YES MOMMY (A well Regulated State)

E-mail ^ | 9.12.02 | Fred Reed

[Mulder]

It won't be the jackbooted variety, but rather a peculiarly mindless, bureaucratic insistence on conformity.

de Tocqueville saw this coming:

After having thus successively taken each member of the community in its powerful grasp and fashioned him at will, the supreme power then extends its arm over the whole community. It covers the surface of society with a network of small, complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, and guided; men are seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting. Such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd.

[Boonie Rat]

As the regulation of our behavior becomes more pervasive, so does the mechanism of enforcement grow more nearly omnipresent.

IMHO Adolph Hitler's ghost is rolling with laughter. We fought a war against tyranny, and now endure much worse without a whimper!!

Boonie Rat

MACV SOCOM, PhuBai/Hue '65-'66

[Darth Sidious]

The people are not interested in overthowing overly-burdensome government. More likely as not, the people want overly-burdensome government (so long as they are in charge, through whatever political party they subscribe to).

[Mark was here]

We have gone in a sense from being "Parents" of the government to "Children" of the government.

[Hank Rearden]

This article reminds me, once again, of why I want to barf when I see the legions of picture-lickers here on supposedly-FreeRepublic worshiping their politician while making fun of others who worship theirs.

All ruler-worshipers make me sick.

[ppaul]

For many it may be hard to remember freer times. Yet they existed...It felt different. You lived in the world as you found it, and behaved because you were supposed to, but you didn't feel as though you were in a white-collar prison.

Quote of the year.

[tpaine]

Great find, Pistol. Thanks for the thread.

Hope you don't mind the flags to FR's foremost communitarians, but we need their input as to the truth of Reeds rant.

[elbucko]

It is a dark and stormy night whenever the city council of my town meets. The Mayor, a matronly old biddy, likes power as much as she likes Orange filled pastry. The Deputy Mayor, an old geezer with more war stories than a Navy cook should have, has his own personal agenda about how to regulate the private lawns of the whole community.

The rest of the city council are comprised of either "Little Hitlers", bent on there own Fourth Reich, or the obedient lackeys of some public or private interest such as the Teachers Assn., the Public Employees Union and the local Real Estate Board. The satisfactions lacking in their personal lives are going to be pursued in the guise of public service at the expense of public liberty and the public purse.

De Tocqueville was was piercingly prescient.

Good morning America, how are you?
Regards, Buck.

[Critter]

Gotta love Fred! I've tried to say these same things a million times, but could never get it to sound quite like he does.

I've asked people for years now, to name one thing they do on a regular basis which isn't regulated to death... I still don't think I've ever gotten an answer...

[antisocial]

Fred Reed BUMP! We're allowing ever more control over our lives by State & Federal Guvmet and most of the citizenry
doesn't even notice, let alone object.

I guess most of the population is either too young to remember when there was freedom, or they have immigrated here from some other totalitarian country and think it's a little better here.

[DAnconia55]

The solution is simple.

Don't obey. Teach your kids not to obey immoral law, and why. Teach them resistance.

Occasionally break a law just to do it, to remind yourself.

Run a redlight in the middle of the night, when it's perfectly safe.... for example.

Turn off the TV, and uncondition yourself.

[DAnconia55]

The people are not interested in overthowing overly-burdensome government. More likely as not, the people want overly-burdensome government (so long as they are in charge, through whatever political party they subscribe to).

The post election change in FR makes this abundantly clear....

[PatrioticAmerican]

Excellent read. Nicely put.

[tpaine]

"The post election change in FR makes this abundantly clear...."

The election didn't really have much to do it FR's 'change', imo. FR management can answer for that.

[warchild9]

Turn off the television is the best first step. May I add: pay no attention to sports of any kind (the new opiate of the masses) and make an effort to get to know the people who live around you. Community adhesion is the only way to fight this creeping tyranny.

[Lizavetta]

This article reminds me, once again, of why I want to barf when I see the legions of picture-lickers here on supposedly-FreeRepublic worshiping their politician while making fun of others who worship theirs.

Tell it, brother.

[tpaine]

The local 'councils of power' will receive a BIG wake up call when [& if] the money spigot turns off.

These hometown power parasites can only operate when the good times roll.
Course, a national depression breeds FDR's. Can't win, I guess.

[gcruse]

Fred
Hits it dead
On.

[A Vast RightWing Conspirator]

You must [...] prove that you have the proper attitude toward homosexuals.

Hmmm... how do you prove THAT?