Buildings, Bureaucrats and Bitchy Ben
Having run across "Worcester State Hospital" online at an odd-Americana type event, I was overjoyed to easily find the creepy abandoned sanitarium from the road. As I approached, though, the street in front of it was blocked off for some silly bureaucratic reason. I drove up anyway, and saw all sorts of posted signs about no pedestrian access, no admittance, no entry and crap like that. Frankly, few things upset me more than lazy bureaucrats hanging bitchy signs telling me where I can't go. Little did I realize that I was being followed, and that I was being watched to wait and see if I would approach, no doubt ready to give me a good scolding for not obeying the clearly marked signs. Oh, let me also point out, that this is public land. It's extremely frustrating and aggravating that these bureaucrats are cordoning off entire swaths of land and declaring that you and I cannot trespass on public land. I remember the same frustration, post 9/11 when the aristocracy decided to keep the people's house away from the people, because God forbid the people actually come to it. Who am I being protected against? The easy answer is to say that they're afraid of lawsuits, but let's not forget who writes the laws! Who enforces them! The government can't tell me with a straight face that they're worried about my safety and my security and their liability when they are the ones writing the laws. I don't want to make too much about this, but I just think it's a small part of an overall trend where we are subconsciously conditioned to accept blind authority. We are told where we can go, and no one deviates. We are told what we can photograph, and no one dissents. We are told that "copyright" protects all aristocratic interests, and those who violate are defamed as 'thieves' - we tolerate this oppressive cultural control by these self-appointed bureaucrats and by a legal system gone mad. I ventilate my frustrations through writing, but it's only a temporary fix. You can't paint outside without being harassed by the police, you can't assemble without people asking for your damn permit, and you can't live outside the lines without enormous pressure to box you back in. The land of the free, home of the brave has become the land of those who comply with the bureaucrats and the few who end up fined, harassed and imprisoned for nothing more than refusing to paint by numbers.
Labels: architecture, government, regulation, resistance, society
posted by . @ 1:45 PM
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