Is There a Place of Sanity Left in the World?
Common sense doesn't count for much today.
At least that seems true for the West: USA, Canada, Europe, Australia.
In a world where there is a law for everything, a government agency for any eventuality and certainly a tax for all of life's pleasures, common sense seems a bit out of date.
I mean, how many people have died from terrorist attacks compared to the number of deaths on our roads? And would we not be better of fighting terrorism by not giving people a good reason for being so angry? But of course that's much too sensible.
Instead we continue our foreign policies unchanged and introduce more and more laws that strip us of our freedom.
Is there somewhere left in the world where one can still go about one's daily life in a way which is in proportion to the real threat? And where the government fears the people not the other way round? Our criminal justice systems are a good example.
There are more and more strict liability laws affecting ordinary and honest people.
Here in the UK it is a criminal offense not to ensure regular school attendance of your child.
Not intention, recklessness or negligence needs to be proved by the prosecution.
A fall in attendance without good reason (i.
e.
illness) is sufficient.
Or car insurance.
If you don't have it, you are guilty.
It doesn't matter if you have been squeaking clean up until now but the insurance canceled your policy due to a failed payment.
Or even by mistake.
That's no excuse.
Or rather, it's no defense! Since I happen to be a magistrate, I can honestly say that we often try our level best to keep the "damage" done in such a case to a minimum.
In other words we can keep the sentence passed as low as possible.
But we will still have to pass the minimum sentence if one is prescribed by law and there will still be a criminal conviction against that person.
The way police and prosecution authorities seem to work is that everyone who CAN be prosecuted WILL be prosecuted.
I would like to live in a country where sensible members of the community decide if someone is a criminal and not a book with very broad definitions in it.
I also want to live in a country where something that costs 10 bucks is sold at 10 bucks and not 9.
99.
Can't we be treated like adults? Why do commercials talk to us as if we were all stupid? And even more important, why do politicians do this? Do they really believe anyone else thinks that party politics is important? If it was, why does nothing ever change regardless of which party governs? Isn't there a place where an assembly/parliament/congress genuinely represents the interest of the people? Can someone please tell me? And if there is, would the have let the banks collapse and locked up those responsible? There doesn't seem any money for anything else but there is always plenty to channel into the pockets of the rich.
In fact how can the banking system be allowed to be in private hands at all, if it is so vital? Is there a country where the banks are all state-run? How can it be that we get more and more food and farming related laws imposed on us which make it ever more difficult to be self-sufficient and to supply local communities with local produce in a simple and uncomplicated fashion? Instead only large companies have the resources to deal with all the bureaucracy and to obtain all the licenses needed to sell food.
If you are a hunter in the UK and you shoot deer, you cannot just sell the meet.
Neither can you just give it away.
Not even to relatives or friends.
Not unless you have gone through the formalities required and invested in a chilled larder and so on.
The sad truth is that food will soon be totally controlled at every stage of the process just like our finances, movement and internet activity.
Where can I go where people still apply common sense and where the government has not handed power over to private interests.
Where I'm allowed to keep livestock and grow food without microchips and official inspections; without mass-slaughter of my herds because of a fabricated panic over some harmless disease; without Monsanto trying to own nature's fertility with monsters such as terminator seeds.
If there is such a place, I want to know.
No doubt, its days are numbered but still, I want to know.
Humanity has survived up until now without the protection of an over-dominant mother-state which tells us what we are allowed to do and when and how.
But now we are being brought to the brink of extermination by a system that makes us believe we need it to survive.
At least that seems true for the West: USA, Canada, Europe, Australia.
In a world where there is a law for everything, a government agency for any eventuality and certainly a tax for all of life's pleasures, common sense seems a bit out of date.
I mean, how many people have died from terrorist attacks compared to the number of deaths on our roads? And would we not be better of fighting terrorism by not giving people a good reason for being so angry? But of course that's much too sensible.
Instead we continue our foreign policies unchanged and introduce more and more laws that strip us of our freedom.
Is there somewhere left in the world where one can still go about one's daily life in a way which is in proportion to the real threat? And where the government fears the people not the other way round? Our criminal justice systems are a good example.
There are more and more strict liability laws affecting ordinary and honest people.
Here in the UK it is a criminal offense not to ensure regular school attendance of your child.
Not intention, recklessness or negligence needs to be proved by the prosecution.
A fall in attendance without good reason (i.
e.
illness) is sufficient.
Or car insurance.
If you don't have it, you are guilty.
It doesn't matter if you have been squeaking clean up until now but the insurance canceled your policy due to a failed payment.
Or even by mistake.
That's no excuse.
Or rather, it's no defense! Since I happen to be a magistrate, I can honestly say that we often try our level best to keep the "damage" done in such a case to a minimum.
In other words we can keep the sentence passed as low as possible.
But we will still have to pass the minimum sentence if one is prescribed by law and there will still be a criminal conviction against that person.
The way police and prosecution authorities seem to work is that everyone who CAN be prosecuted WILL be prosecuted.
I would like to live in a country where sensible members of the community decide if someone is a criminal and not a book with very broad definitions in it.
I also want to live in a country where something that costs 10 bucks is sold at 10 bucks and not 9.
99.
Can't we be treated like adults? Why do commercials talk to us as if we were all stupid? And even more important, why do politicians do this? Do they really believe anyone else thinks that party politics is important? If it was, why does nothing ever change regardless of which party governs? Isn't there a place where an assembly/parliament/congress genuinely represents the interest of the people? Can someone please tell me? And if there is, would the have let the banks collapse and locked up those responsible? There doesn't seem any money for anything else but there is always plenty to channel into the pockets of the rich.
In fact how can the banking system be allowed to be in private hands at all, if it is so vital? Is there a country where the banks are all state-run? How can it be that we get more and more food and farming related laws imposed on us which make it ever more difficult to be self-sufficient and to supply local communities with local produce in a simple and uncomplicated fashion? Instead only large companies have the resources to deal with all the bureaucracy and to obtain all the licenses needed to sell food.
If you are a hunter in the UK and you shoot deer, you cannot just sell the meet.
Neither can you just give it away.
Not even to relatives or friends.
Not unless you have gone through the formalities required and invested in a chilled larder and so on.
The sad truth is that food will soon be totally controlled at every stage of the process just like our finances, movement and internet activity.
Where can I go where people still apply common sense and where the government has not handed power over to private interests.
Where I'm allowed to keep livestock and grow food without microchips and official inspections; without mass-slaughter of my herds because of a fabricated panic over some harmless disease; without Monsanto trying to own nature's fertility with monsters such as terminator seeds.
If there is such a place, I want to know.
No doubt, its days are numbered but still, I want to know.
Humanity has survived up until now without the protection of an over-dominant mother-state which tells us what we are allowed to do and when and how.
But now we are being brought to the brink of extermination by a system that makes us believe we need it to survive.
Source...