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Thread: Safety?

  1. #1

    Safety?

    Governments most lucrative word...

    They keep us "safe" from terrorists, criminals, disease,work, food, falling meteors, and even the wrath of God...

    At what cost?


    Governments agents must be kept "safe" while performing their official duties and many of the slimiest must be kept "safe" while at home too.

    MSM trumpets "safety" daily, both overtly and covertly in their continual hommage to government.

    Families are no longer suitable to provide "safety" for their children without government oversight and often interference..


    Is this society as a whole really so inept that it must pay government to keep it "safe"?



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  3. #2
    Funny you posted this, Tod. I was just having that same conversation over the weekend. Since when do we place such a high premium on safety?! By all accounts, society is "safer" than it has ever been. There are fewer industrial accidents. Violent crime is down. Non-parental kidnapping is at an all-time low. The odds of being killed by a terrorist is nearly non-existent. Automobile deaths keep going down year over year.

    And yet the perception of the danger we face is at an all-time high. We are constantly blasted with images from far away of tragedies. Whether it's the news or other TV programming. My wife watches these true crime shows on the female networks and they portray a reality where kids are taken every half hour and a boogeyman is hiding behind every bush. TV dramas portray heroes in blue fighting against the sly crazies. The news shows us turmoil from the far corners of the earth and amplifies the ones that suit the purpose of some special interest. My niece with a baby is terrified every time they announce a recall of a car seat due to some minor buckle issue (as if the kids were in any more danger than we were riding on the floor of the backseat.)

    The constant bombardment of a lack of safety really does scare people. They are afraid to let their kids out of their sight for 30 seconds for fear that something horrible may happen to them. They are willing to over-fund union employees with badges and give them carte-blanche to do anything they feel like as long as they give the public a sense of safety.

    I am reminded of H.L Mencken:
    The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.
    But I would add that it is also the aim of practical media as well. They have developed a perfect symbiosis where one of them is provided power and the other is provided ratings. Meanwhile, the frightened subject is cowering in front of a TV set willing to sacrifice the entire fruits of his labor for a sense of relief that can never come.

    I'm afraid it is up to us to fight. These pathetic fools will not be able to help us.



    The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. - John Stuart Mill
    "And now that the legislators and do-gooders have so futilely inflicted so many systems upon society, may they finally end where they should have begun: May they reject all systems, and try liberty; for liberty is an acknowledgment of faith in God and His works." - Bastiat

    "It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere." - Voltaire

  4. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by CaptUSA View Post
    By all accounts, society is "safer" than it has ever been. There are fewer industrial accidents. Violent crime is down. Non-parental kidnapping is at an all-time low. The odds of being killed by a terrorist is nearly non-existent. Automobile deaths keep going down year over year.
    This is the statist argument.
    "The system works"
    All modern revolutions have ended in a reinforcement of the power of the State.
    -Albert Camus

  5. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by otherone View Post
    This is the statist argument.
    "The system works"
    A simple cost analysis doesn't balance out for me...

    Cost in lost freedom or in money..

  6. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by otherone View Post
    This is the statist argument.
    "The system works"
    Yep. Create an irrational fear and any attempts of actual data showing the fear is unfounded is proof that the efforts are working.
    "And now that the legislators and do-gooders have so futilely inflicted so many systems upon society, may they finally end where they should have begun: May they reject all systems, and try liberty; for liberty is an acknowledgment of faith in God and His works." - Bastiat

    "It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere." - Voltaire

  7. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by CaptUSA View Post
    Yep. Create an irrational fear and any attempts of actual data showing the fear is unfounded is proof that the efforts are working.
    You've missed my point. All of the things that you have written that indicate that we are "safer" as a society justify the existence of a powerful government, according to statists. For instance, violent crime reduction is due to increased incarceration rates; auto deaths wane when there is increased police presence on the highways.
    All modern revolutions have ended in a reinforcement of the power of the State.
    -Albert Camus

  8. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by otherone View Post
    You've missed my point. All of the things that you have written that indicate that we are "safer" as a society justify the existence of a powerful government, according to statists. For instance, violent crime reduction is due to increased incarceration rates; auto deaths wane when there is increased police presence on the highways.
    Actually, I understood your point perfectly - I just restated it. The fears were irrational to begin with, so any claim they make that they are responsible for eliminating the threat is a false one. The best they can do is a show a marginal correlation, but they cannot show any causation. Any time you concentrate on a problem - without actually doing anything or spending any money to change anything - the problem will marginally get better.
    "And now that the legislators and do-gooders have so futilely inflicted so many systems upon society, may they finally end where they should have begun: May they reject all systems, and try liberty; for liberty is an acknowledgment of faith in God and His works." - Bastiat

    "It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere." - Voltaire

  9. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by tod evans View Post
    A simple cost analysis doesn't balance out for me...

    Cost in lost freedom or in money..
    Theye care not about that.

    The Safety Uber Alles culture has taken hold to the point now theye are claiming that accidents can be brought to zero.

    Over three times the number of people die in slips, trips and falls around the home, than those that die due to "drunk driving" or riding motorcycles without helmets, combined.

    So how much longer before there is mandatory fall arresting gear and 24/7 helmet use made mandatory?



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  11. #9
    fear makes money=follow the money.

    you can relax now.



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