1994: The Stackhat Deception
August 22, 2019
By AHNZ
How many times does New Zealand have to rediscover the Peltzman Effect? When risk is subsidised humans engage in MORE not less risk. The phenomena is also called Offsetting Behaviour or Risk Compensation and our mandatory cycle helmet laws are a great example of such Unintended Consequences.
Less Cycling, More Injury!
National 4.0 made helmets compulsory in January 1994. Since this time cycle usage has roughly halved while injury rates have roughly doubled! Perfect example of bad law and a perfect example of what the Peltzman Effect predicted.
This law has hurt more Kiwis physically and damaged the cycle industry and a healthy mode of recreation and transport. And, for what? To provide an illusion of safety to 90s Victimhood Culture and some Stackhat revenue to our 90s Government?
The Safety Theatre of helmets ‘dangerised’ cycling, taking it from an everyday practise toward the perception of being a hazardous one. Another reason that cycle use dropped back was the expense and inconvenience of wearing and storing helmets; Women are especially adverse to having their tertiary sexual characteristics obscured and messed up (hair.)
The rise in injury can be explained by cyclists and those they share the road with being much less careful. Why be so vigilant against accidents, aren’t they well protected by that helmet?
Helmet History: Satanic Pannic Victimhood Culture
Mandatory cycle helmets arose in this country by stealth. National 4.0 passed a law without debate in Parliament or select committee hearing to make helmets compulsory¹. The Minister of Transport at fault was Maurice Williamson, the same man who went on to force everyone to re-apply for their lifetime driver$ licence$ every 10 year$.
New Zealand in the 1990s was in the throes of a strong Victimhood Culture over which National 4.0 presided. The Political Correctness hit record high levels, the Overton Window shrank, and Christchuch became A City Possessed by the idea Devil-worshipping child molesters were around every corner. Non-zealots walked on eggshells during this Jerry Cycle, taking their cues on how to survive (without being burnt at the stake!) by shows like Seinfeld.
The Child Protection Movement pampered the young Millennial Generation, handing them unprecidented ‘support’ at each of their developmental milestones. In the 1990s, the first Millennials were up and cycling. It was OK for Gen X to have exciting Adventure Playgrounds, no helmets, and even cycle pedals made of spikes, but Millennials were entitled to privileged treatment or so their Boomer parents insisted.
Bootleggers and Baptists
The State is at its most harmful to the population when there is a confluence of moralists and mafia; Bootleggers and Baptists. A law that has the simultaneous backing of moralising do-gooders AND Rent-Seeking Crapitalists who stand to gain millions of dollars is bound to be passed.
The ‘Baptist‘ catalyst in New Zealand was Rebecca Oaten, the Helmet Lady, whose son was paralised in a cycling accident in 1986.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s Oaten travelled the country promoting the use of cycle helmets. For six years she visited an average of four schools a day, “lambasting” children with reasons why they should wear helmets. She also set up a lobby group, the Protect the Brains trust, which spread nationwide and put pressure on the government for a bicycle helmet law.- Wiki
It’s hard for a mother to process her legitimate grief, especially when her child doesn’t have the closure of the grave. Frequently, as in Helmet Lady’s case, the mother projects that grief into a powerful crusade to turn the world upside-down in a vain attempt to avoid her own suffering. This drive can bring beneficial change to a tribe or society provided it has the balance of some restraining masculine energy. However, when Oaten hit her stride in the 1990s there was little to no balance and Victimhood Culture embraced and multiplied her helmet crusade to fruition.
As for the Bootlegger, that was the Australian-produced helmet named Stackhat. National 4.0 prepared for Stackhat a near-monopoly status for their expensive (c.$80 in 90s money, I think) crash helmets. The monopoly power was given to this corporation by The State setting ‘safety standards’ that excluded their competition. Williamson of National 4.0 was imply following the example of Australia’s State Governments who had set the same standards and even promoted Stackhats heavily with taxpayer funded propaganda. If you were an Anarchist you might suspect that Williamson received lucrative kickbacks for paving the way for an Aussie plastic pork-barrel infestation but I can’t possibly comment.
The Stackhat is literally the opposite of risk-management. It’s a symbol of a culture resigned to being the passive victim rather than the active pathfinder. As you see from the image above, the Stackhat is designed to emphasise safety over aerodynamics. The message had changed from ‘Look after yourself and others’ to a fatalistic ‘Accidents will happen, brace for impact.’ Even stressed mammals will fight or flight, the Stackhat is more in keeping with the old-brain ‘freeze’ of the tortoise whose shell it resembles. New Zealanders don’t realise that even the name ‘stack’ is Aussie slang³ for ‘crash’…
The Stackhat derives its name from the verb “to stack”, which means “to crash”.- Ref. Stackhat; Wiki
Aussie slang for crashing and/or falling off something accidentally or falling down. Usually when operating a vehicle.- Urban Dictionary
Victimhood Culture mentality literally used the power of law to force everyone to adopt a victimhood stance. Be a crash-test dummy. Be collateral damage for transport accidents. Be the bug on someone’s wind-shield. Down-regulate from being an outgoing human to being your lowest sentient self: Turtle-brain.
You’ll recognise this same mentality of powering-down and idolising sacrifice and asceticism in the Victim/Slave reaction to the so-called energy crisis. Active people create and innovate and power up, Victims participate in Earth Hour and turn the lights off, restrict their consumption. They ban paper bags in the 80s, promoting plastic, and then turn around and ban plastic bags in the 2010s to promote paper. It is no accident that the Millennial Victimhood Culture of today’s mainstream was raised and Attached to that culture as children. We keep on paying for the The Stackhat Deception in so many ways.
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1 Ref. Bicycle helmets in New Zealand; Wiki
2 Ref. Road Danger Reduction Forum
3 Ref. Stack; Urban Dictionary
Image ref. Chris’s Vintage toys and collectables; Facebook
Image ref. Williamson; Stuff
Ref. Peak Phosphorus NZB3
Ref. 1880s: Prohibition Creates Substitution Effect
Ref. 1947: Socialised Dentistry for Kids
Ref. 1972: Accident Compensation Corporation
Update 2022: Added Peanuts cartoon, Charles M. Schulz. Probably apocrypha
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