Column: If bans worked, we would be living in a drug- and illegal-firearm-free utopia.
Date: Apr 7, 2007 9:54 AM
PUBLICATION: The Winnipeg Sun
DATE: 2007.04.07
EDITION: Final
SECTION: Editorial/Opinion
PAGE: 11
BYLINE: JOSEPH QUESNEL
WORD COUNT: 438

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So easy to just say, ‘Ban it’

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The path to hell is often paved with good intentions.

It’s a cliche, but we are living in times where that saying is not just
a cute retort.

The community of Leaf Rapids has opted for political showmanship to deal
with environmental challenges, rather than embrace solutions respecting
freedom and responsibility.

The community’s town council passed a bylaw prohibiting retailers from
providing or selling plastic bags. There is no room for any middle
ground or creative solution.

The idea of the ban is not new. It has been used for different causes.
The Ontario government “banned” the whole pit bull canine breed from the
province. They are starting to see how difficult and oppressive this law
is. We also see it in the movement to ban transfat and fatty foods.

This is becoming very common and it heralds a dangerous time when belief
in promoting the “good” is used to justify increasing levels of personal
oppression. Just look at our laws on “hate speech.” Sure, it is easy for
those who hold orthodox views on these subjects to support these laws,
but for dissenters it means financial and professional ruin. It is so
easy to “ban” offensive speech rather than challenge it and defeat it
through debate.

It is always someone’s particular vision of the good that is being
imposed on everyone. Philosopher Isaiah Berlin spoke about the tendency
of governments, including democratic ones, to use their conception of
the good as a pretext to commit atrocities. Witness the French
Revolution.

In Leaf Rapids, the legitimate right of retailers to sell whatever they
choose to whomever they wish seems to have been thrown out the window
for someone’s misguided belief they are saving the planet. Also ignored
is the concept that attacking the rights of some is not justified by
appealing to the “good” of the majority.

So much for discussion where dissenting voices can be heard. Banning is
not about rational debate. It is the triumph of someone’s will over the
many.

It is so easy for the legislator to ban. It does not require creativity
or innovation. It does not require forethought on whether it will
achieve the legislative goals for which it was intended. This is
something the authors of the national gun registry missed.

It certainly makes for good politics. Pass this law and you look like
you are tough on that issue. If bans worked, we would be living in a
drug- and illegal-firearm-free utopia.

These policy decisions do not require the collaboration, compromise and
accommodation that define our society as liberal and democratic, not to
mention reasonable. Free individuals should be treated as adults
possessing dignity. What makes the Leaf Rapids case insidious is that it
precludes the idea that people need to be convinced of solutions. Who
needs convincing of the correctness of your cause when you have the big
stick of government regulation?

While the Leaf Rapids situation is a small example, it is up to people
to stand up now before the state misreads complacency as approval.

The Second Amendment IS Homeland Security !