Following on from yesterdays egregious attempt by an unelected, self-appointed busybody group to impose its values on the rest of us, my mind turns to the nature in which our society has changed over the past couple of decades or so.
As a child I was raised to be aware of my own personal responsibility. If I tripped on a paving slab and cut myself, the typical response would be to watch where I was going in future. In other words, it was up to me to make sure that I navigated the hazards in my life; it was not the responsibility of outsiders. Sure, we all have a responsibility under tort law not to injure our neighbours and quite right, too. It is my responsibility to make sure that my drive is safe for visitors to walk up to my front door without causing them injury; I have no problem with this. But, and here’s the rub, it is also their responsibility to take care of their own safety – it’s a two way process. Let’s put it this way; should I trip over a loose paving slab, I will initially castigate myself for being careless enough not to be paying attention in the first place. Then I will contact the authority responsible and notify them so that they can fix it. I would not dream of suing for compensation.
In the workplace since the advent of the Health & Safety at Work etc., Act (1974) we have witnessed a plethora of safety legislation enacted as delegated regulations under the auspices of that enabling act. Most of which have come from the EU and, frankly, most of which is redundant if one follows the principles outlined in the original act. For the purposes of brevity, the 1974 act places a responsibility on the employer to assess the risks caused by the operation, identify who is at risk, and then to put in place effective control measures. It is left to each individual employer to decide what is appropriate and effective. As an act of parliament, I’ve always considered it a sensible one. In essence it is saying “Look at what you do and manage it accordingly”. Also, importantly, section 7 of the act requires employees to take responsibility for their own behaviour; to cooperate with the employer and not to cause harm through acts and omissions. Frankly, every regulation passed since then merely adds to that general principle. Unfortunately what it has done (all 11 million words of it) is create confusion and a culture of “itselfansafetyinnit?”. People have created an industry from the detail rather than concentrating on the principle, which is a pity. Less here is definitely more.
Having digressed into the workplace, I want to get back to the overall culture that has now enveloped our society. Young people we are now told, drink to excess. Yes, and have you noticed that the sun rises in the east these days, too? As a consequence of observing the eye wateringly obvious, we have special interest groups who represent no one but their own warped ideas bending the ear of government and suggesting ever more illiberal legislation designed to impinge on our own ability to manage our own lives; because we clearly cannot do it by ourselves. Alcohol Concern is merely the latest variant of this phenomenon. As I mentioned yesterday and as other bloggers were quick to point out, parents managing their offsprings’ alcohol consumption encourages sensible drinking rather than the opposite.
Frankly, you can trace this culture shift back to the welfare state; the concept that the state is mother, the state is father. The state, the expectation goes, will make us safe. And the state is all too happy to oblige. Recently I took on a temporary contract working for a large company in Bristol. For the first time in a long time I am working in a corporate environment with predominantly young people in their early twenties. When I look about me at the generation that followed mine I am horrified at the blind acceptance of propaganda as truth. What happened to critical thinking? I may not have agreed with the ban the bomb marchers or the Greenham Common protesters, but at least they were prepared to make a stand for an unpopular viewpoint and challenge the government of the day. I find myself working with a generation who accept without question the unproven concept that we cause global warming (sun? What sun?). Come to that, this is a generation that is woefully ignorant of geography, history, language and maths. When I find myself having to explain to colleagues how to work out something as basic as percentages or simple spelling, I despair. If I try to engage anyone on English history or global politics, I quickly find that they are quite literally, lost. And this is not unusual, I am the one who is unusual because I can spell, string a sentence together and add up… Oh, and I know where the Dardanelles are. And I am the one who failed my eleven plus on maths…
This same generation has grown up with the expectation that bad things shouldn’t happen to them and if they do, then the government had better do something about it pretty sharpish. The state is mother, the state is father, the state does not lie, the state will look after us.
That’s why nasty little self appointed groups like Alcohol Concern do as they do. Their arrogance is fuelled by this blind belief that our safety is the responsibility of others; in particular, that of the state and that the state can be relied upon to listen sympathetically to such calls. I really don’t know how we will overcome this. What I do know is that if we do not, then the liberties that previous generations fought and died for will be frittered away by a generation that desires life in a gilded cage with guaranteed safety from cradle to grave.