A door was opened some time ago that ushered forth a new era in government intervention into people’s life style choices and social well being. This trend was started as much by small special interest groups as it was politicians, but once the system found a formula that worked, they prepared themselves to drive a freight train in through the crack in the door.
What I am referring to is the continuing stream of new and evolving laws that are being built around legally forcing people to make life style choices that are being put forward as essential for the well being of individuals and society. By legislating these “essentials,” people are rapidly being driven toward having government dictating who, what, where, when, why, and how we are allowed live, at the penalty of law if circumstances do not allow us to see life the government way. All this subterfuge is being passed off as appealing to activities that are better ruled by common sense than legislation, but as the swelling invasion of rules and regulations grow, common sense will give way to controlling choices people are allowed to make on their own.
This article is intended to identify some of these areas that already exist, and outline where these trends could well be going for the future. Though every one of these laws has a positive side to its presentation, the fact that legal penalties are associated with non-compliance and restriction of the freedom to choose is the unacceptable consequence of bringing these ideas to the legal front. My label for these laws falls under the “for your own good” umbrella.
Examples of this type of legislation include wearing seat belts while driving automobiles, liquor laws, smoking restrictions, legal requirements to carry vehicle insurance, abortion laws, environmental legislation, taxes, and other forms of legislation that are designed not only to protect people from their own lack of common sense, but also add costs to every day living with or without being penalized for not complying with these regulations. Instead of penalizing people with the consequences of making wrong choices, our society is shaping itself around benefiting the special interests of some industries and penalizing individuals and other industries with non-elective costs that are being mandated by the government to meet legal requirements.
One of the more disturbing illustrations of how these types of laws can get out of hand relate to smoking. Since it is legal for adults to buy “harmful” tobacco products, and the tobacco industry has its own powerful lobbyist groups, the government has turned its power toward penalizing the individuals who use these products rather than the companies that manufacture them. Though it is legal to buy tobacco products, legislators are narrowing the number of places and circumstances where tobacco can be used, and adding heavy tax penalties to consumers on top of the purchase price.
Non-smokers may well be applauding these efforts, but they are not so happy when the government is allowed to dictate how much insurance they are required to have on their purchase of automobiles and personal property, and the taxes they are required to pay for using too much gasoline at the fuel pump. People are also not so happy about the government dictating where and how their children are allowed to receive an education.
For every legal mandate of how and where we are allowed to live out our lives, there are monetary costs associated with doing as we are told, and for not doing as we are told by the government. Every aspect of life that falls under legal jurisdiction carries more weight in what it costs to live in our country. By legalizing our lives rather than relying on individual choices and common sense agreements, it is the legislators and not the people who choose how we are allowed to live, and how much that control will cost. Regardless of your views on the current legal trends, this regulation of individual choices is likely to continue to escalate going forward.
When the government has succeeded in gaining absolute control over issues like alcohol, tobacco, education, fuel consumption, energy, and housing, the next loss of our freedom to choose our own life styles will come in areas of income, obesity, exercise, communication, diet, health care and recreation to a degree that is more intense than the current levels of government intervention. Abortion laws already regulate who is allowed to live and die from the ranks of the unborn, and it is only a small step to extend those controls to the elderly, the sick, the disabled, the handicapped, the disadvantaged or the poor.
Government is most beneficial in providing a means for resolving disputes between people in a society, and not in mandating the every day activities of people’s lifestyles. Providing social services should not extend to forcing people to conform to a government play book for how people should live to qualify for these programs. In judging what laws should be enacted for the good of society in general, one must count the cost these laws extract from the individual freedoms and income these laws will require from us. The question you must ask yourself is whether or not the government is truly acting to benefit you for your own good, or controlling aspects of your life that are better left to your own choices. Speak for yourself while it is still allowed for you to do so.
John Dir LittleTek Center Check out our information channel and free softtware at http://home.earthlink.net/~jdir/
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Hemp facts are Courtesy of The Kentucky Hemp Museum & Library, Versailles, KY
1. One acre of hemp produces twice as much oil as one acre of peanuts.
Agriculture, Papermakers have high hopes for Industrial Hemp.
Agri-View. ” Wisconsin’s largest farm newspaper” April 27, 1995.
2. America’s first hemp law was enacted in 1619 at Jamestown Colony, Virginia ordering all farmers to grow Indian hemp seed.
Clark. V.S., History of Manufacture in the United States, Mcgraw Hill. NY 1929. pg 34.
3. Cannabis hemp was legal tender in most of the Americas from 1631 until the early 1800’s. you could even pay your taxes with cannabis hemp.
Clark. V.S., History of Manufacture in the United States. Mcgraw Hill. NY 1929. pg. 34.
4. “The earliest known woven fabric was apparently of hemp which began to be worked in the eighth millennium (8,000-7,000) BC).
“The Columbia History of the World. 1981. pg. 54.
5. The original. Heavy-duty, famous Levi jeans were made for the California ’49ers out of hemp sailcloth and rivets so that the pockets would not rip when filled with gold.
Hemp and the Marijuana Conspiracy: The Emperor Wears No Clothes, Jack Herer, Revised and expanded 1995 edition: copyright March, 1995, HEMP Publishing. 5632 Van Nuys Blvd., Van Nuys. CA 91401. pg. 6.
6. One acre of hemp produces as much cellulose fiber pulp as 4.1 acres of trees.
Dewey & Merrill. Bulletin #404. U.S. Dept. of Age. 1916.
7. Hemp paper is stronger and has greater folding endurance than wood pulp paper.
Dewey & Merrill. Bulletin #404, US Dept. of Ag., 1916.
8. Cannabis hemp seeds contain all the essential amino acids and essential fatty acids, which are vital to the immune system necessary to maintain a healthy life.
Hempseed Nutrition. Osburn, Lynn, Access unlimited, P.O. Box 1900. Frazier Park. CA 93225.
9. Hemp seeds contain up to 24% protein. A handful of seed provides the minimum daily requirement of protein for adults.
Rosenthal. Ed. Hemp Today, pg. 101.
14. August 13, 1941, Henry Ford first displayed his plastic car at Dearborn Days in Michigan. The car ran on fuels derived from hemp and other agricultural based sources, and the fenders were made of hemp, wheat, straw, and synthetic plastics. Ford said his vision was “to grow automobiles from the soil.”
The Kentucky Hemp Museum and Library. 1998 Historical Hemp Calendar, February. Roulac, John. Industrial Hemp Practical Products – Paper to fabric to Cosmetics, pg. 11. Hemptech
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