Why I Have Learned to Hate Socialism

Neville Rigby’s article on the speech by Alan Johnson encapsulates neatly for me everything that is detestable about socialism:

Alan Johnson, Britain’s health secretary, got it right when he called for a national movement to tackle obesity in his Fabian Society speech. He’s taken on board the sound advice offered to governments over many years now that to have any hope of stemming the tide of overweight and obesity, you need a societal approach that involves everyone in becoming part of the solution.

No, he was wrong. It is a matter for individuals to live their lives as they please. I once considered myself a socialist. I was bewitched by the idea of social justice; whereas, in fact, I believed and always have, that there should be a safety net, not that there should be a something for nothing culture or that the wealthy should be squeezed for no other reason than envy and hate. I certainly did not sign up for this constant poking about in our private lives.

I did not choose to belong to society. I do choose to interact with others for mutual benefit. Therefore, I reject any suggestion that society has any rights whatsoever over how I live my life. Equally, I seek no rights over the lives of others. If you want to smoke your lungs out, drink your liver to cirrhosis or fill your arteries up with sludge to the point where Jabba the Hutt could outrun you to the convenience store, then that, as far as I am concerned, is your lookout. You know the risks, you are all grown up now and you take the consequences of your decisions – just as I take mine every time I hop on a motorcycle and play skittles with the trucks on the M4.

No sooner had he spoken than the Advertising Association, trumpeting a publicity package they value at £200m (over four years), declared it would “embed” health messages in commercials and hoped we would all get into shape in time to sit down and watch the Olympics. It sounds so easy, we might wonder why no one thought of it before.

Groan… That’s the last thing I need. I’ve just about recovered from the singing cows telling me how bad salt is for me – when it isn’t and I can make my own decisions about how much is too much. Oh, and I will not be sitting down to watch the Olympics – I’d sooner poke my eyes out with red hot needles than watch that over-inflated, over-priced, ego-driven pile of corrupt arsewash.

When the government announced it would spend £75m on an anti-obesity advertising campaign, the director-general of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, Hamish Pringle, confided with somewhat alarming frankness to the New York Times: “If you just run some advertising and then forget about it, it’s going to have zero effect. If we’re seeing obesity as a societal problem, it could be a decade before it shows results.”

Well, they could spend that £75m more wisely, I suspect. And, Pringle is right about the likely effects. I, for one, take no notice whatsoever of patronising government information films. That’s the time to put the kettle on (or fast forwarding if it’s recorded). I certainly don’t waste thirty valuable seconds of my life watching the bloody things.

Rigby decides that Pringle is right, too.

Hamish Pringle got it right. Obesity is a societal problem requiring us all to be involved in long-term solutions (which do involve quite a lot of more complex changes of the type identified in the government’s Foresight Report on obesity last year). But if the only thing actually running is an advertising campaign along with Olympic competitors on the TV, the only pounds lost will be from the public purse.

Well, yes – and can we shut up about the fucking Olympics, please? I won’t be watching, so will naturally be able to avoid any propaganda education targeted at me.

Rigby concludes by pointing out that it is up to private companies to get involved and force our hands – because, naughty children that we are, we won’t be told.

It isn’t really acceptable, as many of the companies’ products lead to consumption that is far from balanced – skewed by a heavy load of cheap fat, oil and sugar – or a tasty overdose of salt. If there is broad support from industry to be part of the solution, let the support be unbranded. When it comes to public health, campaigns need to be seen to be independent to retain the public’s trust. But let’s also be clear about what kind of collective national movement is needed alongside efforts to persuade individuals to change their behaviour.

There must be a movement by companies, to make healthier choices over the products they make available. There needs to be a movement to tailor environments to favour people and public transport. Most of all there needs to be a movement to protect younger consumers, and that must not mean fudging the issue of health. We are all involved in becoming part of the solution, especially in grappling with the challenge of reducing childhood obesity. It takes a village, or nowadays the global village, to raise our children.

So, we are not to make our own choices. We are to be manipulated and coerced into making the “right” choices.

Much of my repugnance is summed up by Danot in the very first comment and I quote it in full:

We had this sort of stupid logic applied in schools and it has been an unmitigated failure. Children voted against the Jamie Oliver option with their feet and stopped eating the stuff because they simply didn’t like it.

There are plenty of healthy choices in the supermarkets, try buying a yoghurt in one of the main supermarkets that hasn’t had all the fat taken out of it. There’s no shortage of healthy options for people who want to take them. People buy “unhealthy” food because they prefer the taste. A government campaign isn’t going to stop that. I’ll walk past ten rows of Shredded Wheat and down into the basement if I have to in order to get my coco pops.

If supermarkets start cutting more fat and sugar from their foods, I’ll shop elsewhere. The fat and sugar are what give those foods their taste. Essential fatty acids are just as essential for life as vitamins and minerals, a completely fat free diet would be a killer.

The problem is that people eat too much of what they like and don’t do enough exercise. The supermarkets will happily stock anything that people want to buy, and if they sell more healthy foods then those foods will be given more shelf space.

Now there is the voice of common sense. I can cite a recent personal example of this reaction to “healthy” choices being no choice at all. Mrs Longrider was complaining that the milk in her workplace is either skimmed or semi-skimmed. On asking whether they can get some proper milk in for the tea, she was told in no uncertain terms that they could not (it’s not “healthy” you see). So, she takes her own in and makes her tea with that – neatly sidestepping the dictatorial decision making of her employer.

We don’t do skimmed or semi-skimmed milk in the Longrider household (it’s the quickest way to turn a cup of tea or coffeee into disgusting, undrinkable muck) – if we are going to drink milk we want something that tastes of milk. We also like a few sprinkles of salt on our chips. Both of us are moderately fit and healthy. We neither want nor need to be educated, cajoled or forced to change our behaviour (because we have no intention of altering our behaviour) and the more that society tries to make us change our behaviour the more we will dig our heels in and refuse. We will live our lives in the manner that we see fit and it is no one else’s business. And, before someone bleats about costs to the NHS, so far we have paid in rather more than we have caused in cost. We pay our dues, the NHS is not free and if at some later date, our lifestyle causes health problems, we have more than paid that cost over our working lives.

So, society – keep your nose out of our business and I am damned if I will take any part in some societal solution to obesity. It’s not my business, just as my life is none of yours.