Life is a case of Classical Conditioning
23 05 07 - 15:40I will deal with this criticism first as I believe it is a good example of how we are now living in an "asshole society." Although the commenter may be able to stand with some friends regularly and not smoke, not everyone can. It is a chemical thing, not a lack of backbone. The simple fact is that some people do actually enjoy smoking. It is exactly the same as the connection between tee-totalers, light drinkers, heavy drinkers and alcoholics in the drinking world. We all judge each other from our own values, however no-one is willing to stop and wonder if it is perhaps their values that are wrong.
This Ban is going to cause a major rift across the nation. People will be separated into two groups - the smokers and the non-smokers. I do not believe ti will be long until the next accusation is leveled at smokers. That accusation will undoubtedly be that their loitering outside buildings is intimidating and drives away trade. On that day many thousands of people will voice their concerns, and not once stop to think "wait, before we forced in this ban it wasn't a problem". We have a society that is trying to drive a proportion of itself out of existence, and to confuse matters more we have a government that _really_ does not want to ban smoking (taxes) but also has to look like it is catering the wants of the anti-smoking campaign.
We all know smoking can give you lung cancer, but there seems to be a certain hysteria about it at the moment. I spoke yesterday to someone that runs a bar about it, he said that he has been told under Health and Safety, and to reduce employers liability he will not only have to walk 50 yards from the building but will also have to change his clothes!!!
For _FUCK SAKE_ Britain pull yourself together, in reality none of the recent changes we have seen have _anything_ to do with your needs or wants whatsoever. All this ban does is cater to someone's political aspirations. Everyone wants to leave their mark in history, and quite frankly it will come back and fuck us all up the ass.
Take for example Blair's poo-pooing of the petition about Pay per mile schemes. 2 Million Motorists ask them not implement it, but we are still seeing a trial. That is someone within the Government trying to leave their mark.
Quite frankly this country has gone far past the point where it is a nanny state. It is time that some of the lobbyists in the UK grew the FUCK UP. We do not need endless health and safety laws that no soul on earth can remember. We do not need to be told what we can and cannot do. What we need is a Government who will make decisions on what the majority of the UK wants, not based on what lobbying groups are pushing forwards. The UK is now travelling backwards, our political system is warped, bent and broken and may be beyond repair, but we have to try. The ultimate failure of our political system will plunge this country and everyone in it to the depths of poverty. We need a reform, the Government needs to be rebuilt brick by brick, and the beaurocracy needs to be stripped away.
In the very short future the UK will exist either as a reformed society, or will simply have ceased to exist. Political Correctness has now gone to far, yet there are still people out there trying to invent new terms for minorities, trying to find minorities that they feel may not have been catered to. Discrimination is rife, it is true. Unfortunately our mind makes decisions on previous knowledge, and a calculated assessment of any risks, this is always going to lead to discrimination. If you get mugged by a blue man, you are likely to feel nervous of every blue man you meet, it's called conditioning.
No-one is every going to change that, many would like to, but unfortunately it is Human nature. The creation of new laws no longer deters anybody from anything. I see people driving with Mobile Phones clamped to their ears every single day, why should they care? It's just another law in the myriad of laws this country has created. They could kill someone, it is true, and has been shown to be far too many times. However there are a great many things with similar consequences that people do every single day, some have laws regulating them some do not. The only people who strive to abide by laws in todays Britain are those that have a vested interest in doing so, Businesses cannot afford to break the law it could mean closure of the business and loss of a livelihood. Politicians cannot afford to break the laws (though some do) as it would be political suicide. Everybody else quite happily does whatever they want, Laws should not be allowed to regulate personal choice, Morals should run in place of laws. Laws should only truly be there to allow a means of punishing an offender if they are caught, it is time our Government realised that and stopped playing childish games.
Things have become so bad in this country, that there is now even a "correct" way to handle a broom! A great number of people out there need to just grow up.
The sad fact is that I cannot escape the feeling that Britain will see a lot of civil unrest in the next two decades. Governments try to regulate society, so society rises up against them. Unfortunately it is also society who pays the ultimate price for their unrest.
Democracy only works so long as it remains democratic, and Blairs response to that petition just highlights how un-democratic this country has become.
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