Government makes crisis worse
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(My Eastern New Mexico News column for July 15, 2020)
America is in crisis. Nearly everyone agrees on this point; they only disagree over what the crisis is.
Fewer still agree over what caused the crisis they can't agree on, so they can't agree on how to solve it.
Whatever the crisis is, and whether it was caused by a virus, police callousness, racism, inequality, or something else, governments love the excuse to crack down on liberty. This is often among their first responses-- regardless of what the crisis is, what caused the crisis, or how it might be solved. It's as though they don't even care about those trivial details.
A crisis is when your right to life, liberty, and property is most important. When things are going well, are more robust and stable, a small disruption probably won't cause ruin. When things are already on the edge, one little push in the wrong place, at the wrong time, can spell disaster. Deciding to treat liberty as if it's negotiable is a big jackbooted shove to civil society.
To respect the liberty of every human being is the civilized thing to do, even if some people aren't respecting the liberty of others. This is why self-defense remains an important human right.
No crisis justifies additional government power; instead, it's a time for less government meddling. Especially when the path forward is unclear.
The result of restricting liberty is to limit the number of individual solutions which can be tried. When there's disagreement, it's important to let people take different paths. If enough things are tried, someone will get it right. If you force everyone to follow the same path, the chances are nearly one hundred percent that the wrong path will be imposed.
This is why the Constitution doesn't allow itself, or human rights, to be suspended during any emergency and thus doesn't permit martial law. To pretend martial law is constitutional the Supreme Court was forced to concoct political "theories" to justify it. They made up, out of thin air, things the Constitution didn't say and which it was explicitly designed to prevent. It seems the Constitution has never stopped government from committing any action it really wanted to commit. Someone, somewhere, will rubber-stamp almost anything.
If the Constitution did permit the suspension of rights for the duration of an emergency, this would invalidate the document. That it doesn't, yet government goes ahead and does it anyway, invalidates government. Government "help" makes any crisis worse.
I feel like a SHTF event is imminent. Notice I don't say I think it is, rather it's just a feeling. Possibly triggered by the upcoming election.
I don't have a crystal ball. I'm almost definitely wrong.
If you can see it coming, it's not going to happen. That's almost a guarantee.
Just like the Coronapocalypse came at us out of nowhere, triggered by unexpected government overreactions to a fairly normal virus, a more serious event will also be a surprise. Consider the Coronapanic a practice run. It should have shown you the holes in your preps if you were paying attention.
I lucked out with the panicdemic because I was ready. Well, maybe it wasn't completely luck; I've prepped for years "just in case", and it finally paid off. I was pretty sure I wouldn't see it coming when it finally happened, and I didn't. But it didn't matter because I stay ready all the time-- and I have done so since well before the Y2K fizzle. I intend to be just as ready, if not more ready, the next time something ...
Sometimes it's good to just listen to people's stories without interrupting, even when you know the stories are nonsense.
My 2nd wife used to tell of a ghost that lived in her house when she was a kid. It was an interesting story even though I didn't believe it. I learned quickly that her family was very prone to believe anything as long as it fit with their magical worldview.
Other people tell me stories about beneficial things political government can do. These stories are no more true-- in the sense of being objective reality-- than ghost stories, but they can still be informative if you want to know which particular superstitions a person is living under.
Interrupt and you'll never hear the whole tale. Listen and you might be entertained by some fantastical tales of magical realms. Just don't bet your life on them being true.
My nature is such that I simply can't see government as a solution to anything. This puts me at odds with most of the rest of my species.
Yes, I think "social media" has become a horror. This doesn't mean I want government to regulate it; it means I think people who don't like it (or are too dumb to know not to take it at face value) should probably stop using it.
The same is true of so many other things I don't like.
Litter/pollution, scammers, sexual predators, abortion, animal cruelty, Hillary Clinton, poverty, drug abuse, pandemics, crime, and all manner of awful things.
I may hate them, but that doesn't mean I want government to step in. Look how often that has the opposite effect anyway; making the original problem worse-- or at least not solving it-- while also creating a host of new problems that never would have existed otherwise (anti-gun legislation being a perfect example).
And even if government intervention doesn't make this specific problem worse this particular ...
