Wherever the shadow of economic growth touches us, we are left useless unless employed on a job or engaged in consumption: the attempt to build a house or set a bone outside the control of certified specialists appears as anarchic conceit Ivan Illich

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, just about sums up over 100 years ago that which renders the citizen impotent
“To be governed is to be watched, inspected, spied upon, directed, law-driven, numbered, regulated, enrolled, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, checked, estimated, valued, censured, commanded, by creatures who have neither the right nor the wisdom nor the virtue to do so. To be governed is to be at every operation, at every transaction noted, registered, counted, taxed, stamped, measured, numbered, assessed, licensed, authorized, admonished, prevented, forbidden, reformed, corrected, punished. It is, under pretext of public utility, and in the name of the public interest, to be placed under contribution, drilled, fleeced, exploited, monopolized, extorted from, squeezed, hoaxed, robbed; then, at the slightest resistance, the first word of complaint, to be repressed, fined, vilified, harassed, hunted down, abused, clubbed, disarmed, bound, choked, imprisoned, judged, condemned, shot, deported, sacrificed, sold, betrayed; and to crown all, mocked, ridiculed, derided, outraged, dishonour. That is government; that is its justice; that is its morality.”

Modern impotence

The professionalisation of risk through insurance, the architect, the quantity surveyor, the project manager, the lawyer, the artist, the funding body, the qualification, the regulation, the certified, the funded , guarantees to put all off, apart from the obsessed. Permission is needed for everything and all are expected to seek it – such is the life of the disarmed citizen. The modern impotency is not a medical condition but a mental one. Treatment for modernised impotency: Getting out and engaging with the world and acting spontaneously. (but sensibly)