Instapundit recommends Sowell's essay, which begins:
John Stuart Mill's classic essay "On Liberty" gives reasons why some people should not be taking over other people's decisions about their own lives. But Professor Cass Sunstein of Harvard has given reasons to the contrary. He cites research showing "that people make a lot of mistakes, and that those mistakes can prove extremely damaging."
Professor Sunstein is undoubtedly correct that "people make a lot of mistakes." Most of us can look back over our own lives and see many mistakes, including some that were very damaging.
What Cass Sunstein does not tell us is what sort of creatures, other than people, are going to override our mistaken decisions for us. That is the key flaw in the theory and agenda of the left.
Implicit in the wide range of efforts on the left to get government to take over more of our decisions for us is the assumption that there is some superior class of people who are either wiser or nobler than the rest of us.
Yes, we all make mistakes. But do governments not make bigger and more catastrophic mistakes?
Yes they do. And unlike people, governments rarely have to take responsibility for those mistakes. They take credit if they work--or even partially work (or even if you can insist with a straight face that they work). You have to admit, that's a nice gig.
People do make mistakes. But that's ok. We learn. We live. We prosper. And you know what one of the best things about being free to make--and own--mistakes is? You know that when you succeed, you did that, too. Julia is fated to die of old age never able to believe she did something that she can be proud of.
Admittedly, the left has that covered, as well, insisting that "you didn't build that." That makes the Julias feel better about themselves, too.
Obviously, you have to train people to be this passive and dependent. Our schools try to do that (when they aren't terrorizing children over food that looks like a firearm):
A Florida high school student wrestled a loaded gun away from another teen on the bus ride home this week and was slapped with a suspension in return.
The 16-year-old Cypress Lake High student in Fort Myers, Fla. told WFTX-TV there was “no doubt” he saved a life after grappling for the loaded .22 caliber revolver being aimed point-blank at another student on Tuesday.
Again, tip to Instapundit. Imagine that. A student was suspended for taking action that quite likely saved a life. Stopping a shooting was being involved in a potential shooting incident.
Clearly, the school is trying to teach their students that it would be better to do nothing and hope the armed student doesn't do anything. And if he does start shooting? Well, hope that you live in a state where magazine size is limited. Or is passivity the rule while the shooter reloads, too?
And count on the police arriving twenty minutes later--long after the ammunition is expended--to identify the bodies and reunite survivors with frantic parents.
And the best part is, the government won't even have to admit it made any mistakes if everyone just followed procedures that require passivity! Heck, you can even use it to get more money in your budget the next fiscal year. Little Jenny (who wasn't going to go to college anyway) would probably even think her death was worth it if it adds a line item to the school budget that will benefit
If these people are so eager to help, start or join a charity. And if I need their particular form of help, I'll ask. Don't compel me to avoid what you believe are mistakes. Helping means offering help--not insisting I do what you say. And saying "I am not a dictator" doesn't really change that distinction.
What the Hell, people. How many events in your life are things you can explain by saying "it seemed like a good idea at the time"? What? I'm the only one raising my hand, here?
But over time, I've had far fewer of those moments. It's almost as if I could learn from mistakes because I know that ultimately I am responsible for my own life. And I can even take some satisfaction over good decisions. Some of those good decisions weren't even apparent at the time.
Remember, if you owe too much money, you might go bankrupt. That's tough.
When the government encourages you to go to college by establishing policies that allow tuition to rise far more than inflation and make up for it by loaning you gobs of money, and get banks to loan money to people with no credit history by forbidding you to declare bankruptcy over those loans, your mistake just got much bigger didn't it?
And when the government has more
Even John Friggin' Kerry, in his ham-fisted way, recognizes that we have the right to be stupid. I just worry that he is thinking of the nation rather than the individual as the proper place for that right to be exercised
So to all those people who want to save me from myself--just bite me. My God, by failing to understand that life is a series of mistakes, you prove you have no idea how to design government programs for real people!
Screw up your own life--and just your own life, thank you very much.
