Posted on 02/14/2008 8:24:57 AM PST by Squawk 8888
Buried in the community history book of my home town is a quietly remarkable entry for the family of Robert and Margaret Cann. The Cann family moved to southeastern Saskatchewan from Ontario to homestead in 1891. Among the 11 children listed are William Henry (born 1880, died 1898), Iva Louise (born 1890, died 1898), and Dora Alice (born 1894, died 1898).
What happened in 1898? As was the custom in previous years, the Canns had sought the relative comfort of "winter camp" in the wooded range of hills north of their farm to wait out the long months of cold and isolation with other prairie pioneers of the area. Instead, they found diptheria.
The account makes no mention of grief counsellors.
Today, Canadians don't lose children in disease epidemics, but it hasn't prevented some from trying. Vaccination programs that allowed the parents of their parents to survive infancy, which transformed the scars of smallpox and the paralysis of polio into artifacts of medical history, are now condemned by the children of their children, who form cleverly acronymed organizations to convince the public that vaccinations are killing them.
That is, if trace pesticides or "frankenfoods" or blood pressure medications don't get them first. Give thanks for the creative efforts of pharmaceutical companies, for without their continuing efforts, the risk-intolerant might have long ago run out of side effects to sue over.
The efforts of the make-it-go-away community reach well beyond interference in efforts to extend health, life and productivity. They have evolved special branches devoted to the banishment of "things that bother people".
Strong perfume. Peanut butter sandwiches. Lawn chemicals. Scary looking dog breeds. Improper house colours.
To end these societal indignities, they declare, "There ought to be a law!"
And government, the natural habitat of the bureaucratic busybody, exists to enact them. In the summer of 2007, for example, the federal government moved to end the suffering caused by "telephone calls from people we do not want to talk to".
Or so they claimed. A cynical nation turned momentarily from their fixation on the "obesity epidemic" to complain that pollsters, political parties and charities still retained the ability to force their march from chair to cordless handset.
"There ought to be a better law!" But, even as that legislative omission was debated, it was in danger of being eclipsed by a new, emerging crisis. In the haste to remove the menace of second-hand smoke from public places, society had fallen victim to the law of unintended consequences. A caller to Saskatchewan talk radio said it best, explaining why smokers should be allowed no closer than 50 feet from the entrance of any establishment.
"They stand right next to the doors. When I walk past them, I have to hold my breath". Oh, the humanity.
When the sea of societal ills is so shallow that "phone calls I don't like" is scraped from the bottom and added to the legislative agenda, when the public tolerance for disagreeable things has dropped so low that "I have to hold my breath" is a complaint worthy of the commiseration of 100,000 radio listeners, we have a problem.
Traits essential to the building of nations and preservation of democracies -- reason, resolve, creativity, self-reliance, common sense -- are no longer holding their own against the tide of the emotive, reactionary, self-obsessed and risk averse. The foundations built by those pioneering forefathers, upon which our unparalleled wealth and security were built, are cracking under the
weight of regulation, litigation and personal entitlement. The nannies are staging a coup. They've moved out of the nursery to seize control of the family business.
This is why I have come to believe that what Canadians need most at this moment in our history is a good famine.
By "famine", I do not mean those 24-hour fruit-juice-sipping adventures in group narcissism devoted to curing the problems of that continent-wide parade of dysfunction known as "Africa." No, what I have in mind is a proper food shortage of the depth and duration that drives the creative homemaker to taste test the wallpaper glue, while contemplating which of the $3,000 Labradoodles goes first into the stew pot.
"Dig deep, darling. The pup's at the bottom."
A taste of deprivation could restore the word "crisis" to its original definition, resurrect "endurance" and "stoicism" from the vocabulary dustbin, along with the long-lost distinction between "threat" and "nuisance."
It would push back the powerful "if it saves one child" lobby, along with their toboggan helmet police, school lunch analysts, anti-bullying program directors, and playground equipment removal teams. They'd be forced to shelve plans to open the family car to random search by health department inspectors with tobacco-detecting dogs. They'd return to tending their own needs and wants, instead of regulating away those of everyone else.
A half million 20-somethings would emerge from their parents' basements, if only to search for food.
In time, we might even relearn the survival skills of our ancestors -- how to hang up a phone, to expect imperfection, to mind one's own business.
To be grateful for what we have, accept our own burdens, and mourn quietly for what we lose.
(((.)))
Hmmmm. I happen to love the “Do Not Call” list law. Consider that all the other things the author references came from a few self-appointed guardians of the public weal (i.e., busybodies), the “Do Not Call” list didn’t come from any particular special interest group but from a groundswell of just about the entire population.
I have seen a figure where it was claimed that apparently nearly every family in the country has at least one phone on the list. That’s not a few nuts trying to impose their worldview on the rest of us whether we like it or not.
Too funny ... Made me laugh ...
Famine is pretty unlikely here in the states. About the best we could ever manage is a belt tightening reduction but there’s too much arable land here for an outright famine.
I heard a great quote today.
“Realizing your rights leads to revolution, realizing your responsibility leads to revival.” - I cannot remember who said it.
I agree, it is not a revolution per se we need but a waking up of people to see their responsibility as Americans ( I hate to paraphrase J.F. Kennedy but... ) and get off the welfare entitlements and realize our duty in defense/immigration and other matters.
A half million 20-somethings would emerge from their parents' basements, if only to search for food.
hahaha
And those of us who are prepared would only just pop them off one by one with headshots from a comfortable distance...
OR
Packs of roving dogs would tear them down fairly quickly...
Those counterstrike honed skills ain’t much use if they have no means...
LOL
Agreed. He should have left out the phone thing. Most people were fed up with having the peace of their homes disrupted several times each evening and all day Saturday and Sunday by callers who knew full well that their calls were unwelcome.
As much as I can sympathize with people who don’t want to hear from telemarketers, the problem is easy enough to fix without Big Nanny’s intervention. Caller ID, answering machines and boycotting firms that use phone solicitors are all effective.
A good barometer for any proposed law would be whether its advocates are willing to have it apply to themselves. If the do not call list is such a good idea, why did the politicians exempt themselves?
“Famine is pretty unlikely here in the states.”
Yup, it would take something big and global in scope to get to that point, perhaps only after years of downward forces on global food production.
If it did get that bad, you can also bet a LOT of people today would resort to violence, riots, murder, robbing and other crimes before actully tightening their belt. I’m not sure if our civilization has what it takes to hold together through a real famine.
While I agree with your other statements too, I also believe in a providential God and God can do what He wills. Whether or not He causes it or allows it to happen is His choice and He can, and has in the past, chosen to implement His will through famine. The catalyst could be any number of things, small scale nuclear war, a larger conventional war in the West, Biological warfare, major tectonic plate shift, and who knows what else. Whatever the problem, if a large scale famine occurs, civilizations will crumble, in no small part to rampant violence ... ours will probably be one of them.
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