(April, 2009)

The other day I was asked about Driver's Licenses as in the necessity or legality of same.

I told the usual view which is one does not need permission to travel upon their own roads in their own vehicle. And that the Driver's License is in actuality a contract between you and the motor vehicle department (state). What used to be a simple certificate of driving proficiency has morphed into a national identification card and record(s) available via computers and networks to millions of government bureaucrats and other unelected employees.

Upon deeper contemplation I wish now to present a broader and more complete perspective. It all begins with contrived, created or real 'crisis'. We will see how the current Driver's License is a product of "crisis management".

In the beginning of automobile travel driver's licenses were non-existent. They were not required or desired. At some point the over-crowding of vehicles and ever increasing vehicle "mishaps" encouraged citizens of a community to "require" that all drivers be at least trained in the art. Hence the original driver's license was nothing more than a certificate stating the holder is proficient to handle a vehicle. I remember as late as the 1960s a driver's license was a mere scrap of paper with county, state and driver's name and address. It contained no photo, finger print, signature, social security number or other 'cataloguing' number systems. One could be requested by mail with a mere phone call.

You probably did not notice that in the above paragraph we mentioned the first "crisis" that had to be identified and solved. In such a crisis a certain degree of urgency is generated then a 'solution' must be found as well as funding, implementation and 'enforcement'.

The crisis above mentioned is not really manufactured or fabricated as there were accidents of diverse sorts and severities. However, the degree of urgency and the form and type of solutions were all contrived.

Control freaks and psychopaths, being what they are; i.e., insane, will always zero in on a crisis and ever so kindly offer themselves of service to present "their" solution, their leadership and their management of the crisis. Everyone else can either put their two cents in or stand aside giving their inherent powers to the new leader of vision and self-sacrifice. While the gawkers do get some benefit - perhaps a safer driving environment - which kills 50,000 people a year (some benefit). The feckless leader and his cronies, relatives, corporations and insiders get the benefits of control, steering, fat government contracts, inside old boy networks (political power) and other assorted kick-backs, bribes and privileges we mere payers of the tax bills don't get.

Once this little scam is learned the control freak psychopaths can find other crisis that need managing. Oh! Look! There is a snail in that creek over yonder that is in dire danger of being extinct by farmers, ranchers, developers, kids fishing, etc. We need to pass laws, appropriate money and create a bureaucracy to protect these poor defenseless snails. And the scam goes on and on and the spectators and tax bill payers don't have a clue how they are being manipulated over and over and over.

What the mere scrap of paper the driver's license started out as became through "crisis management" the monstrosity we have today. In order to address the crisis of criminals running rampant, terrorists running amuck among us, protecting the insurance corporation's billions of passive assets, protecting children playing in the streets or riding in the cars, untrained truck drivers, well - you get the idea. The current Driver License horror is a construct resulting from addressing all of these "crisis".

The other complication came in when people began insuring their vehicles and themselves against damage, etc. The insurance corporations began accumulating immense quantities of insurance premiums which they paid out when the insured required it as according to the insurance contract. No one likes to lose money. So the insurance corporations began studying ways to slow down the drain. They discovered better engineering of the vehicles would make them safer. This crisis of poor engineering required - you guessed it - more laws, enforcement and bureaucracies. They discovered roads should be engineered to be safer. More laws. They discovered drivers were speeding, etc. More crisis which required creativity to solve since everyone was free to travel on their own roads in their own vehicles. This crisis was solved by creating a contract that every recipient of a Driver's License would agree to and be obligated to. This contract said in essence you will abide by all the rules and regulations issued by your state's motor vehicle department. This is the contract and because you were never required to sign such a thing the fact that it is a contract and that you were fooled into signing it was kept from you.

So our Driver's License is much more than certification we can driver properly. It is a mosaic of contrived solutions to many "crisis" used to give benefit to others all the while you are forced at the point of a gun to obey and comply with as you pay and pay for these new "privileges" which were originally your rights you owned out right.

Today you can be tasered, beat up, fined, arrested, harassed and otherwise abused for not complying with the provisions of a contract you didn't even know you were party to.

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