As we know, “public health” is in the business of making things illegal and suppressing the freedom of choice. That business, of course, does not concern just tobacco and smoking, but almost everything else under the sun. In this peculiar case we have a Canadian hero fighting the state system. His name is Michael Schmidt.
In this case the prohibition concerns the sale of unpasteurized milk in Ontario. “Selling unpasteurized milk is illegal in Canada because health officials say it can carry salmonella, E. coli and Listeria.” While nobody argues that pasteurized milk is safer and that unpasteurized milk is less safe, it is equally true that raw milk is delicious and the way nature intended it to be. It is also true that the animals can be regularly and frequently tested to insure that they are healthy. People who are willing to drink raw milk coming from healthy animals should be perfectly free to do so after receiving the appropriate information. Instead that is illegal. But this is not really the point we try to make.
Michael Schmidt defied the law. “An organic dairy farmer from southern Ontario vowed Monday to continue the illegal sale of raw milk, just minutes after being found guilty of contempt of court for ignoring an order to cease selling the product.”
“Justice Cary Boswell said his ruling had nothing to do with whether or not people have the right to consume raw milk, but rather whether Schmidt knowingly defied the court order to stop selling it. … He told Schmidt he should stay within the rule of law in seeking to make the sale of raw milk legal and called his actions ‘not only illegal, but completely self-defeating.’“
Now, here is the central point of the issue. “Public health” is no longer an entity one can reason with and make a case based on logic, common sense or even science. Public health has become an institution ruled by dogma. A person like Michael Schmidt does not have a snowball’s chance in hell to make his case within the rule of law, because he is facing a system designed not to hear.
The systems for recourse by the citizen may even be in place, but they are a mockery to justice. Ask, for example, any motorist who tries to fight a ticket. Ask any pro-smoking association that is demonstrating, science in hand, that the dangers of passive smoking are a fraud. Ask the over 32,000 scientists who have signed a document stating that global warming is a hoax. Ask any smoker who – even assuming that the scam of the “attributed mortality” is true – states to the public health authorities that he wants to be left alone, and that he happily trades a few theoretical months of statistical life for the pleasure of smoking. Ask… well, you get the idea, as the list can go on forever.
The system – in the name of health and safety – has become a tyrannical oppression that tries to preserve the appearance of freedom and democracy, while it has transformed itself into a machine impenetrable to the citizen. For Schmidt to have his unpasteurized milk legal, he should have the money of Bill Gates or thereabout to make his case – hire lawyers, scientists, activists, lobbyists; pay off the necessary forces in “public health” to have – perhaps in 20 years and perhaps not – an “exemption from the dogma”, if there is such a thing.
Otherwise common citizens like him do not have a fighting chance to make their points – other than the way Schmidt is doing, by breaking the law. The argument of Justice Cary Boswell – stay within the rule of law in seeking to make the sale of raw milk legal – would be civilized and applicable if “public health” were not a tyranny of petty elites who are careful to keep the power to themselves, and who are continuously terrorizing the population with fear and junk science to hold on to that power. Thus the rule of law would be the only way to go if the system were truly open to the citizens’ arguments and points on the basis of logic, truth and common sense instead of “no-can-do” regulations. And, if that were the case, we are certain that Mr. Schmidt would not choose to turn to civil disobedience, nor would there be any need for that.
Of course, the trade associations that are supposed to represent people like Schmidt are far too busy kissing the ass of “public health”: “Bill Mitchell, of the Dairy Farmers of Ontario, strongly contests Schmidt’s claim that consuming raw milk should be an individual choice. … ‘Anytime we see legislation that’s in place to protect the public health being enforced, it’s a good thing.’" There is no individual choice when it comes to "public health" edicts, that are far less questionable than those of the Pope: there is either obedience or punishment. In other words, individual choice is good only when the state says it’s good; otherwise, it’s a good thing that it is suppressed. How much more of a collectivist fascist can one be? There you go: now that “public health” has been appeased, the dairy farmers of Ontario can sleep well without the fear of reprisal – until next time.
While we sadly applaud the courage of Mr. Schmidt, we sincerely hope that he finds very many followers who break the law and make a political case of their fight because there are not enough “health” officers to suppress the rebellion. In that case the healthist state will listen – not because it respects (or even understands) truth, logic and common sense. Like all brutal animals, the healthist state will listen because it understands only the language that it speaks: brutal force.
That’s something that smokers still need to understand in large numbers. Much more beating and abuse is therefore needed in the name of "public health".
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