I can’t wait till we get ‘driving tests’ for remote controls, cell phones, computers, Jacuzzis, dvd players, lawn mowers, kitchen machines, portable grills and electric toothbrushes here in Sweden. Our politicians must act more rapidly. I nearly cut myself while chopping some onions last evening.
I’m certainly not an Anarchist, but I can’t help but think these song lyrics by British Anarchist group Crass is a wonderful parody of the attitudes most people house towards governments;
“IF THERE WERE NO GOVERNMENT
If there was no government, wouldn’t there be chaos
Everybody running round, setting petrol bombs off?
And if there was no police force, tell me what you’d do
If thirty thousand rioters came running after you?
And who would clean the sewers?
Who’d mend my television?
Wouldn’t people lay about without some supervision?
Who’d drive the fire engines?
Who’d fix my video?
If there were no prisons, well, where would robbers go?
And what If I told you to **** ***?
If there’s no army to stop a big Invasion?
Who’d clean the bogs and sweep the floors? We’d have all immigration!
Who’d pull the pint at the local pub? Where’d I get my fags?
Who’d empty out my dustbins? Would I still get plastic bags?
And what If I told you to **** ***?
It there were no hospitals, and no doctors too,
If I’d broken both my legs, where would I run to?
If there’s no medication. If there were no nurses,
Wouldn’t people die a lot? And who would drive the hearses?
And what If I told you to **** ***?
If there were no butchers shops, what would people eat?
You’d have everybody starving it they didn’t get their meat.
If there was no water, what would people drink?
Who’d flush away the you-know-what? But of course MINE never stink.
What about the children? Who’d teach them in the schools?
Who’d make the buggers keep in line? learn them all them “rules”?
Who’d tell us to whitewash windows? When to take down doors?
Tell us to make a flask of tea and survive the holocaust?”
The part of the world I live in, Scandinavia, is indeed a very nice one. Lots of Scandinavians seem to believe this is because of our authorities and politicians.
Actually, it’s not. It’s because of hard work, broad engagement in matters of business, economy in general, science and technology as well as the influence of a Lutheran moral concept.
Scandinavian politicians have very little to do with the prosperity and success of the Scandinavian countries. In many ways, Scandinavia is a great place to live because of CAPITALISM not of politicians.
Vikings don’t need ‘driving licenses’ to take to the seas.
When they finish that, perhaps they offer explosive safety courses for terrorists.
What a bunch of rubes the decedents of the once great Vikings have become!! They are as much a bunch of wussies as the descendents of Charlemagne, the Conquistadors, and the Romans - not to mention the Angol-Saxons and the American backwoodsmen.
How would you like to go for a drive in your car, with just about every driver on the road allowed to break the rules of the road (and not even have to know them) while you must obey every regulation to the max.
That pretty much describes what happens to licensed captains trying to herd large vessels through narrow channels while avoiding all the "monkey boats" zooming around every which way.
It can get really hairy when you're coming through the channel in a ship that takes about a half-mile or more to stop, and you can't steer outside the channel as that would put you aground.
As a former CG Officer, I would advise Sweden to prioritize their testing in terms of who makes the most money, or is worth the most.
Generally speaking, the more expensive the watercraft, the less competent the skipper. I’m not saying its an unmutable law of physics, but the rich generally thing because they were either good or lucky making money, they were experts at everything they do.
Regular joes in small skiffs and weekend boaters are generally the best seamen. The rich are morons, and worse, they are too arrogant to learn the ‘rules of the road’, much less follow them.
Test? All you do is slam down that throttle and get out of my way baybeeee. We don’t need no stinkin idle zone. There are few situations in life a high power boat and a chain saw can’t get you out of.