22 Dec 01

I had a conversation yesterday with an old friend and colleague. He is involved as an expert assistant in a civil action revolving around a shooting case. The criminal aspects of the case have been long since settled. The perpetrator has been convicted and sent away. However, at the urging of Handgun Control, Inc, relatives of the deceased victim are suing the distributor through which the gun involved was transferred to the dealer, who ultimately sold it to the retail customer. The manufacturer of the gun is out of business, so it falls upon the distributer to face the wrath of anti-gun fanatics and their lawyer-enables.

It struck me that, in our civilization, PERPETUAL COWARDICE HAS BECOME THE PRICE OF SOLVENCY. All those who run afoul of trendy political agendas had better be timid and chicken-hearted, lest they be stripped of all their earthly positions by agenda-driven lawyer/extortionists and the encrusted, self-perpetrating court system that is only too happy to indulge them.

Heaven forbid that any of us be creative and go forth boldly with new ideas, innovating and inspiring. "Custodians of the party line" will come along and promptly stomp us to death. "Custodians of the party line" fear individual freedom so much that they would rather die than grow, and they will tolerate no growth on the part of anyone else either.

Happily, ENTERPRISE IS IRREPRESSIBLE, despite all the efforts of fossilized bureaucracies to stomp it out completely. Thank heaven we have heros like Peter Pi, Alex Robinson, Dave Selvaggio, and many others who, despite the risks, go forth boldly, innovating and inspiring. There will always be plenty of cowards, but a world without heros would be a frightful bore!

/John