Opinion: Don't make government important to you

Government has become too important in our daily lives. Not because it’s actually important to our existence, but because it interferes with everything we do, and then threatens to hurt us if we resist its meddling.

A leaky roof or a crumbling foundation is important for the same reason.

I’ve had intoxicated acquaintances get in my face and hang all over me. I hated to be around them or to run into them. They were not a benefit to my life, but they made themselves important and hard to ignore because they were a problem.

I try to avoid contact with government and its representatives for exactly the same reason.

Yet, government is so much worse than any individual. Drunk friends don’t imagine they have a right to be in your face or to control everything you do, 24 hours per day. Government representatives do.

I’ve seen lists of things -- things that violate no one in any way -- that were normal and legal 100 years ago, but are now either illegal or licensed. “Licensed” means “illegal without paying government for the privilege of doing something you have a natural human right to do.” It’s a long list, and it’s incomplete.

Government didn’t suddenly get the right to forbid or ration these things; it stole these things from the people. From you. You’ve been robbed and probably didn’t even realize it. We’ve become too complacent, and too willing to put up with it.

It’s past time the people started taking these things back. It’s time to reduce government’s influence in our lives; to make it safe to ignore government’s demands and the opinions of the political criminals who come together to form governments.

One way to free yourself is to realize a license from government is not the same as a credential. Credentials can be valid; a government license never is.

If you learn a skill and get credentials from a trade group, saying you have earned their certification, I’m going to trust that you know what you’re doing. A driver’s license is proof that government licenses are meaningless where competence is concerned. It’s merely a way for government to rob, control, and threaten you.

Don’t ask government for permission, but don’t ask it for help, either. Both make government important to you. Both erode your natural authority over your own life. This isn’t something you want anyone to take from you.

Farwell’s Kent McManigal champions liberty. Contact him at:

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