H/T:
Small Dead AnimalsSo imagine you live in a small English village that has a sad, dilapidated memorial to those who had given their lives in defense of your country. A seven year old boy is so committed to restoring the memorial that he saves money to buy his own landscaping tools and spends hundreds of hours over the next twelve years tending to the site. He is even commended by the Queen herself. But who is a mere monarch compared to the army of petty politicians, bureaucrats, and police enforcers? The young man and a 65 year old fellow from the village have been accused of property damage and theft because they activated a water line that was already in place for the purpose of watering the plants around the memorial.
I find this story such a demonstrative example of what it is to have a bureaucracy unrestrained and unafraid of the citizenry. We think of tyranny on the bigger scale, but really the bulk of it is very low level and insidious. One of its favored weapons is that of deliberate absurdity, like 2+2=5 in
1984, just for the sake of blatantly reminding the serf of their place by subjecting them to an obvious falsehood. You see examples of it virtually everywhere -- petty bureaucrats exercising authority over others just because they can. The real "crime" these two volunteers committed is this one:
Mr Green, whose grandfather fought in the Second World War, was quizzed for two hours at a police station after he added a pipe to water the flowers without permission.
It had nothing to do with what he actually did, it's that he did not kiss the ring of the Godfather and obtain special dispensation.
That is the truly unforgivable crime when statists are concerned.
A couple of the comments at SDA nailed it:
There is nothing the statist crowd hates more than personal initiative. These two should have taken it before council so there could be environmental studies, permits 1ssued, fees collected, a crew of 5 unionized workers and 3 supervisors assigned and the bill sent to ratepayers. That's how it is done today. No wonder government is broke.
Posted by: JMD on May 8, 2013 11:53 AM | Reply
Somewhere Orwell is smiling knowingly and saying "I told you so".
This is the post-democratic new intolerant authoritarian governing order hard at work at the local level. Unless EVERYONE in Britain is as outraged at this injustice as the person they are targeting, the control freaks have won. Thy only do this stuff because they no longer fear public rage at their poorly disguised tyranny. They feel the bulk of the population have been dumbed down and slavishly compliant from state indoctrinating and the constant pimping of unreasoning statism in the MSM.
If we do not all rally behind these individuals the martinet state and its control freak lackeys every time they single some poor soul out for state sanctioned bullying, it will only get worse. England is screwed now because of their inherent subserviency (due to class system/subject mentality subordination) and wide apathy towards a bullying state. They haven't the guts to get in big brother's face.
The sad fact history leaves is that it is best to neuter a would be tyranny before it gets too strong to stop - the UK passed the point of no return after Thatcher. The will and vigilance to slap the ruling class back into line when they violate a free man's rights is gone, and so is Britain's civil liberty. I wish Nigel Farage well in his quest to turn the decline around, but I fear it is too late. I hope I'm wrong about that, but I see no glimmer of hope to think otherwise.
Posted by: Occam on May 8, 2013 11:58 AM | Reply
The full story is here:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2317962/Teenager-tends-war-memorial-village-12-years--council-accuses-criminal-damage-added-pipe-water-plants.html
