Hey, get outta the way of the TV, son!
One of the coolest book titles is “How I found freedom in an unfree world,” penned by Harry Browne, a self-made writer/thinker/commentator guy who seems to know how to take life as it comes and deal with things rationally.
I snared a copy of the book because the title intrigued me. Who says you can’t judge a book by the cover?
I don’t agree with a lot of the stuff in the book, but I’ll admit that Browne has a common sense approach to things. His basic tenant is that you can approach a problem one of two ways: you can solve it yourself, or you can whine for others to solve it for you.
Seems logical enough to me. If you want your kids to learn to read, you can either teach them to read, or complain that the school system isn’t doing its job well enough. Which approach would be more effective?
And, more to the point, which approach is easier?
If you want a job, you can go get a job, or write letters to the editor saying that the world isn’t fair and that it owes you a living.
There are, of course, situations in which you have to throw yourself at the mercy of someone else. We all count on our friends for help. And we need the pros to step in sometimes–when I got pole-axed by the flu a few months ago, I dragged myself to Doc Sterns here on island and put my faith in his judgement and curative powers. Without such help I would have surely slithered under a rock and awaited the merciful arrival of death.
Slithering under a rock is an extreme case, but I marvel at how Joe Average has cultivated the philosophy that he can’t ever tackle his own problems, that the modern age is an age of institutions that demand compliance with their mountains of regulations, but which can be appealed to for “help.” It’s a two way deal: you give up your freedom, and they let you dodge responsibility for tackling your own problems. Result: you don’t have the freedom to solve your own problems even if you wanted to. Freedom in an unfree world…
Of course, some degree of institutional order is necessary to maintain the blessings of civilization and progress. I’ve got no problem with that. Rules of the road, for example–be they on the pavement, in the air, or on the seas–are a reasonable way to approach things. Fair enough. Prosperous civilizations are founded on the rule of sound law, and I’m happy with that.
But the world at large–and the Commonwealth is sure at the forefront of this–seems to crave the face of authority to solve a zillion “social” problems. This is where I get mystified.
When the average American watches four hours of television a day, we can safely say he’s given up any hope of taking charge of his own life. It’s easier to be a spectator in life, I suppose, remote control in hand, snarling at how the government is responsible for the fact that Junior just staggered in the door reeking of illicit substances, can’t read, thinks Pythagorus is a sexually transmitted ailment, just crashed the car, has a bleak future, and, dammit, he’s in the way of the television!
How could this be the government’s fault? How could this be, by extension, my fault as one of the governed? Get real.
An Asian businessman recently characterized America as “a nation of couch potatoes breeding another generation of the same.” Bingo. Couch potatoes hold the majority now, and the few thinking souls remaining will scramble to find freedom is an increasingly unfree world.