Maintaining Decentralized Authority Requires Continual Effort

Last year there was a push in various areas of the United States to replace police officers with social workers. In my part of the world, they are referred to as “Neighborhood Resource Specialists” and their primary functions are “Low priority calls, Long term problem solving, and Community engagement”. A couple examples they help solve are:

A neighbor’s flood light being on at night and shining in your window.
A neighbor’s dog is always doing its’ “business” in your yard and they don’t clean up after it.

These examples beg the question: Why not just address little problems like these by talking to your neighbor? Are we so uncomfortable with confrontation that we’d rather pay taxes to have “specialists” talk to our own neighbors for us?

This is unfortunately yet another step toward centralization of authority, and it reveals how weak our communities are. Our functional worldview is that it’s more costly for us to broach the subject with our neighbor than to hand over tax money and personal freedoms to change our neighbor through coercion.

Those who wish to live in a free society must continually make an effort to engage in relationships, including the uncomfortable parts. Make it a priority to know your neighbors. Live as a servant to your community. Be encouraging and be honest. Next time you see someone leaving dog poop in your yard, consider it an opportunity for you (and them) to grow, and go talk to them about it!