Our Threatened Freedom

Are We Regulating Ourselves into Tyranny

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Political Studies

Lesson: 132-169

Genre: Conversation

Track: 132

Dictation Name: Vol. K - Part 02 - Are We Regulating Ourselves into Tyranny

Location/Venue: Unknown

Year: 1980’s – 1990’s

[Dr. Rushdoony] Are we regulating ourselves into tyranny? This is R.J. Rushdoony with a report on our threatened freedom.

Sometimes reading the newspapers is like reading one’s own obituary. The news tells us that our country is committing suicide, and to make sure it succeeds, it’s trying several brands of poison, inflation, lawlessness, drugs, poor education, and more. High on the list of killer practices is over-regulation.

Today as I was looking over some clippings and articles of the past couple of months, I found this one, which I had saved, but not because I liked it. It reads, and I quote, “Trouble is brewing in University Park Texas, a placid little island of affluence, where city officials propose to allow building inspectors to enter homes to enforce a rigid repair code. The 16 page code proposal says, among other things, that home owners can be fined up to 200 dollars a day for weeds in the lawn, cracks in the stairway, or unsound chimneys. The proposal also authorizes building inspectors to initiate their own complaints and enter homes at any time to enforce the code. I’m worried about this, said college professor Steven {?}, what’s to stop the city from coming back and say we can’t smoke in our homes?” Unquote. Weeds in the lawn are a nuisance, and it’s no pleasure to be reminded of them by your wife, but the idea of a citation and a fine, by a city inspector, is another matter. I may not like the way my neighbor keeps his place, but if I have the right to control him by law, then a neighbor with a place better than mine can legislate against me. If we start fining people for weeds on the law, why not fines for driving a dirty car, or too old a car?

If we can be fined for having a house which does not suit the city inspector, because of cracks on the stairs or in the paint, perhaps the next step is to tell us that we ourselves are unfit for public viewing, because we are overweight, wrinkled, bald, or what have you. The whole philosophy of such regulations leads to tyranny and to a dictator state. In a regulated state, everyone is keeping an eye on other people’s business and not their own.

Regulations governing our lawn’s weeds may give us neater neighborhoods, but freedom is a high price to pay for weed free lawns.

This has been R.J. Rushdoony with a report on our threatened freedom.