I caught a part of Jeremy Vine’s programme today. They were talking about people being inconsiderate with mobile phones – on trains in restaurants etc. So far so good. What his guests were proposing was some kind of code of practice that you have to sign when buying a phone. Now, apart from being a massively intrusive invasion of personal liberties (I would never sign any such thing). How would such an idea be enforced? Bad behaviour and discourtesy to others is a manifestation of peoples attitudes, not mobile phones. They are after all just a tool. Any tool will be used or abused depending on the user. If it wasn’t mobile phones, it would be something else.
One woman was touting an instant fine as an idea for dealing with miscreants. Ye gods! Don’t we have enough regulation in our lives? The nanny state is alive and well it seems. Why are people so bloody stupid as to think that everything has to be done for them in the form of government legislation? While I rail against the nanny state imposing itself in the minutiae of our daily lives, there are folk out there who want more of it. I find it difficult to understand such rationale. I can only guess, but I presume they sincerely believe that restrictions on others freedoms in the name of improved quality of life for themselves is a good thing. A good thing perhaps – until it is their freedoms being curtailed in the name of someone else’s quality of life.
We all have to rub along together. We should be able to do so without more laws, surely?
I frequently find myself having to remind people that the state is not their friend. It seems that the same qualification applies to our fellow citizens.
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