Modern-Day Puritans Want to Ban Things That Make Us Happy

The real issue is that the laws are there because some (or the majority) want them there.

To get into a position where you can effect change on a political, or legal level in the U.S. you pretty much have to be voted in. So at some point, someone was put in a position to represent the people who voted for them and they helped to move a bill or a law.

Are all the laws and bills on the books still relevant? That’s for the people to say by exercising their vote. And pray the person you voted for is the person you thought you were voting for. If not you can always aid a lobby, but some people think lobbies are evil, so watch who you tell you support them.

Long story short, we are suppose to live in a democracy. There was no evil dictator or Evil axis that seized control of the country… we put them there. Some of them have good intentions; some are a little more selfish. Some honestly think they are helping you and some just agree to one thing so that they can get another through the system.

Seems that’s it’s easy to set back and criticize the choices others have made. I wonder how much better any of us would have done if the roles were reversed?

WW I know what you are saying and while the majority of law makers do their best it only takes a few to mess things up while others look away. As a student of history our system works but it is flawed. Politics and politicians are fluid, a necissity when negotiationg, it's the nature of the beast but it seems to me way too many act in self interest and only for relection. They want and enjoy the power. Serving the public is a byproduct.

Way better put Wescli. That was sorta what I was trying and failing to convey.

Rickie, I'm thinking as long as humans are the politicians... we're gonna have flaws.

Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.

H. L. Mencken

US editor (1880 - 1956)

57

If you want to be a great leader,
you must learn to follow the Tao.
Stop trying to control.
Let go of fixed plans and concepts,
and the world will govern itself.

The more prohibitions you have,
the less virtuous people will be.
The more weapons you have,
the less secure people will be.
The more subsidies you have,
the less self-reliant people will be.

Therefore the Master says:
I let go of the law,
and people become honest.
I let go of economics,
and people become prosperous.
I let go of religion,
and people become serene.
I let go of all desire for the common good,
and the good becomes common as grass.

- Tao Te Ching (S. Mitchell)

Oh, propro. You and alex with your taos. Tho this one made more sense than msot I have seen.

Donkey wrote: I agree, people should be able to park wherever they want, hunt wherever and what ever they want!!! In fact I think we should have more gambling casinos in parks like Yellowstone. We could knock down all the trees and have free parking for the casinos. Everyone could take advantage of the free drinks because we'll drop all the DUI laws (damn breathalyzer co's) and whe we're done drinking we can get our guns an shoot all the wild animals in the park ( this will be made easier with all the trees gone). Down with the fascist state!!!!

You mock me... So how would a Jedi deal with this? Perhaps we should use your own logic and take it to it's logical conclusion?

OK so we should have laws for everything. Laws about where to park, when to park, whom to marry, how many kids to have, where to pee, where to sleep, when to sleep, how long to sleep for, what you can/can't eat, etc. So that every minute of every day you'll know exactly what you should be doing because there's a law for that. Of course, it will be impossible to enforce all these laws so we'll put cameras on every intersection and run the video through image recognition software which automatically sends you a citation any time you violate a law. Next we'll have random drone flyovers to make sure you don't do anything illegal where there's no camera around. Since the drones can't see into your home, we'll have to put special software into computers to make sure you don't do anything illegal in your own home. We're also going to have the people who live with you monitor you for anything illegal.

Ido believe goerge orwell's "1984" would be good reading for this....

Remember: big brother loves you

And 2+2=5

Puritans: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00f4f37

Wescli Wardest wrote: Long story short, we are suppose to live in a democracy.

Republic.

It is unclear as to whether this has anything to do with puritanism or happiness.

On one hand, banning things is not the most apt way of making people not want things that are bad for them (and others). When we want something, thinking that it will make us happy or not, the notion that someone else has prohibited this thing tends to just make us want it more.

Moreover, we are not very good at knowing what will make us happy, what does make us happy, or remembering what made us happy by the past. We do know however that being told we cannot or should not do something makes us unhappy -- as a consumer society, we're all rather spoiled.

At the risk of appearing hypocritical, how can poisoning oneself possibly make one happy ? By the past, I was one to over indulge in alcohol, and I still smoke (but only tobacco) - whereas I cannot with any firm precision testify as to how 'happy' that made/makes me, I can say that these "luxuries" can lead to unhappiness and frustration, not to mention illness.

Therefore, should a government legislate harmful practices away from us ? I don't know.

It is rather pathetic that they would have to. Why would/should/do we need some "authority" agent to tell us not to do something which is harmful ? Why would we want to poison ourselves and why do we believe that this makes us happy ?

In Book III of his Politics, Aristotle makes a distiction made between just rule (pambasileus - kingship) and base rule (tyranny). It is difficult to say that influencing people to behave in a way that promotes well-being is despotic, but as Campbell pointed out : "everything you do is evil to somebody."

As a spoiled people in corrupt Republics, we tend to deny the responsibility of governing ourselves yet, at the same time, do not want to be governed either. We do not want anarchy, for we enjoy feeling protected, however do not want monarchy for that is contrary to a feeling of equality. How egalitarian have our republics truly shown themselves to be ? Has not our 'fair' democracy become also the "tyranny of the majority" ?

And as far in partaking in all that is "making us happy", we are causing changes which will lead to our environment not being able to sustain human life (or at least not the almost-civilisations we've built) and we are "entertaining ourselves to extinction" (a quote, but I don't remember by whom).

So, as it were, it remains unclear as to what this has to do with puritanism and even less to do with happiness. It does seem to suggest that we crave decadance and self-destruction. Perhaps then, when we know that our race has but one or two generations left to it, we may at least be 'satisfied'.