Denormalisation and democracy
Thursday, April 2, 2009 Simon Hills, associate editor of The Times Magazine and author of Strictly No! How We’re Being Overrun by the Nanny State, has some harsh words for chief medical officer Sir Liam Donaldson on The Free Society website.
He writes:
Sir Liam ... wants to ‘denormalise’ smoking. But smoking can't be denormalised, only smokers, which means that for the first time in our history it is government policy to cast opprobrium upon a sizeable minority of the people it is paid to govern ...
This is the nature of modern government ... Doctors are now talking of refusing to treat fat people. Perhaps they should be denormalised, too? Or how about drivers who decide to spend their hard-earned cash on a sturdy Range Rover instead of a nice Toyota Prius? Denormalisation is the least they can expect ...
What Sir Liam Donaldson and his ilk are saying, in other words, is that in order to be a part of society, we have to be like them. That is to say we should be slim, non-smoking cyclists who like rambling and other wholesome pursuits. Our aspirations should be nothing less that aiming to live for ever.
He concludes:
What a free society depends on above all else is my right to stand in front of you, to tell you the error of your thoughts; that you, my friend, are wrong on every aspect of global warming, healthcare, education and housing. And then, when you are not to be persuaded, to walk away.
Anything less, surely, is fascism. Take a bow, Sir Liam.
Full article HERE.
Reader Comments (13)
What baffles me is how all this "divide and conquer" strategy is bypassing the majority of the public. I can see "Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells" agreeing that smokers should be punished, fat people should be punished, and binge-drinkers should be punished, probably with a guffaw and a shaking fist directed at the wireless.
But that "DoTW" is unable to see that at some point, something that he holds dear has a good chance of being outlawed for his own good., A little pleasure of his, be it a tot of whisky before bed or even something as benign as his right to gather with more than two of his friends in the local park, will be lost forever. The worst thing is that the government will likely convince him so well that he feels guilty that he ever succumbed to such anti-normal behaviour in the first place.
Wake up folks! You might not like what I do or my opinions, I might not like yours, but unless we stand up for each others' freedoms, we'll all end up as "normal" as the Brothers Milliband, Gordo Brown and that Donaldson fellow.
Eeuwww!
In 1942 a young woman was beheaded by the Nazi Government.Her crime? Distibuting leaflets against the regime. Her name was Sophie Scholl and the group she and her brother belonged to were called 'White Rose'.
Below is a quote of hers that has a certain resonance with what is happening today:
"The real damage is done by those millions who want to "survive." The honest men who just want to be left in peace. Those who don't want their little lives disturbed by anything bigger than themselves. Those with no sides and no causes. Those who won't take measure of their own strength, for fear of antagonizing their own weakness. Those who don't like to make waves or enemies. Those for whom freedom, honor, truth, and principles are only literature. Those who live small, mate small, die small. It's the reductionist approach to life: if you keep it small, you'll keep it under control. If you don't make any noise, the bogeyman won't find you. But it's all an illusion, because they die too, those people who roll up their spirits into tiny little balls so as to be safe. Safe?! From what? Life is always on the edge of death; narrow streets lead to the same place as wide avenues, and a little candle burns itself out just like a flaming torch does. I choose my own way to burn."
At the risk of repeating myself on some of the analysis, let me try and offer a bon mot. We have a weak Labour government, led by a weak Minister at the Department Of Health, Alan Johnson. Johnson to his credit voted against the smoking ban but is expected to cut and paste The Fat Controller's edicts. Sir Liam presents the health documents like ASH on smoking and they assume that the DoH will put it into law or at least produce the funding for the propaganda. Recently a communique from Brown's office about minimum pricing and Brown's scepticism did not stop Donaldson going to the press and trumpeting his initiative. On the smoking ban in 2005/6 I am told that Donalson was going to throw his toys out of his pram and threatened to resign if a full ban was not put in place. The tail is wagging the dog for 15 million smokers and 40 million plus drinkers. An unelected government clerk is running health in this country.
The Tories and Liberals have shamefully fallen into line and lack a backbone too. A plague on all their houses.
"Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells"
I used to actually live in Tunbridge Wells many moons ago. I learned to play golf rather badly on the Spa golf course there.
I used also, a few moons later, to regularly ride on Clapham omnibuses. So I can also make a claim to be "the man on the Clapham omnibus".
And I'm livid.
But I'm pleased to see an editor of the Times Magazine is calling this what it is: fascism. I usually call it Nazism, because the ties of anti-smoking to Nazism are much closer.
The medical profession is in dire need of root and branch reform. People like Liam Donaldson should be removed from their office, ejected from the medical profession, and have their knighthoods revoked. THESE are the people who should be expelled from civilized society. Because there is no place for them.
And medical science needs to be purged of all those "scientists" drawing statistical correlations between one or other disease and some hitherto lifestyle activity, and then declaring that the former is "caused" by the latter, and calculating wholly imaginary deathrates from their hazy correlations.
It's not science. It's astrology. It's number mysticism. And it's being used to promote fear and panic with the connivance of politicians and media pundits. And it's a modern plague which needs to be extirpated.
We need better science education. We need to teach people that expressing things as numbers doesn't mean that they are any more precise or accurate or scientific than when expressed in ordinary everyday English. We need to teach people to be sceptical, and not to take the words of "authorities" as gospel truth.
And we need more people to call it what it is. Pseudo-science. Mysticism. Fascism. and Nazism.
Re the 'nothing to do with me' approach I remember, a generation ago, discussing the mounting anti-smoking crusade with a pipe smoker. 'Ah', he smiled, relaxed and unconcerned about my worries, 'but my pipe is socially acceptable.' Those whose indulgences are for the moment 'socially acceptable' are about as safe as fattening cattle, as yet in their meadows.
Chief medical officer Sir Liam Donaldson might well be saying that in order to be a part of society, we have to be just like him and the rest of his ilk.
But I say that we have to turn this whole gruesome mess on its head, and show the likes of Sir Liam Donaldson that is us, not them, who are the normal ones. We are the real society of this country, who get together and thrash out our problems and our differences in a gentlemanly way, by debate and discussion, we do not order anyone else to obey our instructions or to live our sort of life.
We will never make the likes of Sir Liam Donaldson see real sense, as he is an ignorant man, who is bent on enforcing his dreams on others, no mater what the consequences may be. But we can start turning the tide of public opinion, which because of people like Sir Liam Donaldson, is weighted down very heavily against us.
It is up to us, every single one of us, to start showing people, and this includes children, in fact, especially children, that we are not monsters, we are not murderers, and we do not stink.
We need to show them that we are nice, normal people, we are doctors, policemen, firemen, writers, politicians, we are members of the armed forces, defending our country, we are the man and the woman next door, we are pilots and train drivers, in fact we are normal every day people. And we also need to get it across that the smell of tobacco is no worse and no better than all the other every day smells that surround us from industry, to restaurants, to in the home.
Sir Liam Donaldson uses non stop propaganda against smokers, and now it seems, drinkers as well. It is about time we started doing the same against him and his ilk.
Idlex -
Re: "It's not science. It's astrology........"
Too true.
But don't expect to budge that Fat Twat, Donaldson: he's the WORST type of Taurean:pig-headed, stubborn, and flabby (mentally and physically).
If only there were more Sagittarians in the World.............!
I must say I absolutely agree with agree with Martin V's comment about Sagittarians ...
Sagittarians?
Pah!!!
Give me a Piscean any day.
Of relevance is Outcasts: The Obese & Other Victims of Denormalisation
A couple of quotes:
But the purpose of saying such things is to
render both an industry and a class of
individuals first aberrant and then abhorrent,
both to themselves and to others. There is no
doubt that this is precisely what
denormalisation is about, for according to its
proponents the activities of denormalisation
are specifically designed to use evidence of
aberrance to generate feelings of abhorrence
and delegitimacy. Denormalisation cannot
be successful separate from its success in
generating the belief that being obese, or a
habitual gambler, drinker, or smoker is
aberrant behaviour. It is this action, this
artificially generated sense of aberrance and
abhorrence, which is outside the scope of
moral government.
For a government in a liberal
democracy, the tool for censuring either its
citizens or its corporations is not
denormalisation but the criminal law. To
forget this is to forget that the twentieth
century’s experiments in denormalisation
ended with the gulag and the concentration
camp..
I agree Idlex, Pisceans are certainly the best, but also the most complex of the astrological signs.
Taureans are definitely extremely stubborn and very bullish (husband, father and brother - all are/were taureans)!
Don't know any Sagitareans that well, but can confirm that Scorpions definitely have a sting in the tail and Gemini's do have a split/dual personality!
Lyn -
My team of non-government-funded researchers informs me that Sagittarians are, almost without exception:
Sexually attractive, liberal-minded, humane, intelligent, amusing, endlessly curious - and WHOLLY intolerant of all Cant, Bullshit, Priggishness, and Overbearing Authority.
Worth getting to know a few !
And if you don't believe ME - then ask Pat.
Martin V (b Dec 5th - in a country once called 'England')
I'm very proud to say that I am a sagittarian and it's all true, of course!