"You can't go around building a better world for people. Only people can build a better world for people. Otherwise it's just a cage."

Terry Pratchett, Witches Abroad

We cage animals in the zoo because we know how to provide for them better if only we can control the extent of their wanderings. As long as they exist within the confines of their little artificial worlds, we provide them with a 'better life'. And a cage is exactly what the progressive mind wishes to build for precisely the same reason.

Our cage is not constructed of bars and locks, but regulations and laws. We can't eat this, snort that, use this tool to defend ourselves, stick our Tab-A into someone else's Slot-B, build a place to live without proper licensing, nor create floral arrangements without the express permission from (and associated feed paid to) the state. This list could go on in ways that would stretch the upper limits of my database's capabilities for storage.

All of which, of course, are for our own good.

You see, we are nothing more than animals in a zoo. Too stupid to exist on our own without a benevolent keeper to cage us in and provide for us so that we can live. Sure, the tiger would much prefer to hunt his food on his own, but that's too risky of a proposition. He might not catch his meal and starve. Like the tiger, you might make mistakes in your life whose consequences you would feel fully if you weren't surrounded by the soft, padded cage of regulations and laws.

Even with all these bars that surround us, there are still unhappy people. People still make mistakes. Many of the people end up hurting themselves on the very bars that are supposed to ensure their safety because they wish to not be confined but to be allowed to roam free. And the statists amongst us continue to react with their one and only response – build more bars around the cage.

I prefer the free range myself. Why do you wish to cage me in?