Mr. Hume occasionally explores the relationship between being non-religious and being a libertarian.\u00a0 If the failure to ban cell phone use while driving results from libertarian pressures, you can count me out as a member.\u00a0 It is incomprehensible to me that we continue to allow people to drive a 6000-pound killing machine while talking on a cell phone, hands-free or not; the cognitive interference from engaging in conversation with an absent interlocutor is patent.\u00a0 Of course there are other distractions that inflict drivers, but none reaches the order of cell phone conversation\u2014and that\u2019s just assuming ordinary chit-chat about last weekend\u2019s parties, not receiving an unexpected, devastating piece of news.\u00a0 Business decisions are presumably serious matters that require mental exertion, thus justifying the decider\u2019s salary.\u00a0 The idea that you can pay attention to complex transactions over the phone and also to every sudden obstacle on the road that requires a split-second reaction is absurd.\u00a0 When cell phones first appeared, a libertarian friend of mine took the position: if a technology exists, people have the right to use it and are responsible for their own actions.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if such an instinct underlies the legislative failure to ban this obvious danger or just the fear of alienating thousands of voters who put their desire to multi-task ahead of the serious risk to other people\u2019s lives.\u00a0 Somehow we managed for decades to conduct our affairs without being able to talk on the phone while driving; I would think it is still possible to do so.\u00a0 As for texting while driving, it is beyond any possible defense.\u00a0 And yet even that insane and selfish practice inexorably spreads.\u00a0 But maybe society has implicitly decided that the benefits from nonstop social connectedness are worth scores of dead and maimed bodies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mr. Hume occasionally explores the relationship between being non-religious and being a libertarian.\u00a0 If the failure to ban cell phone use while driving results from libertarian pressures, you can count me out as a member.\u00a0 It is incomprehensible to me … Continue reading