“We have to accept a little mess.”

Over behind the super-secret, members only paywall at Richochet, a comment that struck a chord with me.

I saw an op-ed piece written in the 1960s when suburbia was discovering zoning laws, the point of which has stayed with me ever since. The writer, a Jewish guy who lived in the Chappaqua New York area, had a brilliant mind, and the piece was great to read. He was talking about the problems that would occur with rigid zoning laws–wow, did he foresee sprawl. Everyone now is going back to mixed-used zoning. He perfectly predicted the result of the zoning laws that were being passed at that time. His op-ed piece ended by saying, “We have to accept a little mess.”

What an awesome philosophy. “We have to accept a little mess.” Meaning, Government can’t control everything and it shouldn’t try.

“We have to accept a little mess.”

Amen, brother.

It seems every time the Government addresses a problem (and especially when the problem is designated a “crisis”) they end up not wasting loads of money, not solving the problem, often making things worse, and then demanding more Government intervention to solve the new problems they created from their approach to the old problem.

Unfortunately, the busybody, control freak progressive left could never abide the thought of people deciding things for themselves and making choices they don’t agree with. They can’t imagine a state that… while staying out of the bedroom, of course … inserts itself into every business transaction, every social activity, and indeed every human interaction, down to policing the very language that comes out of our mouths.

“Think of all the little messes people would make if we gave them the freedom to choose for themselves,” they say.

We can deal with the little messes.

It’s gigantic, out-of-control Government we can’t deal with.