We came across an op-ed from an Australian daily that raises the anti-obesity campaign by one more notch, bringing it to a level that our critics claimed would never reach while dismissing us as fear mongerers when we first warned about it five years ago.
Well we are there folks and expect it to get a lot worse as the obese will soon be looked upon as fringe members of society labeled by their peers as a dreadful affliction that should be eliminated by any and all means much like the smokers are now relegated to second class citizens soon to be tolerated only in their own ghettos. After all, the author of the article claims that ‘’obesity is not a right’’. How then can the obese expect that society treats them with respect unless they vow to continuously struggle to lose weight in order to conform to what public health deems the right way to be? And please don't think that this will be the fate of the Australian obese exclusively. Healthism is a global movement with so called civilized countries setting the trend and taking cues from each other. One would think that they're inexorably competing as to which one will succeed to implement the toughest policies that not so long ago would have been unthinkable.
Demagoguery such as the one demonstrated in this article brings chills down our back and immensely saddens us as we imagine how, if the populace continues to adhere to the healthist philosophy, the obese will be forced to make the choice to either deny who they are, whether it is by choice or because of genetics and illness, or be denied by their peers. One can always hide the french fry, the cigarette and the bottle of booze to pretend to be a good obedient citizen, but how does one hide from his own body?
Euphemisms such as ‘’encouragement’’ , ‘’help’’, ‘’incentive’’ , to attenuate the effect of the once dreaded word ‘’force’’ seem to no longer be necessary as an excerpt from the article illustrates ‘’ Preventative Health Taskforce report, (…) recommended measures to force people to make healthier decisions through the tax system and prohibitions on promotion and advertising of unhealthy foods.’’ Can it possibly be that we are at the point where forceful means are now widely accepted by the indoctrinated populace that the healthist proponents don’t even attempt to sugar coat their propaganda? Are we now massively disregarding Benjamin Franklin's wise warning that ‘’ any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.’’ ? What a frightening perspective!
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