Perhaps this is news to you.
I can’t always tell my son what to do. I can’t.
Sure, sometimes I tell him, and perhaps, yeah, maybe, he means well. He might even say “yes, madre,” but then he doesn’t follow through. He has a mind of his own. He has choices to make. And perhaps this is even more news to the waiting, watching world: sometimes he makes bad choices.
I’m sorry, but that’s the reality. Sometimes my son — sometimes you and me — sometimes we make bad choices. But thank God we’re allowed to make bad choices! It’s my past bad choices that instrumentally influence my decisions now. In wisdom we weigh outcomes, discerning cost, benefit, prudence, etc. Bad choices are God’s way of allowing us to figure life out. Thank God for bad choices.
But there are times we are undoubtedly uncomfortable with the bad choices of another…
Can we then force people to do what we want them to do?
Is it even appropriate to force people to do so?
There’s a lot of things I’d like to force…
… people to act maturely…
… partisans to get along…
… the Senate to finally pass a budget… (geepers… why in the world does our federal government not pass a budget these past 4 years? … why is there this obvious, discouraging evasion of accountability?)
But yet, we continually attempt to mandate behavior…
… mandating drivers and passengers to each don their seat belt…
… mandating our teenage boys commit to what’s nothing less than basic, moral hygiene…
… but also mandating Americans buy medical insurance…
… and mandating New Yorkers don’t buy too big a soft drink…
Geepers. What is ok to force people to do?
It seems to this semi-humble, casual observer that forced behavior must initially pass through the following conditions:
- Does the person in question possess the ability to make a rational decision? And,
- Does the person’s decision negatively impact anyone else?
Hence, the Intramuralist is comfortable with the example of mandated car seats for infants, as the infant does not possess the ability to make a rational decision. Equally true, the Intramuralist advocates the additional example of prosecuting drunk drivers; drunk driving puts other people on the road at risk.
But if the mandated behavior fits neither condition above, what is the logic behind the restriction?
… that we are incapable of making rational choices?
… that we wish to be a more socialist society? (egad)
… or that government is both arrogant and naive — thinking they know best, that people are incapable, and forgetting the great teacher of negative consequences?
As said multiple times previously, “geepers.” Let me add an affirmative “egad.”
Respectfully,
AR