Advice & Guidance

Taking the fight to the enemy; Part 1

Now I'm not much of a Libertarian, mainly because I know too much about my fellow man and am not overly impressed. Although I strongly believe that people should be allowed to do pretty much what they please, so long as it brings no quantifiable harm to others. Yet conversely I also am a firm believer in the rule of law. People need structure and protection that certain laws, and their even handed enforcement, are supposed to provide. Without that protection, we all might as well go armed during our daily round, dealing with wrongdoers according to our own personal moral code. To me at least, that is not acceptable.

The trouble is with law that there's always a lot of what some enforcement types call 'mission creep'. The expansion of law into areas not hitherto subject to its ministrations. Specifically their misuse; creating a worse series of injustices than the ones they were meant to get rid of.

There's currently a lot of that currently going on in Australia, where farmers are being forced off their land following complaints from vociferous minorities. A case in point is that of the Thompson family; law abiding, taxpaying people who complied with all the rules and regulations concerning an agricultural operation, yet now find themselves facing eviction from their own property after 21 complaints about the odour from their beef raising feedlot operation, for which the correct permissions had been obtained. The whole sorry saga is being covered extensively on Jo Nova's blog, and also over at Wattsupwiththat. If you wish to help the Thompsons to stay on their own land there is a 'Donate' button.

The problem is that this sort of thing is happening more and more in the Western world. Environmental laws rightly designed for the purpose of coming down heavily upon serious polluters are being used for enforcing comparatively petty complaints about 'smell'. In short the law becomes a NIMBY's charter to abuse at will. Having had a little experience with such people, I would say this; it's no use trying to reason with the complainers; nor is there any point. These are people with minds so small you couldn't swing a Gnat in them, never mind the proverbial moggy. These are people, who when confronted with something the rest of us would simply ignore good humouredly, over react, thrash about, and end up smashing other's lives like wilful children kill flies. Without conscience or remorse. Which is in a sense exactly what said complainers are. Ignorant, wilful, selfish and childish.

The only reasonable course of action seems to be to use the tools the complainers use against the heretofore law abiding. Specifically, constructed outrage; exaggeration of specific emotive points; targeted protest; and a very liberal attitude to the facts. Greensleaze and various similar groups have employed these tactics for decades. Perhaps it is time those affronted by the misuse of environmental laws took a leaf out of the eco-campaigners handbook.

For those interested I will be covering various suggested points in a series of tutorial style posts constructed in a 'how to' fashion taken from the handbook of the very enemies of liberty themselves. The first is a suggested short script treatment based around the plight of the Thompson family in Western Australia, with various suggested 'do's' and 'don'ts' on how to construct such a piece. At no time will I suggest or condone breaking the law in terms of violent confrontation or other anti-social behaviour. That is a line I personally am not prepared to cross. Violence is, as my proposed posts will outline, actually counter productive. As I have learned from a number of quarters; bullshit always baffles the finest brains.

Perhaps a reader will construct a campaigning video along the lines I suggest to help people like the Thompsons against the forces of eco-darkness. Perhaps it will leak into the mainstream and become a cause celebre. Stranger things have happened.

To be continued shortly.......