We are living history now. The history of early Soviet Russia – and the other place, of course.
People cowed by fear – just trying to keep their heads down and not get into trouble. Hoping it’ll pass – that it will not get worse. They just want to be able to work and get food . . . whatever the cost, not always measured in money.
This comes of dependence and acquiescence, both of which have been increasing markedly over the past 50 years.
Many examples of this but among the most relevant are the bowing of businesses (and the people) to this idea that one should need a license i.e., government permission – to be in business. Which permission can be revoked at any time and the mere threat of which is sufficient to get most businesses to do as ordered by the government.
This is outrageous – if you think that a free country is a good idea, at any rate.
Having to get permission from the government to engage in the free exchange of goods and services?
Don Corleone, phone home. 
Where is the crime in doing that without permission? And yet it is a “crime” – in the sense that the government will sic itself on anyone who dares to offer goods or services to people who freely wish to purchase them without its permission.
Which accounts for the base, embarrassing servility of businesses, which grovel at the feet of the government in the manner of Stalin’s chicken.
Also the effrontery of some of their customers – who know they can force themselves upon a business not to their liking by siccing the government on it.
Diapering is the obvious case in point but there are many others and antecedent to Diapering, which is merely the latest and saddest example of business servility.
For example, the forcing of a small, walk-up hot dog joint to provide “equal accommodations” to those who cannot walk-up. The hot dog stand hasn’t got anything against the handicapped; the problem is that the cost of installing a ramp and other “accommodations” far exceeds the money the place will earn by selling a few hot dogs to a few people in wheelchairs. This isn’t evil. It’s economics. The same economics that act upon what everyone else spends their money on.
But businesses are forced – by government – to spend their money on things which they know don’t make economic sense, because a busybody can sic the government on them.
And the busybody can sic the government on them for many other reasons, too – none of these having to do with the voluntary exchange of goods and services. Rather, the coercion of services – as for example the bullying of a bakery owned by conservatives to bake a cake for in-your-face deliberately provocative liberals (the term is misleading; “liberals” are anything but).
It wasn’t much of a jump from that to coercing Diapering, given the totalitarian tag team of businesses needing government permission to be in business and the empowering thereby of noxious minor totalitarians who can sic the government on businesses.
Like the proverbial spoonful of poo ruining a gallon of ice cream, all it takes is one Diaper affronted busybody to call the government – and the government threatens the business with the revocation of its permission to be in business.
This is why Diapering spreads.
Fear – of the loss of one’s business and one’s livelihood – brings many to heel, even if they themselves aren’t fearful of “the virus.”
This includes those who work at a business. Which have become, in effect, adjuncts of the government as well as the bitches of busybodies empowered by the government. Which makes everyone who works for a business – especially the smaller ones, which are most vulnerable to the threat of government and the busybodies – the bitches of both.
This trap has caught probably 80 and maybe as high as 90 percent of the population in its maw. It is probably why in many areas 90 percent of the people you see wear the Diaper.
Their Sophies’ Choice is to do so – or lose their job.
I personally know several people caught in this trap. I have spoken with people who are caught in this trap – for example, the clerk at the shoe store (Fleet Fleet in Roanoke) where I bought my last pair of running shoes (from them) the other day. The people who work there – all of them runners, as the store caters to active people – loathe the Diapers and know it’s Kabuki – but wear them and insist on them because the store’s policy requires them.
Which it does because of the threat of revocation of the government’s permission to be in business and the threat of even a single busybody leveraging the government to do his (or her) business.
Thus, people keep their heads down – and their Diapers on. Economic pressure can be even more effective than physical pressure.
If more people weren’t the bitches of the government – and vulnerable to the shrieking of bitches (of both sexes) Diapering would soon fade away like a bad fad, such as parachute pants.
But the Sickness Kabuki is becoming a national performance because they are – and it ought to be obvious what the final act will be.
Read up on what it was like after the October Revolution in Soviet Russia – or what it was like in the other place, after the odd little man with the funny moustache became the arbiter of the terms and conditions of being in business.
The only holdouts now are those who don’t need to have permission to be in business – independent journalists like yours truly, for instance. And those who can live without having to work for a business that requires government permission to be in business.
These few will be mopped up along with the Kulaks – and the wearers of the gelb stern – if they continue to refuse to Diaper up (and Needle up).
It’ll be a history lesson, all right.
One that keeps repeating because people always forget it.
. . .
Got a question about cars, Libertarian politics – or anything else? Click on the “ask Eric” link and send ’em in!
If you like what you’ve found here please consider supporting EPautos.
We depend on you to keep the wheels turning!
Our donate button is here.
If you prefer not to use PayPal, our mailing address is:
EPautos
721 Hummingbird Lane SE
Copper Hill, VA 24079
PS: Get an EPautos magnet or sticker or coaster in return for a $20 or more one-time donation or a $10 or more monthly recurring donation. (Please be sure to tell us you want a magnet or sticker or coaster – and also, provide an address, so we know where to mail the thing!)
If you’d like an ear tag – custom made! – just ask and it will be delivered.
My latest eBook is also available for your favorite price – free! Click here. If that fails, email me at EPeters952@yahoo.com and I will send you a copy directly!
That bitch in red is the face of Bunnings by Karens here in Straya, sMelbourne to be precise. Where sMelbourne now stinks of soviet russian and red china in the one package thanks to face diaper Andrews, a red blooded commie hooked up to the chinks communist party. And he didn’t even get the permission from the people to sign us up to the death camps known as debt traps.
Morning, to5!
The crazy thing is all of this depends on the general acceptance of the majority; it the majority seems to want to live this way then this is how everyone will live. But the question aries: Are they the majority? Or does it just appear that way?
Here’s a new word for you, Eric:
Herdenmensch, the plural being Herdenmenschen
You should certainly be able to discern the meaning.
It popped up in my translating dictionary as a synonym for sheep.
Excellent, Turtle!
Somehow, the German sounds better than the English when articulating the authoritarian. Krankheit uber alles!
Achtung! (attention)
Alles Herdenmenschen.(all sheep)
Streng Verboten! (severely forbidden)
Lächeln (to smile)*
Lachen (to laugh)
Singen (to sing)
Tanzen (to dance)**
Denken (to think)
Freuen (to enjoy)
*or, at least, to let anyone see you smile
**in New York
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/megan-fox/2020/08/21/footloose-comes-to-life-in-new-york-governor-cuomo-bans-dancing-n824432
Holy Phuck!
Spot on!
My wife and I were discussing this yesterday evening – we are re-living the start of pre-war Nazi Germany.
I’ve asked myself, where is all the outrage from our Jewish Brothers and Sisters?????? Silence…………….
Hi Frank,
Thanks! I wish I were merely paranoid; that writing articles such as this wasn’t necessary. But if I (and others) don’t write and if I and others don’t act, we will be living in NSDAP Germany, this time sickness heiling rather than the other thing.
The Face Diaper is the new armband.
OMG!!!!!!! What a way to make a point in public – WEAR YOUR FACE MASK ON YOUR ARM JUST LIKE THE JEWS DID IN NAZI GERMANY.
If people ask why are you wearing your mask like an armband, just reply “that’s what the Jews were told to do by their leaders”.
With thousands, or hundreds of thousands, or millions of citizens wearing their face masks like this – Wow! what a powerful, and visible, message!!!!!
Agreed, Frank!
Let’s spread the word. I will never put one of the loathsome things over my face… but on my arm? Sickness Heil!
the global corporate jewish elite are manufacturing this via their media lackeys and political hand puppets including trump
Hi Eric. I’ve been painting signs and designing logos since high school. It is 47 years later and I still don’t have a business license. I never asked nor paid permission to paint signs. I’ve never had a partner or an employee. I read of bakeries that are sued to death because they refused to bake the gay wedding cake. The reason they HAVE to bake the cake is because they are “in business” and they must comply with every edict emitting from the flying monkeys, our government. I’ve always operated from under my own roof and have never had a shop on a busy street corner. Flying under the radar is a daily exercise. I attend to my customers without a mask. I never wear a mask anywhere. If a customer is wearing a mask I say, “You don’t have to put that thing on for me.” And they take it off. I’ve written a song called ‘Diaper Face” and it goes to the tune of ‘Baby Face.” I’ll post the lyrics later. Best regards, Eric. Your column is a breath of sanity in this insane world.
The business license BS was started to “protect us” from baaad businesses. If a business overcharged, didn’t build to code etc. If the Electrician or Plumber did a shoddy job, if the gas station was fiddling with the calibration of the pumps. Yes,,, all to protect us… sound familiar? Wear a mask to protect you and others, maintain distance to protect you and others, wear seat belts, helmets, speed limits, loud pipes, tinted windows, prescription and other drugs, all for our protection.
I’m sure some complained about the possible misuse but the Karens and Kens back then were as loud as today. Today we witness what those few were concerned about,,, government tyranny. Taking the property of drug dealers with asset forfeiture was for our protection, today they rob us on the highways, steal our cars and homes using that “law”. For our protection!
And where are those commenters that proclaim a private business can do whatever it wants, force masks, antisocial distancing, one way aisles, other requirements. But upset a protected group and refuse to bake a cake,,, fines and maybe off to prison for you.
Like YouTube removing all videos it finds offensive saying it’s for your protection,,, government does the same with businesses via the business license. The right to do business with each other now a privilege that can be cancelled anytime for any concocted reason along with you being cancelled as well.
Who in the hell calls any of this crap capitalism! When it’s really corruptalism. When your daughters lemonade stand is raided for no license. Or Churches can no longer have bake sales, or you cannot give food to a homeless person or you cannot have a vegetable garden in your front yard, or your grass is over 8 inches, or you built an “illegal” shed in your backyard, or you cannot have a well, or hundreds of other things you cannot do without Corpgovs permission and fees.
We just got our taxes for next year. The schrools have been closed since March. Do you think my taxes went down? I’ll let you guess.
Hi Ken,
Good post with great insights about “mission creep”. Still, this claim, “the business license BS was started to “protect us” from baaad businesses”, is a myth. Occupational licensing exists to protect the established businesses from competition by creating barriers to entry for potential newcomers, many of whom can’t afford to navigate the intricate web of nonsense required of them. Calls for licensing almost always originate from the established businesses, in every field, for their own interests. But, such base selfishness is not politically palatable, thus the cynical myths of consumer protection, public safety, health, etc… was created as cover.
A particularly appalling demonstration of this collusion between business and government was the destruction of Lodge practice, for the benefit of established doctors, annoyed at having to compete with others offering services that the working poor could afford, much to the detriment of the working poor. America’s first “health care crisis” was that the availability of affordable, good quality (for the time) and near universally accessible health care, threatened the high wages of established doctors.
The great Roderick Long tells the sordid story here.
http://www.freenation.org/a/f12l3.html
From the article,
“Most remarkable was the low cost at which these medical services were provided. At the turn of the century, the average cost of “lodge practice” to an individual member was between one and two dollars a year. A day’s wage would pay for a year’s worth of medical care. By contrast, the average cost of medical service on the regular market was between one and two dollars per visit. Yet licensed physicians, particularly those who did not come from “big name” medical schools, competed vigorously for lodge contracts, perhaps because of the security they offered; and this competition continued to keep costs low.
The response of the medical establishment, both in America and in Britain, was one of outrage; the institution of lodge practice was denounced in harsh language and apocalyptic tones. Such low fees, many doctors charged, were bankrupting the medical profession. Moreover, many saw it as a blow to the dignity of the profession that trained physicians should be eagerly bidding for the chance to serve as the hirelings of lower-class tradesmen. It was particularly detestable that such uneducated and socially inferior people should be permitted to set fees for the physicians’ services, or to sit in judgment on professionals to determine whether their services had been satisfactory. The government, they demanded, must do something”.
Oh, and it did, “Medical societies like the AMA imposed sanctions on doctors who dared to sign lodge practice contracts. This might have been less effective if such medical societies had not had access to government power; but in fact, thanks to governmental grants of privilege, they controlled the medical licensure procedure, thus ensuring that those in their disfavor would be denied the right to practice medicine”.
I, and Brent, have pointed out this disgusting story many times here. Imagine what could have been if this system was allowed to develop? The US would likely have the highest quality health care available in the world, at a price that nearly everyone could afford. This example is not an aberration, it is the norm. Licensing exists to benefit the established players, at our expense, and to benefit the political class by making us dependent on them.
Cheers,
Jeremy
Hi Jeremy
Interesting,,, Thanks.
While looking into the business license bs I discovered in the UK most small businesses do not need a license. Mostly those that are regulated like Alcohol sales, etc.
I agree with Eric that no business licenses should be required. Some jurisdictions say that the license covers for “city/county services”. That’s bs. IMO that is what the property tax is for. Today the little tin pot tyrannical scum have weaponized the license. Do as we say or it’s curtains for you and your business.
Hi Ken,
As a journalist, I’ve been on high-alert regarding “calls” to require licensure of this “profession.” It would, of course, mean the end of any real journalism – just as licensure of doctors has made them the poodles of the AMA (I learned a lot about the AMA from my dad, who was a doctor) and the government. You would get nothing but Pravda – the “truth” as decided by the powers who issue the license.
Coming to a totalitarian state near you,
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-19/morrison-coronavirus-covid-19-vaccine-mandatory/12572992
It is as it ever was.
People will do the most horrible things if they’re convinced they are doing good.
It makes it okay to burn someone alive if they really truly are a witch.
The North Austin Sam’s Club yesterday had an “undercover” Herowagen (Austin PD blacked out F150) parked right next to the entrance/exit, where the store usually has the utility trailer they sell on display.
Achtung!
Great article Eric.
The biggest problem isn’t forgetting history, it’s not living in a world that was free–somewhat–prior to the “living history”. Complacency is built in. September 11th was almost 20 years ago. My oldest of 5 kids is 10. She knows no pre 9/11 world. I can tell her, but she can’t/hasn’t lived in it.
I teach my children to question everything they see and learn. They don’t play government school. They live free as much as possible, but it’s hard to relay to them that America was. America surely isn’t and hasn’t been for a long time.
I’m starting to see how I’m becoming a pariah of sorts. My kids will likely be too. I hope they have the fortitude to be true to the truth. But it’s hard when you have no memories of some semblance of freedom. Instead just relying on dad’s “crazy” stories.
I do work hard to provide them with free lives. But one day it may be off to the gulag for me. A day coming sooner than I could have ever thought.
Yep. Of course, none of us have ever been allowed to really live free lives, but there’s been a huge shift during our lifetimes and a huge decline in the culture. To me, the most important reason for this has been the increasing propagandizing of the information that is fed to us (or kept from us) especially by the school system, the media, and crony-technocrats like Google.
Folks who remember the 1920s are almost gone now. The federal government spent 3% of GDP — about a tenth of its current footprint.
Most people had no direct contact with the federal government during their entire lives, other than a census worker coming round every ten years.
Frank Roosevelt supersized the government and (with Truman’s help) created a vast, permanent national security state. It was already in place when Boomers were born.
So, sadly this unaccountable, black-budget bureaucracy is considered normal. The few who expose and challenge it are pursued to the ends of the earth.
So sadly true Jim, when was the last time you saw/heard any mention of Julian Assange? He’s rotting in a British prison per orders from their masters in the CIA; the next time we do get any word about him it will be a short obituary in the back pages of the MSM.
Most of the population is profoundly ignorant. Especially about the real risk of getting sick from this pipsqueak bug. I dont know. Theres an agenda here but not sure what it is or what the endgame is. Luckily I own my business and no one tells me what to do. Yet
Great article Eric. I myself just had to deal with this last night I’m in Colorado (or as some of us here call it “Col-ifornia”) and I had been going to this local gas station/store where they hadn’t been forcing people to wear a Diaper but last night they said that I couldn’t come back inside again unless I wear a Diaper (which I will NEVER do) and all because some coward complained and they were threatened with being shutdown.
Thanks, Brian – and very sorry to hear about this. I’m not sure what the answer is but part of it is rejecting the idea that any businesses ought to have to get permission to be in business.
Business should be between the business and the customer. The government has no legitimate role in the free exchange of goods and services… in a free country.
Which this one isn’t.
Most assuredly. The instances you put forth of actions required by the state are prime examples. Perhaps someone could explain how forcing one to serve anyone, such as a baker to make a cake for a gay wedding, is not involuntary servitude. The very instant that one’s “rights” require any action of any kind of another person, that other person is immediately and inarguably made a slave of the one demanding said “right”. Which applies to practically everything the new and improved Bolsheviks seek, and the majority of what the uneducated masses desire. I thought we outlawed slavery. Guess I must be mistaken. Such is the nature of democracy, AKA mob rule.
Hi JWK,
Yes, properly understood, “rights” cannot conflict. If an assertion of rights appears to conflict with another assertion of rights, one or both of the assertions is a claim of privilege.
Cheers,
Jeremy
Hi JWK,
I’ve been trying to come up with a definition of “right” not rooted in religion or philosophy, a sort of negative approach that defines a right by what it is not.
What do you think of this?
Right – An action which, if exercised, imposes no positive obligation on others, nor impedes the exercise of any actions that impose no positive obligation on others.
Cheers,
Jeremy
Hi Jeremy,
The service center I worked out of had a sign in the stockroom: “lack of planning on your part does not create an emergency on my part”.
Back in June I took a road trip to Durango through Ouray. I stopped at a gas station in Silverton to refill and waste dump. I went in, did my business and thought I’d buy a snack. Given the urgency I didn’t think about much other than getting to the men’s room, and didn’t have my No Agenda “We’re all gonna die” gaiter on. The cashier, Karen, started screaming at me “Sir, I’ve been trying to tell you that we require masks!” in an extremely rude way. So I simply said, “OK” and left. No gas, no snack and an “unclean” bathroom. And that mom-and-pop store is no longer an option for me. If she wouldn’t have been such a bitch about it I probably wouldn’t have just left.
Give someone a little power, add in fear of “the outsider,” sit back and watch what happens. No one ever thinks they’ll work in the concentration camps until they connect up the Zyklon B canister to the shower heads…
In the morning!
I didn’t realize they were selling neck gaiters. I’ll have to buy one.