:: Some thoughts... ::

:: Thursday, May 22, 2003 ::

The War on Choice:

I have been trying to figure out what the nannies of the state and the "liberal" establishment have in store for us. Now, I think I have come to a conclusion that ties all the various threads together. Some have called the impulse to "better" man as a symptom of the "nanny state." I believe it goes much deeper than that. This is truly a war on choice. The elite do-gooders of America, together with the trial lawyers have come together to enforce their "superior" wisdom on the good people of this state. This war is not being waged through the legislature where it would surely fail (few people like being told what to do) but it is being waged through the courts, more specifically the tort system. The vanguard of these "anti-choicers" (interestingly enough most of them support a womens "right to choose," meaning kill their unwanted potential baby) consist of left-wing "public" interest groups, and a swarm of lawyers. This war on choice seeks to restrict the choices we Americans enjoy. The "do-gooders" seek to take away what is bad for us. This has long been a vain of "progressive" politics in America. The progressives seek to better their fellow man. Their previous penultimate accomplishment was prohibition. The idea behind prohibition, which most people don't know or understand, is that the prohibitions weren't "evil Republicans" seeking to dominate their fellow man, but were from a strain of thought that seeks to better their fellow man. They think this is possible, because they know what is good for you.
Alcohol before Prohibition, was considered the "root cause" of many of society's ills. It was thought that if we just are able to eliminate alcohol, then society will be cured.

Sadly, this did not happen. In the end, Prohibition collapsed because man's nature doesn't change. Again, in the 1990's this streak was picked up by the left wing, "neo-progressives." I say, neo, in that they were not like the original progressives, who came from a religous background, but neo in that they seek to attain similar sorts of goals. They seek to enforce changes in our behavior, using the coercive power of the state, to fix a perceived injustice. In the end, they have a grand vision of society. Unfortunately, their grand vision is not based on freedom of choice, but total conformity to what is right, or I should say, what they conceive to be right. This spirit is plainly evident in the anti-tobacco crusade, the anti-gun crusade, the anti-HMO crusade, the anti-globalization crusade, the anti-suv/car crusade and the anti-fast food crusade. The motive behind these various crusades is demonize a particular institution or product by citing through various studies (many of them dubious or disputed) that illustrate their various sins.

It is all presented as being "for our own good." The best person to decide what is in their best interest (ie. their "good") is that person. You know yourself better than anyone else. You, being properly informed, can make informed decisions that maximize your happiness and well being. Society should have no say in regulating these things.

It is time to wake up, and realize that we are being attacked on all corners. Our right to choose what we want to purchase, what we want to do, and how we do it is being taken from under our very noses. These people profess to be "Democrats" but in reality it is the tyranny of the courts and the elitists over the common man. It is a slow insidious rot that is destroying the foundations of the republic. If the people were given a choice, it would be acceptable, if the liberty of the minority is safeguarded, but the people are not given a choice, instead the self-appointed dictators of choice are making those decisions for us. It is time to resist, before it is too late...

Nathan Sleeper

Post Script: I will be posting more on this topic in future blogs...
:: Nathan 5:49 PM [+] ::
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