A Veneer of Freedom –or– Praise be To the Nanny State

Just how involved do you believe the state should be in our personal, day-to-day lives? For instance, is it good to have regulations created that decide (on behalf of you or your family) what you may eat, drink or otherwise consume? Should the state be able to tell you what you must wear (think all the different kinds of protective gear) or in what shape your body should be - in order to forgo critical scrutiny (fat, body weight, activity level etc)? Now I’m not suggesting for a minute that these things aren’t important but I’m asking should you get to be the one to make an EDUCATED choice or should the “government” simply decide and thus remove that choice from you?

How about the state unilaterally assuming the authority to dictate how they will “co-parent” your kids by deciding what they must study, how they may play or what they can say and believe – is that OK? In many instances these “schooling” issues go well beyond the realm of the “3R’s” (academics) and become nothing more than indoctrination and social engineering.

On the other hand, we do live in a civilized society and there sometimes need to be reasonable limits on personal freedoms in so far as is necessary to be able to live in the communities we choose. Sometimes we agree to compromise a little in order to support the needs of the bigger picture. We agree to be governed BUT that government must be limited (and, I believe, constantly monitored and restrained to prevent it from exceeding its limits). After all, in a free society we choose our leaders and we agree to follow their leadership so long as they do not exceed the limits which we have imposed upon them. They do not grant us our freedoms – rather it is us who grants them the limited privilege to serve, govern and lead.

With the above view in mind, I believe the degree to which the state should be permitted involvement in our own personal lives (if at all) should be absolutely minimal. Unfortunately, more and more, this is not the case. From where I stand, both governmental and bureaucratic involvement has become an insidious, ever growing malignancy that is slowly taking over our personal rights, freedoms and responsibilities. The thing is, the process has been implemented in such a manner as to make every intrusion seem “reasonable” and barely noticeable. Each intrusion is craftily prepared to sell to a largely uninformed public and it is often presented in a highly crafted manner of 30 second sound-bites within some mass media broadcast. The cumulative effect is designed to make the loss of particular freedoms more palatable. With every utterance of, “there oughta’ be a law…,” someone else’s freedom is at risk, because laws always have “unintended consequences and cover very broad strokes.

In the short time I’ve been on the planet, as a “baby boomer,” I’ve seen a significant erosion of individual rights and freedoms. As I was growing up, we enjoyed a number of activities including various sports, running about or riding our bicycles, climbing trees, rocks and anything else we could find to climb. We had skateboards and we swam and boated in the lakes and/or ocean. We ate all sorts of things (sweet and otherwise) in our lunches. The only requirements for these activities were set by our parents and the only things you needed to participate were the bare minimum (as for example, to play hockey you needed skates and a stick).

It’s not that we were reckless or our parents were irresponsible (indeed quite the opposite is true) but rather the state didn’t presume to dictate the mandatory safety restrictions. That responsibility was properly left up to our parents. Occasionally a kid would get hurt…but guess what; they still do today despite the piling on of even more and more onerous regulation. Frankly, by today’s so called safety standards, humanity should have disappeared from the planet long ago – but it hasn’t and I truly believe we were all the better off because of the variety of experiences we enjoyed growing up. Now, in a foolish and relentless effort to eliminate all risks, our over regulated society is simply drawing closer to that day when they slowly but surely suck all the fun out of life – along with any potential risk. When that day finally dawns, they can sit looking down their bureaucratic noses, at the long rows of folks (sitting in the proper prescribed manner, wearing their nerf suits and helmets) slowly aging in the government approved manner.

Of course, along with the push to ever more laws and regulation, there must be a corresponding increase in government survalence, bureaucracy and spending. Never question their sincerity however, for they are so committed to this vision of governmental nirvana that they are prepared to spend every penny in your pocket to get there and if necessary, they’d happily spend all the money in your kids pockets as well – for the next 3 generations if necessary. A cradle to grave nanny state will finally have been accomplished. Ya-freakin’-hoo!