It’s very telling when the people who scream the loudest to get government out of their lives, are the same people who throw up their hands in astonishment when the topic of legalizing marijuana is brought up (medicinal or otherwise).
How can a person make the very reasonable argument that we can trust citizens to bear firearms, have access to alcohol, and drive a vehicle, but somehow that very same person makes the case that we can’t trust our fellow citizens to have access to medicinal or recreational marijuana?
Let’s be honest… “these conservatives” want the government to control what we do just as much as “those liberals” do. The only real difference between the two sides is that they just want a different type government control.
It’s time that we look in the mirror and admit that we have an addiction. Say it with me, “hi, I’m ______ and I’m a government-aholic.”
Doesn’t that feel a little better?
Isn’t it freeing to admit the problem?
Living with hypocrisy can be extremely exhausting, but can also induce a sense of illogical cognitive dissonance where we justify our inconsistencies. This newfound freedom shatters our hypocrisy that drained us of needed energy just a few minutes ago; pretty awesome, huh?! So, the next question we ask of course is, “where do we go from here?”
Now that we’re honest with ourselves and have arrived on the beachfront of freedom, we have a choice to make. We can either
- cling to our government-aholism and continue fighting for the type of government control we want or
- begin exploring the alternative where the government is mostly removed from the equation
Admitting our problem and deciding which path to take affords us the ability to address the situation with clarity and hopefully without raw emotion.
Before I close the first chapter of this commentary, I’d like to leave you with a quote from C.S. Lewis:
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would 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.”
Let’s ask ourselves, regardless of our intentions, do we want to be a part of tyranny or fight against it?
In Part 2 of The Mary Jane Mess, we’ll explore the common hyper-emotional aspects that impact the marijuana debate.
- Separation of Church and State - July 4, 2013
- How Power Is Delegated and Reassumed - May 31, 2013
- The Mary Jane Mess (Part 2) - March 21, 2013