Our friends over at the Spectator Australia have finally gotten around to putting up a link to my recent jeremiad against New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg and all the local busybodies who, if they had their way, would turn us into the boringest country on Earth.
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Crikey Prick, to see the link that site demands a One Quid per week subscription! I can’t pay carbon tax AND subscribe to obscure online journals!
Blast! That’s a new “feature” on their site …
Forgive me for bing serious (it happens sometimes), but a different take on ‘nannyism” here:
http://blogs.crikey.com.au/back-in-a-bit/2012/06/20/why-i-love-the-nanny-state/
Hopefully it’s not behind Crikey’s own paywall, but if so, the author (disclaimer – a family friend) has probably posted it on her own blog.
http://www.thecitythatneversleepsin.com/
She makes a valid (and perhaps uncomfortable) point. Sometimes you do need to get away from the comfort zone of the advanced world us to see at the bigger picture. We live in a fortunate, insulated, but hugely self-delusional place – one that capitalism has produced for us. We are immensely rich because of our market economy and the institutions which protect it from its own excesses. That’s really all Bloomberg is doing here. All those whinging about “nannyism” are a bit like those people at Rozelle (and everywhere), presently wringing their hands in rage about the “threat” of “development” and the “greed” of capitalists. They’re the ones who themselves are the richest and most fortunate people on the planet.