Dear Friends,
It seems to me, that which is set by culture, should be changed by culture and not legislation. Today the elite have the opposite idea. They believe government legislation can right all wrongs. That is partially why we see so much regulation. Nearly every aspect of human existence is regulated by some arcane government rule. This mindset has pervaded the people, to the extent most just accept regulation as the solution to all ills, at face value. Despite decades of examples that prove regulation only makes problems worse, and examples that the culture can do miracles, people still believe the fiction. The government monopoly school system is largely to blame for this. Look at the different results of the “war on drugs,” and the anti cigarette campaigns.
In the 1950s, almost everyone smoked and very few took drugs. Rod Serling, the creator of the Twilight Zone, smoked a cigarette while introducing his show. In old episodes of Rockford Files from the 1970s people would light up a cigarette in someone’s home without even asking if it is okay. Cigarettes were far more acceptable and embedded in our culture than drugs have ever been. Yet today cigarette smoking has seen a dramatic decrease while the scourge of drugs has become an epidemic. The one, cigarettes, was controlled by culture while the other, drugs, has been controlled by regulation. In and of itself, showing at least anecdotally that regulation makes problems worse, while changing the culture can make things better.
Not all cultural changes are positive though. While the cultural elite were very nearly unanimous that cigarette use should be curtailed, they also promoted drug use and the drug culture. Drugs were depicted to be cool while cigarettes were shown to be disgusting. As the people, and especially children who are far more susceptible to propaganda, became immersed in the pro drug / anti cigarette cultures, the use of cigarettes declined rapidly, despite their being legal, while drug use expanded dramatically, eve though drugs are illegal. Knowing this it is hard to deny the cultural elite have more power to change people’s perceptions than any amount of regulation, no matter how draconian.
Any time I suggest to a progressive that regulations should be dialed way back they always come up with the excuse, what about drugs, corporate malfeasance, toxic waste dumps and the children? Then they sit back with a smug grin that they have caught me. Of course the easy answer is the cultural difference between cigarettes and drugs but one can think much deeper than that. The culture of our corporations is that of the new class and was transmitted to them by our universities. It is a toxic culture of the ends justifying the means, of class separation, and of elitism. How many times have you heard the term, “flyover country?” That epitomizes the culture of the new class, namely they believe themselves to be the smartest, wisest and most concerned people, while the rest of us hoi polloi are miscreants in dire need of being put in our place. In short, the problems they exclaim can only be solved by regulation, are created by culture, and will only be made worse by regulation.
It is attractive though, the idea that any problem can be solved by government regulation and spending. When I was in the first grade, there was a publication disseminated to the schools. In one edition there was a story how Nixon was coming to terms with democrats about spending. The article said, democrats believe that almost any problem can be solved if only you spend enough, while republicans believe spending cannot solve every problem. In my six year old first grade mind, I thought to myself, “Of course! If you spend enough any problem can be solved!” Regulation is the same, it is mentally lazy to think that any problem can be solved by regulation as well. But I ask you, can we spend enough to stop a hurricane, what about regulating racism away, is it possible to solve hunger by regulation or spending for that matter? The easy answer is yes, the correct one is a resounding, no!
So here we are, with problems galore and multiplying exponentially, seemingly all are intractable. The scourge of drugs is at an all time high despite the war on drugs, corporations are off the rails as far as corruption goes, we have political violence on our streets not seen since NAZI Germany, our politicians don’t care about Constitutional limitations or our nation’s good, immigration is impoverishing entire nations and gun crime is out of control, in the very places with the toughest laws against guns. Regulation has not solved any problem, anywhere at anytime, yet it is always the fall back position. Meanwhile we have definitive proof that changing the culture can actually solve our problems. If we truly want to solve our most intractable problems, then all we need do is look at the template of the anti cigarette campaigns, and simply change the culture. Einstein said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result, by that standard our culture, government and indeed the people themselves are insane.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
