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“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” —

C.S. Lewis

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This perfectly describes the busybodies who are feverishly working at cobbling together an HOA of sorts in my expat community. Needless to say there's a core of us who are effectively "resisting".

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Tony, people who favor HOAs do so so that someone has control of the common properties because they do not want to do it. Also the enforcement controls appearances and property values. Most HOAs start with the developer giving administrative responsibility for common property to a law firm AKA an HOA.

Contrary to popular belief, HOAs can be dissolved by communities. If so, someone has to take the responsibility for landscaping, painting and maintaining the common property. There is the rub, no one wants to do that so the HOA just goes merrily along. Good luck!!!

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Stalin and the Communist Party did just that, too.

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This (among other reasons) is why I love C.S. Lewis. What a great quote. I think I ran across this in "Abolition of Man," yes? Or elsewhere? In any case, I need to reread that.

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I believe it was “God in the Dock”. Either way, Lewis’s massive intellect, wisdom, and insight continue to bless us today. Hard to say which one of his quotes is my favorite, but this one is so applicable and timely. It came to mind immediately.

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I'm impressed that you can remember quotes this well.

I could have sworn I had read that one, although I haven't read "God in the Dock."

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Well, I had to look it up to get the wording just right, but I read it years ago during the COVID madness and the simple, obvious truth of it really struck me.

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Very apt. Also shows you how things don't change. There have always been those people. I'm reading "The Brothers Karamazov" and those people existed then, too.

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I just finished that book a few days ago and agree with your assessment. These busybodies are endemic to the the entire race. Thus, ceaseless vigilance of our freedom.

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What are the odds! And, what an incredible work.

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The Have and Have-not battle has been with mankind since his inception.

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Yes indeed.

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They are unable to conceive that people are "wired" differently.

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