Freedom has became the business of busybodies and control freaks - aka, "The government," which passes laws that assert the contrary.
Mrs. Kravitz was the object of ridicule; the armed busybodies and control freaks who constitute "The government" are a mortal threat if disobeyed.
Even though I have harmed no one - and even though my riding sans a helmet poses no conceivable threat of harm to anyoneelse- an armed government worker will fix his sights on me and use the threat of murderous violence to interrupt my ride and then filch my pockets - the proceeds going to fund "The government," including the salary paid to the proxy enforcers of the control freaks and busybodies who constitute it - to punish me for having the audacity to not place a helmet on my head. Thus it gives me a very special kind of illicit pleasure to ride without one.
There was an effort to dole back just a little of the freedom Virginians once enjoyed - a measure that would have made it legal once again for those over 21 to decide for themselves whether to wear a helmet, very much as those over 21 also get to decide whether to eat their veggies without being nagged - or ticketed - by a government-badged busybody.
His meaning wasn't pillage and plunder; it was to spit in the face of Authority - the busybodies and control freaks, who were just getting started in his time.
Mencken never placed much stock in the virtue or intelligence of the average person but I imagine even he would be stupefied into sputtering speechlessness to learn that we now live in a country run by Mrs. Kravitzes, control freaks and busybodies who have become so emboldened by their success that it probably won't be long before they tell us just how much we're allowed to eat and what we're allowed to eat as well as when to eat it.
In terms of everyday life, the degree of freedom the average person enjoyed as recently as 30 years ago is almost unreal compared with the suffocating, relentless nagging, nudging and micro-managing of everything by control freaks and busybodies.
https://spectator.org/the-fleeting-feeling-of-freedom/
Mrs. Kravitz was the object of ridicule; the armed busybodies and control freaks who constitute "The government" are a mortal threat if disobeyed.
Even though I have harmed no one - and even though my riding sans a helmet poses no conceivable threat of harm to anyoneelse- an armed government worker will fix his sights on me and use the threat of murderous violence to interrupt my ride and then filch my pockets - the proceeds going to fund "The government," including the salary paid to the proxy enforcers of the control freaks and busybodies who constitute it - to punish me for having the audacity to not place a helmet on my head. Thus it gives me a very special kind of illicit pleasure to ride without one.
There was an effort to dole back just a little of the freedom Virginians once enjoyed - a measure that would have made it legal once again for those over 21 to decide for themselves whether to wear a helmet, very much as those over 21 also get to decide whether to eat their veggies without being nagged - or ticketed - by a government-badged busybody.
His meaning wasn't pillage and plunder; it was to spit in the face of Authority - the busybodies and control freaks, who were just getting started in his time.
Mencken never placed much stock in the virtue or intelligence of the average person but I imagine even he would be stupefied into sputtering speechlessness to learn that we now live in a country run by Mrs. Kravitzes, control freaks and busybodies who have become so emboldened by their success that it probably won't be long before they tell us just how much we're allowed to eat and what we're allowed to eat as well as when to eat it.
In terms of everyday life, the degree of freedom the average person enjoyed as recently as 30 years ago is almost unreal compared with the suffocating, relentless nagging, nudging and micro-managing of everything by control freaks and busybodies.
https://spectator.org/the-fleeting-feeling-of-freedom/
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