Don't let others' weaknesses control you

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for May 5, 2024)

Everyone has weaknesses and faults. This includes you and me. We need to acknowledge our weaknesses and work on doing better. Your life will also be easier and you'll be a better person if you're tolerant of the weaknesses and faults of others. Up to a point.

This doesn't mean you have to sit quietly while someone's faults are damaging your life. Communicate the problem and, when it needs to be said, tell them clearly where your line in the sand is. Be polite when possible.

You aren't obligated to allow others to hurt you just because they don't know a better way.

A frequent example is those who want "just a few more" anti-gun rules. Common sense gun law already exists; "shall not be infringed". Anything else is a call to return to slavery. How tolerant of slavery should we be? Not even a little.  

A fear of guns doesn't create any right to enslave you so others feel better. No, it is their responsibility to grow up and take charge of their own security rather than demand you become a slave to their fearful weakness. Making others equally weak and helpless won't make the weak and helpless stronger or safer.

This goes for every cry to expand government and give it more power. Just like it isn't reasonable to be tolerant of a mugger, no matter what weaknesses and faults he believes give him no choice but to be a mugger, it isn't reasonable to be tolerant of those who want to strip away what's left of your liberty. Wanting to exercise liberty isn't a weakness or a fault; seeking to take it away is.

You can feel sorry for the people trying to do this but don't let your pity give them the power or opportunity to enslave you.

You may even understand why they do what they do. Maybe they aren't smart enough to resist the pied pipers promising free stuff and safety.

Maybe they are crooked and see an opportunity to steal life, liberty, or property from their fellow residents.

Perhaps they are terrified of liberty and those who live it.

These are all weaknesses, and while sad, don't entitle them to control you. You can sympathize a little with their problems, but don't surrender to them. They'll have to work out their issues on their own.

Liberty gives them the best chance of doing so successfully.

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Should anything be "illegal"?

Recently someone was criticizing a state politician by saying that under his administration "nothing is illegal"... as if that were a bad thing. Of course, it wasn't true anyway.

Plus, this was immediately after complaining (again, not exactly truthfully) that this same politician had criminalized several things the speaker was in favor of.

So, which is it? It certainly can't be both.

I'm of the opinion that nothing should be outlawed by legislation. Legislation only muddles things. If something is wrong to do to others no legislation is necessary to make defense (from having it done to you) your natural human right. 

No one needs to make up legislation forbidding the act of murder to "give you the right" to defend yourself from an evil loser trying to murder you. Writing and passing any such legislation would be a pointless waste of time. You have that right whether murder has been made illegal or not, and regardless of any opinion or legislation to the contrary.

Making self-defense "illegal" can't remove the right to defend yourself (are you paying attention, Great Britain?). In this case, the legislation is the crime.

It's the same for anything you have a right to do-- anything which doesn't violate the equal and identical rights of others.

So, "nothing is illegal" is only a problem for weak, delusional people who believe government, through the police, will save them. What a pathetic belief.

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