Pseudo cross-post of Presbycast's "Jaywalk for Machen!"
(But not officially cross-posted, because my comment is too long to fit in the cross-post box!)
I wanted to share this short post from Presbycast with you, about presbyterian extraordinaire J. Gresham Machen (1881 - 1937). You know, I appreciate people who speak out against a new problem while it is still in its baby-phase, before almost anyone else has even noticed it exists, because they can see how it is going to grow. The context here is Machen speaking against crosswalks - yes crosswalks! I myself am not against crosswalks, use 'em all the time, have even emailed MDOT asking for new crosswalks (which we eventually got). Machen would probably be horrified at me. But it is interesting to read his reasoning here and consider to what else it may apply. Basically:
1. We teach people to do only what an authority tells them they may do, and so they never learn how to exercise reasonable care themselves. (Surely that isn't a problem today, surely.)
2. The point of crosswalks is not really to protect pedestrians, but to teach motorists that the road is really theirs, and protect them from the terrible inconvenience of humans by restricting the human crossings to a few locations. (Ah, Machen both a libertarian and in favor of walkable cities, my heart beats.)
3. But most importantly, the over-regulation and "excessive mechanization of human life" harms the mentality of the people who must live under it. Say what you will of crosswalks specifically, as a general principle this is undeniably true.
YOU CAN GO READ THE WHOLE THING NOW. Thanks Presbycast.
There's a book, In The Secret Service, by an agent, Jerry Parr, who was the main guy on hand when Reagan was shot. At one point Parr says, "I learned to trust my own instincts. We all had to improvise . . . we learned to make do with what we had."
It seems that in every technological country, fewer and fewer people are able to act on their own, and on instinct, to do something good.
I keep a car, well okay multiple, and probably always will until the collapse. However, I am 100% favor of making cars second class citizens everywhere but on freeways.