How free is free?
There seems to be quite a few programmes on the satellite channels these days about Hoarders.
Hoarders, for those of you who live sheltered lives are those people who have an inability to throw anything away. And I mean anything. More often than not these people live in their homes which are piled high to the ceiling with anything from old newspapers and clothes down to and including human waste. If you can see a square inch of floor space anywhere in the house then these people can show you a thing or two.
I like to let Herself watch these programmes as immediately after, she goes into a cleaning frenzy.
They also make me feel a little better about the state of my "office".
However there is one thing that struck me about these programmes.
Depending on the channel you watch, they can either be British or American.
The Brits tend to be forced into a clearout due to pressure from their families, or from neighbours who are complaining about the smell or vermin.
The Americans though are a different kettle of crustaceans.
They seem to live in fear of "The City", "The Authorities" or "Adult Protective Services".
What the fuck is that all about?
Can "The City" [what ever that is] really dictate how clean your house is? Do "The Authorities" really have the power to turf you out of your own home and demolish it? And what the fuck is "Adult Protective Services"? Child Protection is supposed to protect the little brats from adults, so who does Adult Protection protect against? Adults? Are they trying to protect you from yourself?
I like to keep the place here reasonably clean simply so I can move around the place. If I decide to fill the house with junk, rubbish, stuff and shit then that's between Herself and myself. "The City", "The Authorities" and everyone else can fuck off as they have no right whatsoever to tell me how to run my own home.
How do Americans put up with this authoritarian crap?
I thought America was the Land of the Free?
The city government, or the township supervisors or borough supervisors can condemn your property but it really is a last resort kinda' thing. You would call these entities a local council. Just recently an old church building started falling down and it was demolished by the city. The owner of the building was arrested. This sounds all nasty and unfair until you realize that the building was condemned in 2009 because it was in such bad shape and the owner agreed to tear it down. He did nothing and the falling bits of this building started landing on the neighbors houses. The building was so dangerous the city stepped in and condemned it. I don't see this as an affront to my freedom but instead as the local government having the power to keep people safe from those who live below a standard accepted by the local community.
"Adult Protective Services" came about because of the number of homeless and mentally disabled found on our city streets. Your right in a way that they do keep people safe from themselves but again they are a last resort kinda' thing. There are many charities and organizations that cater to the homeless and the mentally ill. APS is only used in the most extreme cases.
As far as I know the system here is that a property owner can be forced to either demolish or make safe a building if it poses a danger to the public, but that's about it.
I'm not having a go at America [well, not this time] but it surprises me that a nation that prides itself in its freedoms should have a set-up where people are terrified of being ordered out of their own homes by "the authorities". As far as I am concerned, my home is my castle and no one has any authority whatsoever to dictate what I do in it, even if I want to fill it to the rafters with festering rubbish.
"~~fill it to the rafters with festering rubbish"
Sounds pretty much like my loft when we cleared it out before we moved!
Two large skips later…….
I waited until the attic was full and just sealed off the trapdoor and plastered over it. I haven't a clue what's up there and never will at this stage.
"Sounds pretty much like my loft when we cleared it out before we moved!"
Meltemian; you weren't by any chance the previous occupant of the house I moved into recently?
I was told by a neighbour that the house was rented out, and the last tenant family had been "storing" bagfuls of household waste in the attic. Funny how it slipped their mind when their tenancy expired.
Myself and the wife also discovered last Christmas that the reason the sewage system on our block was clogged to the gills was because those fine examples of fuckwittery were also flushing nappies down the bloody toilet.