In my house, we love cats. And we take really good care of them – two of our last three lived past the age of eighteen. For a housecat, that’s extreme old age. My Lizzie died a few months ago. I was (and still am) heartbroken. But after a suitable period of mourning, we decided to get a couple of kittens. Oh. Dear. God! What an ordeal! We’ve been to several different ‘cat shelters’ and even to a cat adoption event put on by a group that calls themselves SNARL – how appropriate – and without exception, every one of them have a huge, long application process just for you to get a cat! They require a home visit (a video walk-through is acceptable), and they absolutely insist that the cat must NEVER go outdoors. At any time. For any reason. Ever. Well, okay, I figured I could lie my way through that bit, but then this very serious girl behind the table informed me that if the cat ever got out, was found and scanned, the chip would go off and they would be informed of the infraction. And then they would come and take away my cat! Excuse me, but is this not my animal? How do you get to take away my cat? I’m not bad to cats – an eighteen and a twenty year old cat having lived in my house should say something about the way I treat the animals. Nope – application denied. You know what? If I don’t actually own the animal, you keep it. And no, I’m not giving you a donation.
I could not believe that these self-righteous, self-appointed guardians of the feline population were not only being allowed to get away with this ridiculous sham of ‘cat adoptions’ but were even being actively abetted by the local authorities. Cats are not the same as dogs. Dogs have always shared our caves and huts, cats never did. Dogs are domesticated animals, cats are almost always legally considered wild animals. Caging a wild animal is a far worse crime than letting it risk its life amongst coyotes and cars. These nosy Pollyannas are creating a worse problem than the one they’re trying to ‘fix’.
But this points up a whole slew of other groups of ‘concerned citizens’ – busybodies, really – who think they should be able to tell you how to live. They poke into your houses, your jobs, your private amusements – carrying their white gloves, their book of Rules (newly minted) and their superior sneers – and pick, pick, pick at everything. You can’t do this, you can’t look at that, no smoking, no drinking, no PDA – or Heaven help you, they will bring down the power of the law on you, evildoer. Strange how many of these people are named ‘Karen’. (Don’t even get me started on Home Owner’s Associations.) They’re better than you are, they know it, and by God, they’re going to make sure you know it, too. I’m sure you can think of a half-dozen groups like this without even trying hard – some ‘religious’, some not. I promise you, there’s a special place in Hell for busybodies. But it gets worse.
A little digression into history: can anyone name the worst mistake America ever made, championed and steamrollered by a slew of well-meaning, self-righteous busybodies? Answer: Constitutional Amendment #18 – Prohibition. The Women’s Christian Temperance Union and other groups campaigned ceaselessly for years until this amendment was created and passed. The WCTU wanted, and got, all alcoholic drinks removed from the shelves of every shop in the United States. The intention was to rid the land of ‘Demon Rum’, that “destroyer of lives, homewrecker and creator of poverty and woe”. What it did instead was to create a thirst for alcohol unseen in this country prior to that time. Think about it – if you’re not allowed to have something, that makes you want it ten times more. And if it could not be had legally, then Organized Crime was happy to fill the need. Prior to 1917, the Mob was mostly a local problem in New York and Chicago. Petty criminals for the most part, suddenly they had money and fame – lots of both. Mob bosses became movie stars, everyone knew someone who could ‘get ‘em the goods’, and it became fashionable to be seen with criminals and speak their lingo. The 21st Amendment repealed the 18th in 1933, but the damage was done. Consider – prior to 1917, parents used to tell their kids, “If you get lost or separated from Mommy and Daddy, find a policeman. Policemen are your friends.” How many parents would say that today? Judges were pillars of the community, lawyers were upright defenders of the Law and Truth. (Politicians had always been seen as a little crooked.) After Prohibition, there was a complete change in the way we perceived lawyers, judges and police. Judges were crooked, lawyers were sharks, police were ‘on the take’. The entire fabric of American society was eroded because a bunch of ‘goody-two-shoes’ types got their way and flexed their idea of the way America should run. Horrifying.
Don’t let this happen again. Take back your freedom, people. There’s a lot of other people out there trying to take it from you. Not just the criminals and crooked politicians, but the ones who claim to be working in your best interests – they usually aren’t. Freedom doesn’t mean the right (duty?) to be what other people tell you to be. Freedom means the right to do whatever you want, be whatever you want, think and say whatever you want, as long as you’re not doing it to hurt others. And if you make a little money doing what you want, good on you. Just be careful. Those same people who tried to take your freedom away will also try to steal your money, either claiming it was always theirs, or by insisting you got the money through unfair and illegal means – they will try to take it from you. Don’t let them. We’ll cover this in another blog.
People feel really lost and powerless these days – they shouldn’t. You are not powerless. Modern technology has levelled the playing field in ways undreamt-of by its creators. You can Tweet someone out of office, or into it. You can create nation-wide activism using social media. Is the government spying on you? Damn right it is – spy right back. A little-known stock trading app damn near crashed Wall Street. You Have the Power. Go use it the right way – topple dictatorships, crush monopolies and destroy terrorism. But please, for the love of God – don’t be self-righteous and bitchy about it. Don’t be so damned Good.
pax et ama
TGC