I'm re-reading the excellent work "The Liberal Mind" by Kenneth Minogue and plan to blog on it later. I originally read it in 2000 before I started blogging my books. The book is very academic / intellectual and points out that the roots of "liberalism" contain the strain of "libertarianism", and the book documents how the desire for "total agreement" has trumped the libertarian strain over the years.
I ran into thos column while looking up the rules for riding UTVs on roads in IA and found it to be an excellent example of the liberal mind.
The modern liberal mind is often described as "ideas so good they must be mandatory!". On issues of "safety", "liberals" have long ago decided that they know better than any individual what trade-offs ought to be made in order for one to be made as safe as "liberals" deem ought be required.
From seat belts, air bags and a chorus of warning gongs and lights in our cars, motorcycle helmet laws, gas cans that don't pour, packages that don't open and various attempts to restrict fireworks to disallow even the lowly sparkler, "liberals" have our best interests in mind, and THEY know what those interests are FAR better than we do! In fact, they use the force of law to make CERTAIN that we follow their wishes, lest they be forced to fine or jail us "for our own good".
The linked article is fairly standard fare -- there are a bunch of ATVs/UTVs out there, people want to drive them on the highway, they aren't as safe as cars, CHILDREN might be hurt, THEREFORE, ban the them from the road! Simple.
As is pointed out in some detail in "Coddling", life is actually about more than "safety". Is it better to die in a recreational accident at 14 or commit suicide at 24? Obviously, we are thankfully talking about relatively small numbers for ATV/UTV deaths ... order 500 deaths per year ... for suicide, the numbers are not so small -- suicide deaths are order 45K a year and rising. What we are beginning to understand is that some level of risk taking may well be at least a near requirement for a worthwhile human life -- apparently sitting in your bedroom with a cell phone and a video game console, while "safe", is actually not actually "a life". Churchill said that "there is nothing quite so exhilerating as being shot at without effect". It may well be that without some actaul (NOT "imagined") exhilerating danger in life, either our spirit or our brains are tragically stunted.
The Iowa House of Representatives sided with the industry, approving the bill on a vote of 75-22. Thankfully, Democrats in the Iowa Senate believed the health and safety of Iowans was more important than the profits of ATV dealers and put a stop to the legislation. But that action did nothing with regard to county roads, which is why counties continue to pass ordinances allowing ATVs on their roads.
State legislators should ban ATVs from public roads, and while they’re at it, they should take a hard look at the existing state law on age limits. Today in Iowa, a child of any age can drive an all-terrain vehicle of any size on private property, without regard to training, certification or parental supervision. That’s a prescription for disaster.Letting people decide what their children are capable of doing on their own private property is "a prescription for disaster" in the liberal mind. Only the Nanny State may decide what is "good" and "prudent" in the liberal state. What they totally fail to understand is that "life" is not equivalent to "safety". One of the old benefits of Christian Faith was the idea that this mortal coil was only a prelude to a greater life to follow. It was a life to be LIVED in gratitude and joy, NOT a life to be hidden away by like the man that hid the talent in the parable of the talents (Matt 25 14:30).
"Liberals" have a remarkable tendency to destroy all they touch -- as the suicide rate climbs we have excellent evidence that they have succeeded in destroying the joy in life itself!
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