Can I make laws without being an elected official?

Scott Lindsley

Are there examples of everyday people taking part in the political process? Well…yes. This episode's guest is proof that anyone can be involved in powerful and positive ways. This is the last in our "getting started" series of podcasts. This episode will help give you a better idea of what it will look and feel like to be a Freelance Legislator.

Scott Lindsley, well, Scott is a pretty normal guy. I don’t mean that in a boring way, but I wanted to have him on Freelance Legislator because he is a regular guy with a regular job, but has chosen to be an active participant in the political process. He has been apart of efforts that have successfully (and not successfully) passed legislation--and he has never been an elected official. His story is an example of what I hope to see more of as we listen and grow together with Freelance Legislation. His story can help us to see our own potential to help be an informed but active participant in legislation designed to help preserve life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

On this episode we reference something referred to as the Parable of Chesterton's Fence, or the Fallacy of Chesterton's gate. I first read this in an article by Cassandra Hedelius in Meridian Magazine back in 2015:

“In the matter of reforming things, as distinct from deforming them, there is one plain and simple principle; a principle which will probably be called a paradox. There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, “I don’t see the use of this; let us clear it away.” To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: “If you don’t see the use of it, I certainly won’t let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it.”

“This paradox rests on the most elementary common sense. The gate or fence did not grow there. It was not set up by somnambulists who built it in their sleep. It is highly improbable that it was put there by escaped lunatics who were for some reason loose in the street. Some person had some reason for thinking it would be a good thing for somebody. And until we know what the reason was, we really cannot judge whether the reason was reasonable. It is extremely probable that we have overlooked some whole aspect of the question, if something set up by human beings like ourselves seems to be entirely meaningless and mysterious. There are reformers who get over this difficulty by assuming that all their fathers were fools; but if that be so, we can only say that folly appears to be a hereditary disease. But the truth is that nobody has any business to destroy a social institution until he has really seen it as an historical institution. If he knows how it arose, and what purposes it was supposed to serve, he may really be able to say that they were bad purposes, that they have since become bad purposes, or that they are purposes which are no longer served. But if he simply stares at the thing as a senseless monstrosity that has somehow sprung up in his path, it is he and not the traditionalist who is suffering from an illusion.”

I may refer to this parable (or story) from time to time throughout the shows. I feel that this helps us to take a more reasoned and balanced approach, perhaps a less contentious one as well.