It is strange, like I’m on the outside looking in. My surrounds don’t seem familiar to me, even though I’ve lived in the same place for 10 years. I used to think helmet laws, drug laws, and the like were a good idea. After thinking these issues through, I realize crimes have to have victims. Laws that force behaviors are nothing more than forcing people to act the way you want them to, and are the opposite of living in a state of freedom. Here is Nora Craig explaining the proper context of laws and the proper role of government in just 80 seconds:
Today I saw my local police camped out at a busy intersection with a spotter looking in everyone’s car looking for people not wearing seat belts, then radioing to his mob of buddies down the street writing people tickets. We all know what this is about, and it is not about some bullshit ‘keeping people safe’. I posted what was going on to my neighborhood facebook page and received two responses, both with a similar theme:
These comments remind me what a small minority I’m part of. Look at the general reaction to the excessive force and blatant disregard for basic rights the Boston Police showed after the marathon bombings when they went door to door through people’s homes looking for one bad guy: The general reaction was joy! I do not recognize this reality most people are living in! These are not Americans by any traditional meaning, and they are not friends of liberty. The concepts of self-reliance and freedom are all but dead now.
I am reminded of an experience in Thailand; my wife was driving our SUV in the streets of Bangkok. She told me I had to fasten my seatbelt before a cop saw us. I thought she was crazy, but I put it on anyway. Moments later, a family rode by my car window on a small motorbike; the man was steering, a grade school aged child was behind him, wife was sitting behind that child sandwiching him in, she had a baby in a backpack papoose-style, another small infant was between the man and the handlebars. None of them were wearing helmets. I pointed to them and said to my wife, “I have to wear a seatbelt inside my car, but THAT shit is OK?!!”
How did my safety and the safety of my passengers become something shoved up my ass, required by law and not just a good idea left to my discretion? Why do I have to wear a seatbelt while driving in my car when a guy riding a motorcycle does not have to wear a seatbelt or a helmet?…because it is the law?!