History repeats itself - again!

Icelanders recently copied some Irish and Swedish laws which ban smoking in "public" places (private property open to the "public" for business activities). The arguments are well-known: Smoking is bad for your health, no-one should be able to work in a health-damaging environment (by choice or not), and the "public health" has to be protected (by the State) - probably because the State monopolizes the health care system.

The following quote is illustrating for the "discussion" about smoking-bans in "public" places:

And arguments that private property would be unjustly confiscated were also brushed aside with the contention that property injurious to the health, morals, and safety of the people had always been subject to confiscation without compensation. (#)

The interesting thing about this description of the attitude in the public debate is, I think, not that it sounds familiar. This quote has nothing to do with the smoking-ban discussion today. It is a description of the debate in the United States during the years before the prohibition - the public outlawing of alcohol which lasted from 1920 to 1933.

So what we have here is history repeating itself. Instead of a free market for free individuals we have laws that ban certain non-violent activities, sends them to the black market and at the same time makes sure that the paternal Left gets a good night sleep, "knowing" that the vices of men have been banned with the threat of punishment from the State.

I think everyone knows why the prohibition was ended in America. I hope everyone realized that history has a huge tendency to repeat itself, because people have a huge tendency to forget the effects of State-violence on free-minded individuals.