Braking Cloyce

An old buddy of mine, I'll call him Cloyce just to give him a name, noticed one morning on his way to work that the brake lights were out on his car. I gotta get to work, I'll deal with them this evening, he thought. 

A stoplight caught him a few minutes later. A car pulled up behind him and, as luck would have it, a police cruiser right behind that dude. Ol' Cloyce prayed, if I can just get past the intersection maybe the cops will turn and there won't be a problem.

But the driver behind him decided to be a good Samaritan. He pulled to the right and came up next to Cloyce on the passenger side. "Hey! Hey man! Your brake lights are out! Both of them!"

"Yeah, thanks!" replied Cloyce. It was then the police flashers went on, and Cloyce was pulled over. Thanks for teĺling the police too, he thought to himself. He waited for his ticket.

Fortunately it was one of those 'fix it within 10 days and we'll tear it up' situations. But maybe it didn't have to be that; the guy's heart was in the right place I suppose.

The hubris of the do-gooders

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. Their very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be ‘cured’ against one’s will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.

- C. S. Lewis

Please indulge me that somewhat lengthy quote, but I find it very applicable to recent history. Since COVID we seem cursed by those in positions of power who apparently feel they know better for us than we do for ourselves. And they appear quite certain of themselves indeed.

Follow the science! Not that science which clearly states that there are only two genders and that human women have human babies of course. Well established criteria are noxious and foreign to them while concepts rushed and obviously in flux (Do masks make a difference or not? Will the vaccine keep me from getting the disease or not?) are beyond criticism. That's precisely how they try to shove us into a box, treating us like 'infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals'. I suspect, however, like Ernst Blofeld and his cat, they treat their animals with greater respect.

Or are we just, and by just I mean only, animals to them? That's my great fear. Are we nothing more than creatures who might, who must, who can only be, ordered about because they, the faux scientists and very real gender benders, know best, have cornered truth? It is a scary thought. Are they 'omnipotent moral busybodies' whose hubris will not, cannot allow them to consider that they may be wrong? If so, they are exactly the wrong types of people to be in government or the Centers For Disease Control. Or running Facebook and Twitter.

Their very kindness stings with intolerable insult. My dear Mr. Lewis, you certainly do know how turn a phrase.