Switzerland slowly going mad?

Is Switzerland slowly going mad?

Here are three bits of evidence.

They may or may not constitute definitive proof.

Do tell me what you think.

Naturally, I welcome from you other instances which might indicate that Switzerland is indeed slowly going mad - or not, as the case may be.

Here is the first bit of evidence:

A friend tells me of at least one Community where you aren't allowed to build a traditional Swiss Riegelhaus now - the reason officially given is that it is no longer considered fashionable to do so! The Swiss term "Riegelhaus" by the way, is the same as the German "Fachwerkhaus" or the English "timber-framed" or "post-and-beam" house.

Here is the second bit of evidence:

A foreigner who I know in Basel is out of work, and therefore has been dependent on money from the state. Because he does not like to be dependent on state money, he has been looking and looking for a job. Finally, he found a job in Zurich. However, the Basel Authorities will not permit him to take up the job, because it is not in Basel. He is allowed to work only in Basel. The Basellois would rather pay him to be unemployed in Basel than allow him to work in Zurich!

The third bit of evidence? Well, this may not be evidence of Switzerland going mad, but it is certainly evidence of mental degeneration:

The road approach to Zurich Airport is being modernised (or something like that). When you are nearly at the Airport, you find signs that tell you which road to take for the different Parking Garages, and for dropping off people. However, there is no sign to tell you what to do to pick up someone at the airport. If you instinctively follow the route you would have followed before the approach roads started being tampered with, you find yourself being taken off the airport quite sharply. We stopped at the turn to ask the security guard for directions and his first job was apparently to tell us that we were lucky the police were not around at that moment or we would have been liable for a fine! We had to go all the way out of the airport, then back into the airport and wend our way to one of the Parking Garages - you can't pick up a person at the airport at all without going into a Parking Garage. Even if you are straight in and out as the person you are going to pick up is waiting for you right there, it will still cost you CHF 2 for the privilege. However, the money is not the point. The point is that here is one of Switzerland's most major transport hubs being modernised, and it is so poorly-planned that it provides no guidance to people driving in to pick friends up there. By the way, an increasing number of streets, because of new buildings, is now without street names at the appropriate corner.

Oh, while I am at it, I might as well give you a fourth bit of evidence.

If you drive into the airport not to pick someone up but to drop someone off, you have five minutes of time in order to do so without charge, after which the charge is CHF 1 PER MINUTE!!! And they are apparently quite aggressive about making sure you pay (electronic surveillance, postal bills...).

Now that I am in the flow of this, let me give you a fifth bit of evidence.

A neighbour's son was walking along a road with a friend in the evening, in a nearby town (Frauenfeld, to be precise). A car drove up without its lights on, turned on its lights just as it got to them, and screeched to a halt. Out jumped two policemen, and started questioning them. In the course of their questions, the policemen demanded to know if they had ever taken drugs. Being a typically honest sorts of Swiss lad, my neighbour's son said yes he had actually smoked hashish once (his friend apparently had never touched the stuff). "Well, then you have to pay a fine of CHF 200", said the police to my neighbour's son - which he had to pay, since it was more bother to fight this through the system than to simply pay up. By the way, it is illegal even for the police to drive around without lights in the dark.

As the state and its organs turn predatory, how long will the Swiss retain trust in the system?

When will the Swiss too start lying as a matter of habit when confronted with authority?

How soon will Swiss culture degenerate to the condition of Africa or India?