Friday, August 31, 2007

Licenses...

The following post does not represent the views or beliefs of anyone. It is simply the musings of an aging man as he wakes up one morning. Have you ever woke up in the morning with a thought running through your head and you have no idea where the idea came from. That seems to happen to me a bunch. If it does not happen to you, I apologize if this post seems "out there".

I woke up this morning thinking about all of the areas of our life we have to have a license for. Of course some of the big items jump right at us like a driver's license. The rational for having a licence for driving is a good one. Driving can be dangerous and can negatively impact other people's rights or safety. Therefore, many countries around the world developed their standards for when someone can get a driver's license and how individuals can get a license. Paper work was created, agencies were established to issue the licenses and of course our wonderful friends in blue with the nice flashing lights were given yet another responsibility. O.K., so we have that idea of licenses, what else do we have?

Well, there are professional licenses. Plumbers, electricians, lawyers, some farm workers, pilots, and so many others. You even need a license to take apart cars for recycling purposes. I think it can be agreed that each of these professions can have a negative impact on the safety of others if left without any licensing requirements.

Recreationally, we have to have licenses as well. We require hunting and fishing licenses among other recreational licenses that may not be necessary in every state. Hunting, I can see as fitting our rational for needing a license. Some one just running around with a gun firing at things with out regulation can be a bad thing for sure. But how about fishing? When was the last time someone was threatened by an old guy standing up in his dingy waving an unlicensed fish at someone? Not sure that has happened and I don't really think fishing falls into our "protect others" license policy. Instead, fishing license and some hunting regulations seem to be set up to preserve a species or to maintain a quality of life for that species. We go to great lengths to protect different forms of life in our country and we have many laws and regulations.

So from the above conversation one could conclude licenses exist to help protect and to regulate. Nobel ventures that can really help increase the quality of life. So what about those things in life that are not currently licensed? We have a practice in our society that is responsible for making thousands of people miserable. This activity has the potential to ruin family lives, professional lives, can help contribute to starvation, can financially ruin people and may be the number one reason our social problems seem to increase every year.

The one thing we don't regulate, we don't license, and most people shudder to think about ever licensing is the creation of life. I know, I know there are many issues that rub people the wrong way in this discussion, but lets look at how creation of life compares to the above licensing rational.

As most people know, there are no skills needed to create life. There is no study involved, no training, and in many cases very little time. Can this result in a threat to the quality of life? I am sure people that become parents at a very early age can attest to the hardships and difficulties. We have tons of documentation of abuse and neglect from people that have become "parents" without really wanting to. Even if the new parents want the responsibility of raising the child there are many sacrifices made, especially with our teen parents.

Lets look at the regulation side of things. Every year the data from our agencies point to increases in the number of homeless and destitute people. More and more there is a portion of the population running around uneducated with no employable skills. With the drop out rates in school rising as fast as the number of single parent families, one might draw some correlations there as well. Regardless of people's views on life, I think most can agree that there is a portion of our society that is discarded or not cared for. Sure there is some help out there for them, but for people that can not read and have no home, that help is similar to trying to show each fish caught your fishing license.

What would it be like to have to take a parent certification course in order to conceive? We have to get a marriage license, but not one for making a baby? Who would do certifications and to what standards? Of course the big question would pop up, how the heck would you think of regulating this? I am sure there are great minds in China, India and other heavily populated ideas that have thought of different ideas. Maybe even a technological option of having a chip installed at birth. That chip could shut off the possibility of creating life and could be turned off after the license is issued. Of course we wouldn't want to take away the ability to practice, where's the fun in that.

I am not advocating the licensing of baby making. I am simply wondering about society and the rational for changes used by society. I wonder how much increased regulation and licensing can be taken before people start to really rebel? All though history, we have rebellions against agencies that wish to limit rights. The pattern is the rebellion builds up steam, explodes in violence, people in charge begrudgingly alter their proposal a bit and the compromise seems to end up with a new law or regulation. So what is going to be the next big regulation?

Waking up in the morning with such thoughts brings up a better question. What the heck is our brain doing all night that results in waking up with such silly thoughts? I can't be the only one out there that has woke up in the morning with some crazy thought or idea, can I? Can others share some of the wild thoughts that pop into your head at times? I find the process of our thoughts and how our brain work fascinating. Without the electrodes and other fancy tools, the only way we can study our thinking is to hear other's thoughts. What have you been thinking about lately?

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