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March 22, 2005

SOCIALISM (OR, "YOU'RE FAT? TOO BAD!")

For someone like me, who does not think phrases like "it's your own stupid fault" and "sorry, but that's not my problem" are anachronisms, it is almost painful, and certainly disheartening, to follow debates on public policy, especially in an election season.

The popular crisis of the moment is, of course, obesity (in the wake of annoying pseudo-cockney Jamie Oliver's televised wussification of school dinners). Discussion of the matter revolves almost exclusively around what the government must do to avert the imminent "crisis". Personal responsibility is usually brought up only as a concept to be sneered at, and questioning whether the government should be involved in the matter at all marks one as uncompassionate, a fool, or a tool of food corporations. It is symptomatic of the damage that decades of socialism have done to Britain. For so long has the government sought to remedy every social ill that it is now near impossible to talk about them in terms other than government action.

While the right wing have focused primarily on the fiscal costs of socialism, the social cost should be of far greater concern. It should be self-evident that if the government takes away the consequences of destructive behaviour, the more destructive behaviour one will see. And the more people are encouraged to see themselves as victims and place the blame for their own actions on "society" or anyone other than themselves (as socialists have done since Marx), the more individual responsibility is undermined and the more that social order is undermined. The problems of teenage pregnancy, youth yobbery and rising crime are symptoms of this, and compared to the total social collapse that a nation of complete dependency would bring about, relatively minor ones. It is the duty of the right wing, no less than scaling down government, to undermine the victim culture before we reach the point of no return.

It's possible, of course, that we have already reached it. Perhaps those who want the government to Do Something™ about obesity are, in a sense, correct. Correct that the British people have gotten so used to government being the one-size-fits-all answer to everything that they are no longer capable of acting like responsible adults. The fact that there is a debate about obesity at all that goes beyond everyone saying "gosh, what a shame" in unison might support this. If this is so, then it would indeed be cruel to do nothing about obesity, for the same reason it would be cruel to abandon an infant, a dog, or any other kind of dependant.

But, I would like to think otherwise -- that there are enough people out there who expect to be treated as adults to make a difference. One has to keep hope alive.

Posted by Lewis at March 22, 2005 09:49 AM