Friday, October 15, 2010

From: Craig Lindsay
Sent: Friday, October 15, 2010 9:18 AM
To: Pivetta, Tony
Subject: RE: Saturday


I feel sorry for your daughter.

Craig Lindsay

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From: Pivetta, Tony [mailto:tpivetta@gchosp.org]
Sent: Friday, October 15, 2010 9:09 AM
To: Craig
Subject: RE: Saturday

Works for me.

And if it doesn’t work for me, I can just tailgate by myself. Nobody’s forcing me to go to Peanut Barrel. Theoretically, you and Mary could force me, by waving a gun in my face and kidnapping me. But the odds of that happening are Slim to None—and Slim left town long ago.

Now the government, in its infinite wisdom, could force me to go to Peanut Barrel with you. It could cite some Overriding Public Interest to justify pointing a gun at me and forcing me to go to Peanut Barrel. Maybe East Lansing businesses are feeling the pinch in the current economic climate; in response, the government clamps down on tailgating because the activity reduces revenue for struggling East Lansing businesses. Maybe people who tailgate by themselves are more likely to drink to excess and drive recklessly. Maybe they’re more likely to smoke politically incorrect plant products.

The wonder is not that some people, i.e., those employed by the State, want to force other people, i.e., the rest of us peons, to do things we prefer not to do. The wonder is that so many of the peons believe this kind of legalized protection racket advances the Overriding Public Interest. As if a centralized mayhem apparatus were any more likely to foster civil order than just letting self-policing human interactions play themselves out. As if mayhem itself weren’t intrinsically disordered. As if NATO and drug laws don’t totally suck.

The brutes we always have with us. Whether freelance or on government payroll, the brutes create chaos. The existence of brutishness is a fact of life in this fallen world. But centralizing the brutishness and calling it a State does nothing to advance the quest for order and civility. All it does is centralize the chaos.

Tony
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From: Craig
Sent: Friday, October 15, 2010 8:28 AM
To: Pivetta, Tony
Subject: Saturday

The boss informed me this morning that we are doing Peanut Barrel tomorrow. Blast off no later than 7:45.

I have no hand.

Craig

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