A Whole Country of Responsible Adults
Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Wed, 02 Jun 2004 12:00:00 GMT
#
Clare Wolfe at Backwoods Home Magazine -
Hardyville Does Drugs - whichever drugs its residents want, they
can buy, over the counter, at the local drug store. As it used to be
before America was taken over by nannies and fascists. As it will be
once again. [claire]
"However, as it seems you're new to Hardyville, perhaps you'd like to know what other herbals, mood-altering compounds, and pharmaceuticals are available here, either in stock or by special order, and which are available without prescription."
"Uh. Okay. Which ones?"
"All of them."
"All?"
"All. Of course, I do strongly recommend that you see your allopath or naturopath or herbalist or tribally certified shaman or other medicinal expert before purchasing certain drugs. Or do your own research about any drug's effects. But it's up to you."
"Up to me?" I said, beginning to sound like an echo chamber.
"Of course. It's your body you're going to put the chemicals into, isn't it?"
"Aren't you afraid I'll get addicted or abuse something? Or re-sell some drug on the street or run amuck ...?"
"Why should I be afraid of that, M'am? If you hurt another party, you'll be held fully liable for the hurtful action. If you hurt - or help - only yourself, then that's entirely your own business. Besides, experience tells that when you trust responsible adults to behave as responsible adults ... many more of them actually do so. This fact does not surprise some of us.
...
But what an amazing thing. The government of Hardyville - what darned little there is of it - trusted people to make their own choices. People made those choices without fuss. And without everybody minding everybody else's business.
I knew that day that I'd found my real home.
Imagine. There used to be a whole country that trusted its people to run their own lives and manage their own bodies. Really. It wasn't a fairy tale. The place truly existed.
# Loompanics Unlimited - THE FREEDOM OUTLAW'S HANDBOOK: 179 Things to Do 'Til the Revolution by Claire Wolfe is now available for pre-order. Claire says that the first 100 copies ordered "will contain an autographed book plate". They plan to begin shipping in July. [claire]
# Nat Hentoff at The Village Voice - Patriot Act Besieged - Bush and Ashcroft are apparently having a hard time selling a renewal of the sections of the P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act that will sunset at the end of 2005. Good. [lew]
"The objective of the Patriot Act [is to make] the population visible and the Justice Department invisible. The Act inverts the constitutional requirement that people's lives be private and the work of government officials be public; it instead crafts a set of conditions that make our inner lives transparent and the workings of government opaque." - Elaine Scarry, "Acts of Resistance," Harper's Magazine, May 2004
# William L. Anderson at The Ludwig von Mises Institute - Does Wal-Mart Destroy Communities? - of course not, says Mr. Anderson. Exactly the opposite. [lew]
In a free society, activists would have to try to convince other individuals to change their buying habits via persuasion and voluntary action. Yet, the very history of "progressivist" activism in this country tells us a story of people who use the state to force others to do what they would not do given free choices. Yesterday, Microsoft was in their crosshairs; today, it is Wal-Mart, and tomorrow, some other hapless firm will be declared guilty of providing customers choices that they had not enjoyed before. A great sin, indeed.
