Mark wrote: >The only argument I know of to counter it -- and I think it needs to > be taken very seriously -- is the "slippery slope" argument: once we let > government control our behavior on the basis that it might end up imposing a > social cost, then almost anything is subject to regulation or restriction or > elimination. Eating red meat is more riskyt than eating vegetables, no? > Kayaking may just be too risky even to be allowed at all. Mark, I agree with your post 100%. We have only to look at the Guiliani-imposed police state, the "gang rape" of the tobacco companies, and the havoc wrought by the nefarious "War on Drugs" to see where the "social-cost" argument leads. Eventually, kayaking will be forbidden as too risky and equipment suppliers regulated and then fined because they "should have known" their products could cause deaths. Those who think this could never happen should consider that regulations almost always increase in number and harshness; they are seldom relaxed. (This stems from the autocatalytic nature of systems development.) However, IMO there is little point in continuing this thread, because no one is convincing anyone else. You nailed the underlying disagreement with your statement about not wanting a sanitized society. The question is what relative value one puts on pesonal freedom versus order. If freedom is your highest value, you are willing to sacrifice order and take the consequences. If you value order, you will sacrifice individual freedom to the "good of society." You may respect, understand, and appreciate the opposing arguments, but you will dismiss them because you don't value the kind of society to which they lead. Whether one labels PFD enforcement "harassment" or "legitimate police enforcement" depends on much deeper values and assumptions that ultimately will carry us far off topic. Rick *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced/forwarded outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Fri Sep 08 2000 - 09:24:06 PDT
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:30:31 PDT