It is a sad and unfortunate commentary on the direction and path of society overall when we see ever increasing attempts to regulate and control damn near everything. You can’t build a fence, let alone build your own home in most localities anymore – not without permission, fees, taxes and meddling by the applicable powers that be. Thankfully there are some exceptions, at least partially – where people are still more or less left alone and not intrusively interfered with, but such places are more and more becoming rarities and are harder and harder to find.
Too many rules and regulations have already been created and are being enforced upon the people, not even in pursuit of some higher purpose – however misguided even such a thing may be – but rather because some special interest group or another has used its influence to further their position of advantage for their own gain and at the cost of those being lorded over. Politicians and their donor influencers including lenders, insurers, and big manufacturers are among the top of the list of meddlers in the affairs of the people for their own gain. Why do you think such restrictive building codes exist? Especially minimum size limitations that prevent small common sense homes from being built, let alone tiny homes on fixed foundations?
If it isn’t expensive then loans are not needed to build and own them. That makes lenders very unhappy since there would be absolutely no need for a lender of any type, whether mortgage company or other, to own such a home. Then comes the insurance industry with its massive bankroll – which it intends to keep that way. If little inexpensive homes were common place – they would all be self insured. There would be no need for mandatory homeowners insurance, and without a lender requiring mandatory insurance to protect their collateral, then companies issuing overpriced insurance would be either out of business or forced to offer legitimate policies at very affordable prices in order to compete in a wide market that has no monopolies.
Then comes the groups who want to license and regulate and or otherwise control everything else to death. Permits for this, licenses for that, massive regulations to follow – which often make damn little sense or serve any real purpose other than to infringe freedom and control people and their businesses. There are some who would tax the air you breathe and charge you for it too if they could figure out how to do so.
I just read an article about a well known survivalist and bushcrafter where he actually laments that there are no regulations controlling who can teach survival skills and bushcraft and he apparently thinks only those with proper “credentials” should be allowed to do so, based on his comments. WTF… That is what is wrong with most of the world now – special interests – and by the way he is one as he has been doing this for a very long time and presumably he thinks his “credentials” entitle him to sit in judgement and even seek to control who else is allowed to enter “his” profession.
That kind of crap makes my blood boil. Who the hell died and made him God… and what makes him think he is so righteous and superior to everyone else that he and his minions should be allowed to regulate and control who can offer the same products and services he does? This kind of thinking – that anytime someone else is doing something that someone disapproves of and therefore they start screaming about a need to regulate and control it leads to an ever greater loss of liberty and freedom for us all and causes artificial scarcity of products and services which causes higher prices.
If the shit does hit the fan and you find yourself in a life or death survival situation then it isn’t going to matter how many “credentials” the person or people had that you learned your survival skills from. All that is going to matter is whether or not they work and whether or not you are successful in using those skills to survive or not. If you do congratulations – you get to keep on living. If not – well then there will be no refunds or repeat lessons because you will be dead. So whether it was great grandpa, uncle Bob, the military, the boy scouts or the survival celebrity of the month that you learned from – in the end the only thing that matters is whether what you learned works or not.
So how do you know if the thing works or not? TRY IT before the SHTF and again using common sense – do it in a controlled and safe manner. Don’t just run off in the woods in the middle of winter and freeze to death, or go out and die because you bit off more than you can chew and don’t know what the hell you are doing. Speaking of biting and chewing – don’t eat plant and things that you aren’t certain you can eat safely without them shutting down your kidneys and other important body parts that you need to live. So you do need information, and some training from a competent source, but it damn sure doesn’t need to be a source ordained and approved and regulated by the government.
Do your own homework and check and see if the person knows what he or she is doing or not. The most important survival tool in the world is already in your possession – your brain. So use it. Learn some basic skills and practice them. learn to stay calm and think when things go wrong, while everyone else panics. In the end your credentialed instructor isn’t going to come save your ass – you have to do it or suffer the consequences.
Across the board, we already have far too many rules and regulations. Far too many laws and rules that infringe upon freedom and liberty – and that is a very dangerous place to be. The last thing we need is more laws, rules and regulations. It is a slippery slope and can lead to complete loss of liberty and its replacement by Tyrants and their tyranny. This is not some vague idea – it’s a fact that has been repeatedly learned the hard way by millions of people in multiple countries throughout history. Many paid with their lives. All others paid with what ever freedom and liberty they had as it was systematically taken away from them.
It is a hard cold lesson that apparently we still have a hard time learning lessons from the easy way, but rather insist on repeating the mistakes of history and allowing the rise of oppressors to occur and suffering for it again and again. It is and always will be a lot easier to keep freedom than it ever is to get it back once it has been taken away.
Do you know how many people die in car accidents every year in this country alone? Tens of thousands – look it up for yourself and see the averages over the past decade or so. More each year than all US terrorist attacks combined, more than many wars, and certainly more than all criminal shootings each year combined. Do you hear politicians outraged and wanting to regulate the hell out of people driving cars? No. Its not in service to their own interests or some powerful groups interest to do such a thing. It would also result in an immediate and widespread civil backlash if they decided to take away the ability to drive of so many tax paying car drivers.
But if another issue is the political flavor of the month issue or is being pushed by some billionaire or multi billion dollar group, or large base of voters they think can be tapped – well then you can bet that their righteous indignation will be evident daily on the multiple news shows they will appear on.
Common sense and personal responsibility is what is needed, at least as far as I am concerned. If you do stupid things you are going to suffer consequences for it. If you ride a motorcycle or a bike without a helmet and have an accident you are likely going to crack your skull open and die or be crippled for life. But do we really need laws mandating them?
If you drive a car and dont wear a seatbelt you are more likely to be killed or at elast seriously injured if you wreck it of someone else plows into you. But do we need laws making it mandatory? By the way these laws are often violated which results in more revenue for the government and an excuse to infringineg upon your freedom even further. Wouldnt it be better if people got to decide for themselves whether or not they want to wear a helmet or a seatbelt? Do I wear them? Yes – and I did before the laws were enacted to start with – because i dndt want to have my head cracked open or to be ejected from a car in the event of an accident. Personally thats the way I think it should be.
Educate yes, encourage yes, regulate – no. The absolute least amount of regulation possible for a civil society to function the better. Some laws are necessary unfortunately, and there will never be a society that survives without some essential rules. Yet on the other end of the spectrum there will never be a society worth having absent freedom and liberty.