As a busker, I am generally opposed to those who would regulate my activity. It seems that those who love rules and regulations are a compulsive and obsessive lot that have only one joy in life, that being the creation of more rules and regulations. Call me an anarchist if you like, but in my experience if you give these rule makers an inch, they take over your whole existence with their insistence that their rules are the right, correct and proper means to coexist in this life.

They then go about directing their power over the lives of others, via their rules, on all except those who have enough money or financial influence to bend the rules in their favor. There's a very fine example of this scenario being played out in the area where I frequently busk. What you end up with is a system of rules that is influenced or governed by how much money you've got. If you have enough money you can write your own rules. If not, you get squashed by them.

Sound familiar? There are more than a few folks out there that above all else crave power and control over others. Unfortunately for us, there are many who are more than willing to offer up their freedoms to these power mongers, who later are deemed by all to be truly twisted and insane types.

I can still remember what it was like before any of the rules were created in the area where I enjoy busking. That taste of true freedom lingers sweetly in my memories. There were fewer complications, no arguments, or fights over what was considered right and wrong. Everyone had more respect for one another back then. Buskers were treated with more dignity.

Now, all these many years later, it seems that all these rule makers do is sit around in their offices and dream up more ways to regulate us. There are never fewer rules. They don't seem to know the meaning of less regulation. It's all a part of their system of control that they create. Once the game of regulatory control is started, it never ends. It only ever increases in magnitude. They meet privately to discuss and plan how to continue the dominance that they've established and how to ensure it will never diminish.   

In many ways these rules have been our downfall. We are generally looked down upon by those who have a larger financial investment in the area because they know that their position enables them to have influence over the rules that are governing us. They've used that power to further limit our activities and ability to perform and entertain. There's more than one glaring example of this going on in the area that I could site where those who have a larger financial footprint, via their influence over the rules, have excluded all street entertainers from an area so that the employees they've hired could actively to do the same thing that we used to do, entertain in an area that we buskers used to be able to occupy.

In one particular instance of this the rule makers told us (the busking population) that we were causing crowds that were too large for one particular area and therefore that our activities had become an unacceptable risk in an emergency situation. They presented it to us as being a public safety issue and therefore something that they were required by law to enforce. Once we were banned from the area the employees of a local business began using the same area to do exactly what we used to be able to do there, entertain folks. They now have the opportunity to entertain there all day long, everyday. They regularly create crowds, as big as, or bigger than we ever did.

They are never reprimanded for their activities there. Nor are they regulated in any way because of the negative impact their crowds pose in an emergency or public safety situation. Furthermore, even though they are in fact doing exactly the same thing that we are, entertaining, they are not required by the rule makers to purchase permits or abide by any of the regulations that we must abide by as street entertainers. Are you beginning to see the double standard rear its ugly head?

The assurances early on about how we were not going to charged for permits as street performers got quickly tossed out the window along with the rest of our rights. Once fees began to be charged, by those in charge of making the rules, those fees have never stopped or lessened. Every year they look for more excuses as to why they must raise the fees that they exact from us.

Along with all of the rules come the inevitable endless squabbles between those within the busking population, who then try to find loopholes within the way the rules are worded or structured in order to bend them to their advantage. Like Pandora's Box, I believe this can of worms would have been best left unopened. There's no government like no government.

Would I want some kids setting up too close to me screaming their messages with loud voices and amplifiers blaring? No. Over the years I've had to deal with being out volumed by many entertainers who have set up too closely or who were playing instruments with greater acoustic volume. Among these were percussionists of all kinds, horn players, fiddlers, entire church choirs, amplified performers like jugglers, guitarists... I usually play unplugged and see no need to carry even more gear, like amps, mics stands, etc with me as I busk but this choice has left me with the disadvantage of being vulnerable to those with greater volume capability.

To the powers in place, look at it this way, screaming at that intensity and playing at that volume will eventually catch up with these young ones. They'll probably go deaf soon, loose their voice, break a string, or blow a fuse or a circuit. In time their batteries will wear out. They'll get sleepy, thirsty, hungry or just bored and in need of a break. Once the drugs wear off they'll have flashbacks about what they looked like before they pierced themselves into oblivion, dyed their hair florescent orange, and tattooed every conceivable appendage and totally freak out. Any of these will effectively end their display of youthful exuberance. This will, no doubt, ultimately turn them to less desirable forms of recreation, like even more drugs to ease the pain of being banned from their creative outlets and a life of crime to support such nasty habits. They'll soon be robbing your homes, mugging your friends in dark alleys or worse, running for some political office. That's where the real money is. Then, soon they'll be making the rules, and won't that make you one happy camper on that fine day!

eor