Dear Editor:
Doctor Williscroft, in his article "The Thrawn Rickle", Vol. 121, No. 1, 1994 (recently received by me), correctly castigates the overweening regulatory spirit pervading America nowadays. Individuality, which the founding fathers enshrined in the Constitution, is being suborned. Totalitarianism and conformity are gaining ground and the word democracy has little practical meaning. What has happened? It appears that the typical individual no longer clearly distinguishes between what constitutes his own business and that of other individuals. He or she assumes a virtual divine right to meddle in the affairs of others. One may term this the spirit of democratic totalitarianism. Small wonder school boards try to ban the teaching of evolution and even the reading of respectable novels. It is small wonder that anti-abortionists pig-headedly try to impose their values on the rest of the community. And it is small wonder that outrages like the aforesaid must eventually reach the Supreme Court. Unfortunately, considerable regulation at the federal level develops as a result of despotism at the local level. What can one do? I suspect that many thoughtful persons do not want to become embroiled in the hurl-y-burly of local politics. Yet this is the area where so much superfluous control of individual action commences. By snobbishly refraining from political action at the local level, we indirectly endow the less enlightened in our society with more power than they deserve. We consequently encourage excessive federal regulation as an antidote to local incursions upon individual autonomy. Sincerely, Alvin Bernstein
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