The Importance of Footwear

Given my general bent, I spend more than my fair share of time thinking about, well you know, various things, like the weather and how my rabbit is doing and if the Etruscans had conquered Italia instead of the Romans would we be speaking Church Eruscan and, of course, the general fall of the republic and the economy (it is rather crowded in here and there is rather a lot going on).  For the latter, I also spend a fair amount of time thinking about various scenarios wherein the powers that be, who do not quite care for my kind of people (age, belief system, culture) do things to curtail freedom without "curtailing" it - something not as blatant as "banning from the InterWeb" (although always a possibility) but other, softer ways to make obedience appear reasonable and "disobedience" as foolish and painful.

Last night it came to me:  Footwear.

(No, I have not completely lost my mind from overthinking.  Well, probably not.)

We take footwear for granted.  I would argue that I have minimal footwear management, and I own four pairs of boots, two pair of sneakers, and a pair of zori (sandals) for Iai.  The Ravishing Mrs. TB owns, well, considerably more.

We use footwear everywhere.  We do not think about the weather or environment, at least for our feet, unless we misjudge either badly (wearing tennis shoes in the rain, for example - wet feet, but not frozen-toes-falling-off feet).  If shoes wear out, we simply buy a new pair.  No muss, no fuss.

But what would happen if footwear became a controlled commodity?  What if it was controlled for sale the way any other controlled substances or items are?  What if that control was based on how the government viewed you?

Practically speaking, what easier way to control a population?

Try running is a pair of flip-flops.  Trying going a single day without shoes just around the outside of your house.  Once upon a time, most of us went long periods of time without shoes in summer -but we were young and there was a great deal of grass and earth to run on, not the concrete and blacktop that most of us live in now.

Beyond the simple social issue of "no shoes, no service", shoes allow us to go out and do a great many things.  Take away shoes - or take away the ability to use any shoes which allow any actual useful movement - and you cripple someone.  I can rather easily imagine a world where (with the advent of the magical "electronic" currency) the purchase of anything beyond basic footwear is controlled.  Have an unwelcome opinion?  Follow the wrong belief system?  A bare minimum for you.  The better footwear - the desirable, useful, "cool" footwear - goes to those who have decided to toe the dominant power line.

Some people would adjust, of course - the good news is that your feet will toughen up at any age and if you look hard enough, you can find out ways to make the Roman solider sandals called caligae (you can laugh, but they managed to conquer a great deal of the European world in them) or the straw sandals of Japan called waraji (which are woven grass).  But without footwear, a great many things become very difficult.

Sometimes we always look for the big control points.  The reality is that the smallest and slightest  thing in our modern world can make an oversize difference - because we have largely become dependent on others to do and make almost everything for us.