Monday, July 16, 2007

Dust in the wind . . .

My wife and son and I were supposed to be well on our way to a holiday in the Dakotas by now, but it looks like that will not happen this summer. We have so much on the go it is difficult to plan any extended trips, so we will be carving up the summer into smaller chunks and will hope to get away a couple of times on shorter vacation jaunts. In the meantime, I have very little time to write any significant blog posts, and frankly I miss doing so, whether or not anyone actually reads my words. I write for myself, as it helps crystallize whatever is going on in my head at any given time, and ultimately for my son who will be able to use my accumulated words to better understand his dad and the world in which we live. Still, I am gratified to see the stats counter for this blog keep heading up, now at well over 35,000 hits. Someone must be reading my words, even if few visitors bother to leave any comments.

All of us try, in various ways, to leave our mark on the world. I write about my hopes for a future world in which everyone will be truly free and never a chattel of any state or government. I read some blogs where there are pleas and appeals for more regulation and more taxation to solve some perceived problem or another, and wonder how long productive people will allow themselves to be 'farmed' to satisfy the wants of others. I don't know. Some people seem to have a masochistic need to be abused in this way. I suppose that even those individuals have a limit to what they will endure, but our political masters have learned how to stop their abuse of us just short of where any reasonable person would say enough is enough, and make every effort to wind down the size of government and its accompanying bureaucracy.

What really puzzles me is that the obvious fact that meddling doesn't work seems to be not-so-obvious to the 'bigger is better' crowd. Things not working as they should be? Let's add another regulation, several more laws, umpteen more taxes, two committees, eleven sub-committees and an oversight committee to report back in twelve months whether or not any progress has been made. There will have been no progress made, and the result, naturally, will be to waste even more resources on solutions that will never come, at least not via these efforts. Instead, why not just get rid of all the nonsense, all of the regulations, all the bureaucracies and all the politicians, then stand back, out of the way, as things rapidly improve?

I have been waiting for that day for a long time, and I'm afraid that I will still be waiting when I will have turned to dust.

9 comments:

  1. I stopped holding my breath a long time ago.
    It's pure grace of God Almighty we're not all in a gulag somewhere slaving for the glory of the "Holy Mother" state, but also attributable to the fact that most people are "all feared out": They heard all the doom-and-gloom from pundits and pulpits so many times, and the eve of destruction has come and gone so often that when some new "expert" comes along with a (bowel?) movement to save humanity from *crisis name here* it's usually taken with a grain of salt...This is a good thing!
    I'm convinced it's possibly a large factor in why those gulags are empty, and hopefully, will stay that way.
    At least til we've made good our various escapes!

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  2. How, true, Galt. I have no fear of any natural calamity, but having had numerous relatives who spent time in various prison camps, the thought of being even more under the thumb of the state than we are already puts me off my porridge.

    What really gets me though is cluelessness, not being able to see where things lead. So many well-meaning and truly concerned people are painting us all into a corner of hopelessness simply by trying their best to make the world a better place by forcing us to do something, prohibiting us from doing something else, and sending us the bill for both.

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  3. There are several wildfires burning in the Dakotas, so you are probably better off not going right now anyway. I live over 100 miles west of the North Dakota border and it's smoky here from the fires burning there.

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  4. I only recently found your blog and am enjoying your sensible perspectives very much. Please do keep at it.

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  5. I've been watching the news about all the fires, Laurie. I guess maybe you're right -- I have wanted to go to the Dakotas for probably 40 years. I guess waiting one more year won't hurt!

    Lin: Thank you for your kind words. I have visited your blog and enjoyed reading about your adventures. Talk about the American pioneer spirit! Good luck to you on your life in the boonies. It certainly is beautiful and I enjoyed your pictures. I will be adding your blog to my blog roll.

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  6. "So many well meaning and truly concerned people are painting us all into a corner of hopelessness simply by trying their best to make the world a better place by forcing us to do something, prohibiting us from doing something else and sending us the bill for both."

    Here here!

    I am going to be better about commenting, but your posts seldom deserve a quick comment. I find myself trying to fully express my thoughts on some of your posts for literally days and end up without leaving any comment. I have a tendency to over think things! You think!

    PS you might enjoy my last two posts.

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  7. luckyzmom: Thanks... and I read your posts -- you make me quite jealous! That looks very much like a holiday I could use right now.

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  8. Thank you for your encouraging words, atavist - moral support is incredibly helpful out here when things become, uhm, challenging. On the other hand, we both dread the thought of ever returning to a congested, overly-regulated world. I can absolutely understand why Panama holds such appeal to you.

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  9. BTW Sieg, if you wish to visit the Dakotas while they are still part of the United States, you may wish to take your trip sometime before 2017, as I expect the loss of the American West to take place sometime between now and then.
    The five Mexican border states are already top-heavy with illegal invaders, and with Comrade...I mean "Senator" Kennedy writing immigration law, the best we can hope for is that government does nothing about it.
    Unfortunately, this means that the invasion will continue, and the rest of the west will eventually be part of Mexico again. If the citizens attempt an organized resistance, they will be put down by our own left-leaning, Papist-filled, PC government.
    I feel fairly confident in also predicting a coming rift between the New England states and the Midwest, as productive people can only tolerate being leeched off of by the parasites of a society for so long.
    Lest we forget, a society is no better or worse than those who compose it. If you have a majority of individuals of quality and value, a society will be healthy. If, however, a society sets out to poison itself to death by destroying its own culture by licensing and advocating all manner of dangerous, non-beneficial habits, and importing copious amounts of low-quality, non-assimilating, loser-culture individuals, it's decline and fall are a virtual certainty.
    This is the true issue America faces...or rather, refuses to face!

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