“That government is best which governs not at all; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which we will have.”
– Henry David Thoreau
How a driver parks demonstrates the character of the individual.
Parking is the clearest form of self-government, anarchy, and voluntarism, because rooted within the individual, are Immanuel Kant’s work on Deontological Ethics, known as Kantianism, which seeks to set the moral example for others out of obligation and duty, however, not through force.
In anticipation of the counter-argument, the parking lines are not government, they represent social cooperation. Reserved parking for special interest groups and parking meters on “public” land are an extension of the state, but it is the collection and violent propensity to enforce malum prohibitum law that is the state, it is coercion and force.
Now go out and look at the parking situation in your neighborhood. If you double-park in a crowded parking lot because you believe you are entitled, you are the reason people believe government is necessary. You ARE the problem! The same goes for drivers who park over the line. Inconsiderate equals non-cooperative. If we want to see voluntarism, we must first learn how to park.
Despite the economic collapse, with the holidays in full swing, and businesses and shopping plazas at their busiest, observe people’s parking habits… it’s an indication of whether they are ready for Voluntaryism.
The true anarchist is the model for others not the exception; for it’s the exception in society that people believe they need government in the first place.
The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one’s time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all. – H.L. Mencken
If this describes your parking behavior perhaps you should first assess your own behavior… show people you can live free of government and encourage others to do the same.
There is a day coming when the convenient lapse of the average person’s memory will lead them to believe they need a government to replace the one that is collapsing along with their fiat dollar, rather than the culprit for this mess staring us in the face. Will they also see a band of anarchists and voluntaryists setting out to maintain services and voluntary cooperation in the government’s absence?
When most people envision a world free of government, sadly, they do not share our spontaneous voluntary dystopian vision. They picture the unfortunate result of poorly educated men who plan to rove the streets like the gang of thugs we call government today… one thug commented to me once, “I will take what you have, I will shoot you in your face! When the government is gone, there is no law!”
It is this lack of intellect we must engage, and ironically, the individual mentioned above works for the government.
Prepare yourselves for this thuggish new world indeed, but in the meantime, learn how to park! The alternative is to see the same thugs back in business within a decade.
“The ultimate consequence of protecting men from the results of their own folly is to fill the world with fools.”
– Herbert Spencer
That Mencken quote is exactly what I needed for a column I am working on for the local paper- a column defending the right of a scoundrel to use his property as he sees fit. Thanks for including that.
Concerning the parking- I know exactly what you mean. My dad, who works for the State, is a terrible parker. He parks where he wants regardless of lines or politeness. Some of that is carelessness, but some is a sense of entitlement. If he decides he has a “reason” to park somewhere “just for a minute”, he’ll do it. He also somewhat misuses a handicapped parking mirror tag he has from an earlier broken foot. (He is still terribly overweight, so he’d probably still qualify for the special parking privileges anyway.)
I was thinking about this just a couple hours ago. I had to go to Walmart and was looking at the way every yellow-striped zone at the front of the parking rows was being used for parking. Every one of them. One had 2 cars squeezed into it! (My knee-jerk fantasy is if I were the store manager I’d place notices that windows will mysteriously start breaking on cars parked in the clearly-marked “no parking” zones.)
I try very hard to always leave the closer parking spots for those who need them. I try to stay inside the lines. And I try to be courteous.
A while back I had parked next to someone’s small car which was not inside the lines, but several inches into the space I chose. I parked as far from them as I could while staying in “my spot”. After a couple of minutes, they came to their car, and not noticing I was sitting there (I was coming to pick someone up) the driver said “This truck parked too close to me! But I guess I didn’t park very straight.” Then she opened her car door and violently banged it against the side of the pickup 3 times, obviously trying to cause a dent, before she got in. I just sat there staring at her, but I guess she never noticed me. Had my young daughter not been in the car I would have had a conversation with her. She caused no damage- not even a tiny scratch. But I suppose it was partly my fault for choosing a spot next to someone who had parked so badly.
Great essay, Skip!
Excellent! It’s simply the golden rule: do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Kent, your story only brought back an incident I had while parked (within the lines, mind you… LOL) at a bank. This was sometime in the middle of the day and not during the lunch rush. While sitting there on the phone with my wife a large SUV rumbles up to my right and the reason I take notice is because they’re so damn close it was clear they’d have to back up and try again. Did that happen? Nope. Actually the woman waited a minute or so and figured that it was too much trouble and just opened the her door banging into mine without so much as a sorry or excuse me or whatever. I was yelling at her but this clown simply ignored me and shuttled her bovine butt onwards. Being on the phone made my jumping out and throttling her difficult so I apologized to the missus for shouting. Backing up I noticed that there wasn’t a single occupied spot anywhere else either to my right or even behind me! The classic highway scenario where your tailgating idiot is in a hurry to pass you and then procedes to slow down and force you to brake even though there is nobody else in the rear view mirror. WTF?! So it beggars belief that some thoughtless stooge had to saddle themselves so close. Yes, long story short, how you act in the little things to your fellow man is a reflection of your inner being.
Pingback: Militant Libertarian » Parking is Anarchy