04 November 2011

Let's face it... no one really needs...

...alcohol, or tobacco, or sex toys, or comedians, or xbox, or poetry, or...
The banning instinct is never slaked. Once it has succeeded in prohibiting guns, it will turn itself to offensive speech or unhealthy food.
Who, exactly... gets to decide what constitutes "necessity?"who
But above all, it always worries me when the concept of "need" enters the debate, as in (to quote one of my colleagues): "Why do farmers and hunters need sniper rifles?"

The concept of "need" is antithetic to freedom in a democracy where the citizens are sovereign. No one needs a car that goes more than 110 km/ hr, because that is the highest speed limit in the country.

So should any of us who want to drive more than a Smart Car or Fiat have to go cap in hand to a government official and explain our "need" for, say, a sports car, before we are granted the right to buy one?