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.

Undersupply of Civil Disobedience

According to many defenders that I've spoken with, we must have Government for the provision of 'public' goods. Of course, these folk tend to ignore or discount the public bads that governments produce, such as institutionalized theft to pay for wars, oppression, regulatory capture, and tragedies of the commons in traffic, street trash, environmental resources, etc.

Even many libertarians rise to defend the right of Government to provision a mafia of armed personnel to protect us from each other. You can easily identify these gang members by their blue uniforms. I believe that their widespread influence, stifles heroic acts of civil disobedience, leading to a woeful under-supply of individuals with the courage and willingness to stand for a better world.

These individuals often bear very high personal costs for their "crimes." For example, Gandi resided in prison many years over many instances of peaceful noncooperation. In every step of his attempts to free India from British rule, Gandi fell victim to state violence. He fought for the autonomy of his countrymen, and paid with his life. He valued India's sovereignty so passionately, that he allowed the cause to consume his life.

Seldom does a civil disobedient reap the rewards of their efforts. The tax protester, Erwin Schiff sits today rotting in a cell for refusing to fund his oppressors. So afraid are the people of having encounters with the   polizei, that they do not join the resistance. The protester then stands alone.

Government policies tend to isolate us from each other, and make us systematically dependent on government aid. Schools indoctrinate us to believe that the blue shirts always act reasonably, in spite of clear evidence to the contrary. The media tries daily to convince us that we cannot be trusted with the means of defending ourselves. No wonder so many shy away from the protestor instead of lending support.

Not to mention that the typical disobedients find themselves facing imprisonment, possibly death, as the media stirs up an outrage. They face certain mistreatment in everyday life when recognized as "that guy", including ridicule, opprobrium, and social isolation.

For many individual that would like to take a grasp for more autonomy, this cost outweighs the benefits. They choose instead to suffer continued systematic mistreatment, because, well, they've been able to endure up till now, what's one more day? Compared to the costs and risks of fleeing for freedom, most can suffer an extra day as a slave.

The civil disobedient produces a public good. They cannot control who receives the benefits of a change in government policy. But, thanks to the armed hitmen that government uses to enforce the ridiculuous legislation drafted by crony businessmen and enacted by clueless politicians, we wait for individuals as dedicated as Gandi for the world to become an incrementally better place.

But must we wait for the dedicated individual to lead a path to freedom? The civil disobedient that stands up against government oppression makes a better world for us all. Do we really want a system that requires such individuals to have a radically higher valuation of their freedom vs. continued oppression? Must we wait until one of us simply won't take it anymore?

Let's reduce the size of government and disband the thugs in blue uniforms! We can govern ourselves, and the more obvious limited bailiwick of private police will engender an increase of the public good known as civil disobedience.

I dedicate this post to recent disobedients:
Ed Snowden - who revealed a massive NSA spying program, and who lives in exile and can never return to his home.
Chelsea Manning - who revealed video of U.S. government atrocities carried out in Iraq and Afghanistan, and who rots in prison.
Aaron Swartz - who committed suicide after being labeled a felon for intent to violate copyright on scientific research.