Just to continue with yesterday’s theme a bit: Now that we have a full-blown nanny state that not only knows what’s best for us and writes rules and regulations for us based on that knowledge, wouldn’t it make sense just to take the untrustworthy and unreliable factor out of the equation? Now that we’ve got information technology and artificial intelligence, couldn’t we just have our governments restrict our behaviors by limiting our capacity for everyday rule-breaking?
Why, yes, we could—thanks to all the tech! In the context of motor vehicles, which these days are packed with computers measuring and adjusting operations thousands of times a minute, this rule enforcement could be implemented tomorrow, probably. You just need a vehicle built anywhere in the last decade or so. The vehicle could restrict your speed flexibly to the posted limit. It could make you obey stop signs and traffic lights.
Heck, right now, most intersections with traffic lights could snap photos of those who run red lights and send them a bill by mail. Speed limit cameras could be posted along most roads, too, for that matter, to catch and fine speeders. That’s a low-tech capability that’s been in use in Germany for decades now. And it satisfies a peculiarly German human need to see others’ scofflaw behaviors punished. At least in instances where you think the other guy shouldn’t be able to get away with stuff you’re too meek to try yourself. Why are you looking at me like that? Stop looking at me like that!
At any rate, we accept all this government oversight in so many other realms of our lives entirely without complaint. We’ve got building codes and permits to modify our homes. We have health and medical care based on government standards of care; doctors who suggest or offer treatments outside the officially approved standards risk losing their insurance, licenses, and livelihoods. Even our paychecks are docked by our employers who send our tax debts straight to the government before we even have a chance to dodge them. Soon, the government will limit the types of energy we can consume so as to satisfy the requirements of our governing betters.
Is freedom really just another word for, uh, nothing left to lose? Or is it just a feel-good marketing slogan we can mumble to ourselves to distract from its persistent absence?
Good evening (it's just past 5 here).
Mr. Catoggio has just put up a new column, and I felt he makes a good point, so I told him so. (This is why I don't unsubscribe to his e-mailed columns; occasionally he is right on target.)
Good afternoon. It isn't above freezing yet, but it's sunny out, and warm enough that the ice melter on the steps is working fine. So I went down to the basement and did some laundry.
I still intend to catch up on my Liz Cheney reports. That's on the agenda for maybe tomorrow. We'll see. I have to watch my recording of The View from last week, and take notes.