Tonight I caught the end of a story on TV about new major league baseball helmets being introduced that can withstand a 100 mph fastball. The players, being practical, say they don't want a 12 pound box on their heads. OK, I thought, someone with lots of money to burn wants the pros to buy his helmet, and he'll learn about the marketplace the hard way. Then the segment ended by saying that there are plans to make it mandatory for minor leagues and hope it spreads up into the big leagues.
When I asked my wife if the story said how many people were killed by fastballs she said they profiled two people with brain damage. Two people out of a population of millions? The average calculator doesn't show that many decimal places. What seems to be happening in the west is that the left has decreed that ALL of society must grieve and pass laws to eliminate risk after each and every death or injury.
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The individual stories are very sad, and I feel sorry for those who suffer. The problem is we all suffer at one time or another. The goal of ending suffering, as exemplified by 100 mph helmets is one more example of how, if nothing changes, we will eventually cease to be free.
We cannot be free if our risk policy is that one injury or death should compel the majority to turn their moderate approach to risk into a panic mode approach. We are now mourning ALL the time about something, and I don't care how many scary pictures of injured people you show me, nothing you or I do will ever stop people from getting hurt. What WILL change is that we'll eventually have to get Big Brother's permission for everything, and we'll STILL have all kinds of accidental suffering.
It is a characteristic of the Left to pass laws that limit what we can do in the name of their never-ending quest to eliminate risk in life. They don't care how many things they ban, or how long it takes. The Left continues to smother and stifle society in the name of safety.
Part II later: Who benefits from all the new safety laws?
