The most unpleasant aspect of the Nanny state, that afflicts us all, is the creeping sense of fear that now permeates our society; brought about by never ending Nanny campaigns about the dangers of food, fat, smoking, drink, crime, accidents etc and the compliant headline grabbing media that seek to reinforce Nanny's message.It should therefore come as no surprise to learn that the fear which permeates adult society is being passed on to the next generation, as it is reported that scared parents have banned their children from cycling.
A staggering 81% of parents ban their children from cycling on their own, or allow them to do so only on their street.
Parents are fearful that their children will have an accident (accidents are part of growing up), they also claim that their children lack the confidence and skill to take to the road.
There are two very obvious reasons as to why their kids lack confidence:
1 They are not allowed to learn through error and mistakes, and are picking up their parents' fears.
2 They are not sent to classes designed to teach them how to cycle on the road.
These parents, by their actions, are breeding a nation of scared, overweight, lazy individuals.
Nanny has created a lost generation.
Visit The Orifice of Government Commerce and buy a collector's item.
Visit The Joy of Lard and indulge your lard fantasies.
Show your contempt for Nanny by buying a T shirt or thong from Nanny's Store.
www.nannyknowsbest.com is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"
Celebrate the joy of living with champagne. Click and drink!
Why not really indulge yourself, by doing all the things that Nanny really hates? Click on the relevant link to indulge yourselves; Food, Bonking, Toys, Gifts and Flowers, Groceries
Spot on Ken!!
ReplyDeleteIn my view, a frightened population is an easier population to control.
We are constantly bombarded with messages that are designed to frighten us.
Watch out Dot Gov is about, their latest sinister tool; The database...eeekkkk!!!
The media do indeed have a lot to answer for, as well as Nanny, in trying to scare us all half to death.
ReplyDeleteRemember BSE, SARS and bird flu ?
Fewer people have EVER died from any of those diseases than die from malaria in a single day.
Oh, and here's something about smokers that I picked up from Peter Moore's book "Cape Town to Cairo" - only 70% of people who start to climb Kilimanjaro get to the top.
Of those who do get to the top - 70% are smokers.
If you're not aware, I'd like to draw your attention to the excellent "Free Range Kids" website:
ReplyDeletehttp://freerangekids.wordpress.com/
It started off when a US journalist wrote an article describing how she'd allowed her 9-year-old son to take the subway home on his own in New York. Many of the commenters on the article were outraged, but many others agreed with the sentiment.
Not all parents are irrational enough to fall for blatant tabloid scaremongering.
THis wussification of society is meant to turn the English into compliant little socialists, not allowed even self defense. What happens, if in a generation or two, rises another Hitler? What will be Britains finest hour? COuld another Churchhill arise from the boys raised to be weak men?
ReplyDeleteI was reading a report about the tragic story of the two young boys in Scotland apparently murdered by their father. Of the elder brother, 6 years of age, his mother (iirc) was quoted as saying, related to how seriously she took his safety, that he was 'not allowed out to play'. Also that he was a 'real mummy's boy', although at 6 and with his father estranged from his mother that would hardly be a surprise.
ReplyDeleteThe thing that struck me was that, as quoted, it was almost as if she was protecting herself from criticism based on the great fears of the world when in fact, as with so many situations involving children, the problem evolved from family matters.
How all the factors might come together to induce the actions of the father we may never know but I would not be surprised if somewhere in the mix were a mishmash of fears from a variety of sources and backgrounds which, coming together, were enough to destabilise the father's responses to his family and all of their lives.
It is perhaps fortunate that, thus far, such concerns have only adversely affected a very small number of people in ways that are so horribly damaging.
Grant
Anonymous said:
ReplyDelete"THis wussification of society is meant to turn the English into compliant little socialists, not allowed even self defense. What happens, if in a generation or two, rises another Hitler? What will be Britains finest hour? COuld another Churchhill arise from the boys raised to be weak men?"
Nanny has already succeeded in turning this nation into wimps judging by my experience yesterday.
Mrs V and I happened to be in a book shop that rhymes with "hoarders" and whilst she was examining some books of historical interest I turned around to be confronted with about 20ft of shelving, each rack about 7ft high of 'self help' books. Twenty years ago such a plethora of how to confront your angst, stress and fears would have been inconceivable but now it would seem that we are all expected to be worried or scared of something or the other. I fear that my comment of "Good God! How on earth did mankind manage to build civilizations, create empires and erect mighty edifices without the need for all this sh*te ? What a bunch of wimps we must be breeding these days!" did not go down too well with the rather earnest young lady who was selecting a book on how to manage workplace stress. Her look spoke volumes. I really did feel like telling her that in my 42 years on this planet I have been witness to an awful lot of unpleasantness, had some really bad things happen to me and people I called friends but I really do not feel the need for counseling or to read books on how to achieve closure over playground slights or the stress of not getting an Action Man tank when I was 7.
By the sheer availability of such tomes it is obvious that Nanny has succeeded in scaring the c**p out of huge swathes of the population gullible enough to read these books. We are all fragile, damaged little butterflies who need her care and attention so just wrap yourselves up in cotton wool, read the book and don't ask too many questions...oh and next week Nanny will tell you another scary story about something else to frighten you into making sure you pass on the fear to the next generation.
Like many of the bloggers on this site, I was definitely at the other end of the risk scale in terms of what I got up to in my earlier days.
ReplyDeleteI do seriously wonder how I ever made it to adulthood - a significant number of my childhood friends (and not such friends) didn't.
To take cycling as an example. As a teenager I remember the thrill of being dragged along in the slipstream of a lorry, typically in the biggest gear between 40 and 70 mph - I jest not (Listen to your mother boys and girls and don't try this at home)!
Having become an expert on the aerodynamics of lorries (through direct experience rather than book reading), three or four feet behind the lorry was the optimum position. The turbulence in the vortex a few feet further back was relatively dangerous which meant that above 50 mph there was no choice but to go wherever the lorry went. It resulted in some odd experiences, such as people in a bus looking out the window and seeing a cyclist passing them in the overtaking lane or another time when I had to make a snap decision as to whether to follow a lorry onto a motorway.
And just for good measure - seemingly the lead in the fumes (and there was a lot) will still be in my body today.
I just accept, I was never destined to become a health and safety officer.
Kaptain_Von,
ReplyDeleteTwo thought came into my head as read your post.
Firstly I wondered if the earnest young lady was in fact a member of staff stressed out by the sheer volume of books.
Secondly that the majority of the people in the country are probably not influenced in any way by the contents of the store, the majority not being recognised as voracious consumers of books as far as I know.
Perhaps there is some hope with the masses.
;-)
Grant
Grant wrote:
ReplyDelete"Secondly that the majority of the people in the country are probably not influenced in any way by the contents of the store, the majority not being recognised as voracious consumers of books as far as I know."
Well, Nanny has already got her claws into the non book reading classes through making them reliant on her benefits. However, one was slightly worried at titles such as:
"The dummies guide to stress management"
and
"Dealing with teenage pregnancy"
which I am sure are prime candidates for some sandal munching , lentil wearing, yoghurt knitting social worker to hand out at the self awareness sessions in the half burnt out community hall on the local estate.
I like the self-help title in the Simpson's cartoon:-
ReplyDelete"Get Confident, Stupid!"
Kaptain Von wrote
ReplyDelete""Dealing with teenage pregnancy"
which I am sure are prime candidates for some sandal munching , lentil wearing, yoghurt knitting social worker to hand out at the self awareness sessions in the half burnt out community hall on the local estate."
Indeed, but the 'social' manipulator involved would firstly have to find someone who can read and then ensure that they could read in English (presumably).
Absent those criteria (which said person may not be aware of I suppose) one wonders what the tomes could be used for.
Grant
Before you dismiss riding on a bike as a non risk why do you not cite the accident and death rate for cyclists.
ReplyDeleteIt is bad enough for car drivers and pedestrians.
Sure i used to ride a bike but the traffic then was nothing like it is now.
And we were more expendable as there were more of us.