrive on bureaucracy and authoritarianism can't leave the rest of us alone. We must be assimilated and forced to comply with their petty demands.

Everyone has a different temperament. Leave room for everyone who doesn't harm others.

Those who value and understand liberty respect individual differences, but this doesn't work for people who lust for control through bureaucracy. If someone doesn't go along, it threatens their entire house of cards.

When bureaucrats are empowered by an authoritarian system I find myself wishing misfortune on them.

I have met people who love bureaucracy; as if they get a thrill from dotting i's and crossing t's. Fine, but keep it to yourself. It's not alright to impose this on the rest of us. Forcing bureaucracy on people who don't want it is as antisocial as holding someone down and forcing them to drink your minnow smoothie.

Unwanted bureaucracy steals your time as surely as taxation steals your money. Bureaucracy and taxation usually go together.

Still, my temperament is such that I'll stay out of your way and let you engage in all the bureaucracy you want, even if it involves using authoritarian power against others who want to play your game by the rules your club has agreed to. Just keep it inside your club and don't try to force it on the rest of us or on the whole society.

I have no responsibility to cooperate with being numbered, categorized, or tracked. I feel no sympathy for those who try to force this on me.

No one needs to accept the numbers assigned to them, nor to remember or share those numbers-- as if they are valid-- with anyone else. No one has an obligation to pay for the freedom to exercise their natural human rights. No one is responsible for incriminating themselves by filling out forms to government specifications, to satisfy any record-keeping agenda. No one has done wrong if they refuse to answer questions which are no one's concern. If you imagine otherwise, you're part of the bureaucracy and a part of the problem.

-
Thank you for helping support KentforLiberty.com

Don't get complacent


I feel like a SHTF event is imminent. Notice I don't say I think it is, rather it's just a feeling. Possibly triggered by the upcoming election.

I don't have a crystal ball. I'm almost definitely wrong.

If you can see it coming, it's not going to happen. That's almost a guarantee.

Just like the Coronapocalypse came at us out of nowhere, triggered by unexpected government overreactions to a fairly normal virus, a more serious event will also be a surprise. Consider the Coronapanic a practice run. It should have shown you the holes in your preps if you were paying attention.

I lucked out with the panicdemic because I was ready. Well, maybe it wasn't completely luck; I've prepped for years "just in case", and it finally paid off. I was pretty sure I wouldn't see it coming when it finally happened, and I didn't. But it didn't matter because I stay ready all the time-- and I have done so since well before the Y2K fizzle. I intend to be just as ready, if not more ready, the next time something comes along.

Now, even though governments are still desperate to fan the flames of concern with regard to Covid-19, most people (excepting raging government-supremacists) are over it.

It would be easy to breathe a sigh of relief now and let the prepping slide. It's hard to keep up with it all the time. Other things seem more pressing during the calm after the storm. I can't let myself fall into that trap, even if it means I am at odds with those around me. After the storm is also-- in every instance-- before another storm. This isn't going to be the exception.

I feel an internal pressure to keep up the preps. I'm going to listen to it even if I look silly for doing so.

-

I'm considering starting a subscription-only prepping/survival blog. That or a subscription-only beginner homeschooling blog. Either one would be from the perspective of someone who is NOT an expert and doesn't really know what they are doing, but is learning as they go. If it happens, I'll announce it here. Or, if you have a better suggestion, let me know.

-

Writing to promote liberty is my job.
YOU get to decide if I get paid.
I hope I add something you find valuable enough to support.