Nanny Culture

Trouble posted the other day regarding the ridiculous rules that get imposed and the way things have changed over the past 30 years. Part of it comes from an article about the Nanny Culture that seems prevalent these days--and I think it makes us a weaker culture. A lot of it is necessary--protecting ourselves from ourselves--but what it ends up doing is not allowing people to deal with adversity through innovation. It gets old.

What has caused this? I think, in a large part, the lawsuits that are just tossed out willy-nilly have caused everyone to walk around with their hands around their faces, waiting for a punch to come from anywhere. Corporations drive it because they have been sued so many times--so parents end up taking the advice that things are better for them or safer for them, and in the end more protected from legal action. Until the next lawsuit. Take Phillip-Morris, for example. Every day now I see them advertising against teen smoking. While I think that this is a good thing in the end, the only motivation is to make themselves look like a caring, loving, company (while advertising themselves, of course). After all is said and done, they still make cancer sticks.

The Nanny Culture crossed my mind when I took the monkies to McDonald's the other day. They always order the standard "chickn n' freh fries," so I've not often looked at the menu for what other options there are. And then I saw the apples. And the milk. For crying out loud--people don't go to McDonald's to get health food. They go there to get junk food. In an effort to make themselves look better while "taking care of you," I think they just end up looking like a bunch of idiots. I just wonder what other countries and cultures must think when they look at us--unable to control our impulsive urges towards vast obesity we have to be "tricked" into eating health food at fast-food joints.

Ridiculous.

rant