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People react so strangely when confronted with how many infringements we face. Every license, permit, tax, and regulatory agency that we encounter in every aspect of life is a link in a chain around our necks, not a link of mail armor for our protection. But this truth cannot be accepted easily.

Well, of course not. People have been conditioned to think that some things are just beyond question, like the system we are forced to live under. Most view this as some a priori fact of life that doesn't even require further examination.

Too few people bother to move enough to feel the chains. It's an eternal weight, certainly, but when you feel the tension as you hit its extent, and all the guns are revealed, that is when the truth is unavoidable.