All people in power are scary. From annoying taxi drivers who feel a need to spout their home-grown loony political theories believe they are right since nobody contradicts them (we just want to arrive at our destinations) to world leaders who interpret their position in office as a sign that they are “chosen” or “special”. Naturally they are elected. But the mechanics of elections should not be interpreted to mean that they are “chosen” in the sense of “the chosen one”.
There is of course the problem that peopl in power tend to become isolated from the people they serve. This enhances the impression that they are “chosen”.
Tony Blair is a good example. He has long been moving towards “resolving” the issue of problem children and those involved in anti-social behaviour (a scary catch-all criminal offence in the UK). This is scary but not crazy-scary.
Crazy-scary is when he now states that the effort to prevent or resolve these issues may include measures “pre-birth”.
He said the government could say to an unmarried teenage mother who was not in a stable relationship: “Here is the support we are prepared to offer you, but we do need to keep a careful watch on you and how your situation is developing because all the indicators are that your type of situation can lead to problems in the future.”
Anastasia de Waal, of social policy think tank Civitas, was quoted on the BBC’s website as saying: “It is teetering on genetic determinism this kind of saying that before children are even born they are labelled as problematic.”
Link: globeandmail.com : Blair wants state to prevent growth of problem children.
(via Question Technology)
Instead of attempting to deal with the social issues that lie at the root – these kinds of actions are levelled at attacking those who are already in an impossible situation. I was taught not to kick people who are already down…