Tuesday 17 March 2009

Nanny On The Couch


I heartily recommend a full reading of this comment piece at politics.co.uk, entitled "Death to the nanny state" - here are a few snippets to whet your appetite.

This vote demonstrated quite how deep the government's contempt for the notion of individual choice went. Personal preference was an irrelevance. British adults needed to be told how to behave.

Earlier this year, the government implemented a ban on extreme pornography. It did not matter that the people featured in the pornography had consented to appear in it, nor that those who watched it voluntarily chose to do so. The government decided what was right.

The government has begun to treat the British public as a collection of individual units which must be managed appropriately to ensure their productivity and longevity.

But if people don't know what's best for them, governments also misunderstand their purpose. They are not moral arbiters. They are tasked with serving the people, not forcing a world view on them.

It's like psycho-analysis of the nanny state. Should be required reading for bansturbating MPs.




1 comment:

banned said...

"Earlier this year, the government implemented a ban on extreme pornography."
I'd forgotten about that one.

Whatever happened to the conundrum that if the definition of pornography was that it was "likely to deprave or corrupt" did that mean all was well if the recipient was already depraved and corrupted ?

wv = sating , very apt.