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Nanny Knows Best
Don't worry. Nanny is looking after you. The 'Nanny State' has awoken after a short nap.
The majority of decisions as possible should be left to the individual. After all, no one knows your interests better than you.
But a spritely governess has different ideas.
Many adults in the western world succumb to inertia, ignorance or plain irresolution. But the decisions on smoking, drinking, and obesity should remain private.
Not so, when government departments - bureaucrats - take charge, and determine that their elected masters enact appropriate legislation.
Governments in the US, the EU and Canada, amongst others, in the end, second-guess what is best for their electorate. Everything from smoking to breastfeeding to organ donation.
From the point of view of liberty this is dangerous overreach.
Take smoking for an example. Public health campaigns are now the favoured weapon. In America these began with a surgeon general's report in 1964. The momentum has increased.
The Canadians, to highlight one instance, have decorated cigarette packets with resplendent images of blackened gums and cancerous lungs.
Such campaigns can have nasty side-effects. The shame, fear and guilt they induce acts as a kind of tax on the mind. The result of the psychic tax is to impose emotional costs while decreasing revenue for the treasury.
The aim of the nanny state is to scold and killjoy, forcing the children to eat their vegetables and take their medicine.
The last word might belong to John Stuart Mill who in 1869, wrote, in his essay "On Liberty", that the state should repress a man's acts only if they harm others.
Harm to himself was not a good enough reason for the state to limit his freedom.
