Government Road Hazards, Part 1: Cones of Danger

Last weekend I broke my bicycle. In the afternoon, I rode it to Cal State Fullerton to make use of their library as a study hall. Then, after a good few hours of programming on my webstore, which acts as a time-sink preventing me from ranting on this here blog, I proceeded to ride my bicycle back home.

Now, the brilliant road engineers at caltrans have been taking their sweet time updating one of the Yorba Linda to 57 North onramps. For the past month, at least, and quite possibly longer, they have left unrepaired a missing section of sidewalk. The curb remains intact, but the walkway no longer has one of its concrete blocks. In its place, the government road engineers have left a patch of dirt. But they thoughtfully installed some traffic cones to warn pedestrians of the danger.

Because of the thickness of the concrete, the dirt patch sits a few inches below the walkway. As a pedestrian, I would feel this to be a minor inconvenience, unless rain had made the dirt into mud. But that would still be just a regular inconvenience. As a cyclist, I had to use the sidewalk, due to an absence of a bicycle lane. I would rather not go over the sharp cornered bumps of the missing section of walkway, so I bravely challenged the thin sliver of curb.

On the way to Fullerton, I successfully navigated this section of walkway. But the sun shone bright at that time. After hacking on code for a few hours, the natural light seriously waned. Car headlights behind me proved unreliable and sporadic at lighting the sidewalk.  So this time, due to a lack of illumination, when I tried to navigate along that sliver of curb, I didn't quite line myself up correctly.

Then it hit me. That dumb traffic cone. Shoved the derailure right into the back spokes. I wasn't travelling super slowly, because I wanted to keep my balance. So the energy tore the spokes out of the rim, the bike and I slipped off the curb, and in the process seriously dented the back wheel. No way would I be riding home. I pushed the bike for the remaining 1.5 miles, rhythmically applying some extra effort every time the dented section of wheel turned through the back fork.

It probably won't do any good, but I'll be sending the government an invoice for the bicycle repair. The presence of the cones not only show their awareness of the hazard, and negligence for not repairing it, but also reveal a malicious intent to make the area more hazardous.

My Expedition To Liberty

For as far back as I can remember, I've been strongly anti-political. Mostly because of a passionate distaste for anything to do with people, their internal and external conflicts, their weird idiosyncrasies, and especially their emotional adherence to logically conflicted ideas. Of course, I spent my time studying science and engineering, where I thought I might be able to escape political maneuverings.

During my college years, one of my dormmates strongly encouraged me to read Ayn Rand. So in one week-long bout of depression caused by feelings of inadequacy when comparing myself to the smart individuals in my major, I read Atlas Shrugged. It took the entire week. John Galt's speech alone took at least 3 of those hours. By the time that I reached the end of the tale, a new perspective had taken hold in my mind.

Rand spun a straightforward story about the economic consequences of political behavior. She demonstrated how the motivations and incentives of people operating under collectivism doom themselves to equality in poverty. The tome contains many examples of how decisions made via political favoritism fail in comparison to the evidence-based resource allocation that takes place under profiteering capitalists.

From Atlas I gently moved over into objectivism, but never became passionately committed to the philosophy. Incongruous with my desire for a simple black and white view of the world and people in it, I found that objectivism spoke with too much assurance. I felt its adherents had a religion with Rand as their deceased goddess. Also, they practically worshiped intellectual property, which I could not brook after having followed the DeCSS case about DVD decryption in the late 1990's.

So, after navigating the shoals of selfishness espoused by Rand, I drifted aimlessly for a few years. I disengaged from anything remotely related to politics. I acquired a stable job working in a government lab, and stood by as my soul languished from a lack of technical challenge to my skills.  But I saw, in countless examples, large and small, the waste of bureaucracy.

Finally, my soul had been taxed enough, and I left for graduate school. For the first year I devoted extracurricular time to atheism and an attempt to understand religious thought. I finally learned that (a) logic does not convince anyone because (b) devotion fulfills social and emotional psychological needs. I discovered that my pursuit of a world view, with internal logical consistency and compatibility with the evidence I see and read about, makes me abnormal.

Once I finally admitted that I, no matter how educated I became on the topic, I would remain unable to convince the world to give up their belief systems, I permitted myself to become distracted with education in my major. I also read about economics, from small celebrities such as Peter Schiff and Doug Casey. Through these folk, I again discovered political philosophy. Again, with the same free-market economic foundations espoused by Rand.

Inevitably, I read Rothbard. He captivated my attention with direct, clear, and amusing statements about the nature of government. His writing captivated my attention with a underlying grandiose story of good, represented by human action under economic restraints, verses evil, represented by heavyweight government. He consistently and passionately argued for the individual verses the mob. How could I not route for underdog with him? He took me from liberty for the individual to freedom for all.

Then came Walter Block, and his hate for the state, and Tom Woods with his average joe appeal, and Jeffrey Tucker with his examples of the little things that government does to make our lives dirtier and dingier. Finally, David Friedman, who has shown, speculated, and documented more examples of systems alternative to government than any other author I've read so far.

The writings and speeches of these folk, with their willingness to identify the evils of the state, their ability to consistently offer a position out of the mainstream, their demonstration of the intellectual effort and stamina which that takes, and their welcoming, but analytically critical, attitude have become my mental staple. I may have drifted through Rand on the road to liberty, but these folk give me a bedrock.

In thanks to them, and their knowledge, I now give back in what manner I can. I attend libertarian events, both because I enjoy like-minded company and because I want to show bodily support. I write in promotion of liberty on my blog. Mostly pointing out the ways in which government interference cost everyone like a thousand clippings from the paper dollars that represent ones income, but always to promote the idea that freedom, the ability of people to work out problems on their own, yields better successes. When my friends and coworkers point out something unjust in the world, I can always find a government tentacle that created it.

Finally, I recently learned to promote agorism and individual economic independence from government. I'm privately working, and advocating, ways to escape taxation, so that I can help others to give up their devotion to the rulers, lay down their economic chains, and live free, with all the responsibility and respect due a actualized adult.