Beyond the Nanny State: Regulating and Legislating Common Sense

  There is a term that I like to use for the government over-stepping their bounds and interfering in our every day lives with rules and regulations that are designed to protect us from ourselves. This is not a term that I coined, but it is a term that seems to fit this type of legislation. The term? Nanny state. The government has become the American people’s nanny. They are now out there regulating bad behavior, because they don’t believe we can be trusted to protect ourselves. It started with smoking, seatbelts, helmet laws, trans-fats and the list grows seemingly every day.

  But lately I have come to realize that America has somehow gone beyond the nanny state. I’m not sure when it happened but somehow we have lost all of our collective common sense. What do I mean by this? What I am talking about here is the fact that there are so many warnings and disclaimers all over the place Americans don’t have to think for themselves any more.

  I came to this realization while in the mens room at a company I was doing some work for. I know you are thinking “where the hell is he going with this story?” but it is simple, there is no Larry Craig story here. While I was in this bathroom I noticed a sign (printed in English and Spanish, but that isn’t the point of this article) that told me to wash my hands after I was done. I didn’t need to be told this, I would wash my hands anyway, but the sign went even further than that. The sign told me HOW to wash my hands. The sign told me to wet my hands, apply soap, rub the soap in for at least twenty seconds, rinse the soap away, and dry my hands. That is what got me wondering, “have we really reached the point in this country where all thought and common sense has been eroded by such warnings and disclaimers that we just blindly acknowledge them and continue through life as mind-numbed robots? That is what made me really think about this.

 You buy a coffee and the cup has a warning about the coffee being  hot.

 You go to a restaurant and the menu has a warning printed on it about food cooked less than well done being bad for you.

  You buy any kind of chemical and the can tells you to keep out of reach of children.

  You buy a hairdryer and there is a tag telling you not to use it while in the bath tub.

  Every danger that should be obvious to most people has to be printed out for us, we are no longer left to decide for ourselves if we should or shouldn’t do something. When did this happen to us? I know it has been going on for years, but it wasn’t until I read the sign that explained to me how to wash my hands that I realized how far it has gone.

  Another question, and possibly a more important question I have is why? Why is the government doing this to us? Is it the government? Or is it simply the over litigation and frivilous lawsuits always being brought against companies? I believe the frivilous lawsuits play a large part in alot of the warnings we have to constantly endure. But is that all? Or is there something more sinister at work here? Surely lawsuits don’t contribute to the sign in the mens room that teaches me how to wash my hands. That sign was from an actual Massachusettes government agency.

  Could it be that the government has been dumbing down the American people for years? Taking away common sense, and giving the American people less that they have to think about on their own. Telling them what to look out for, to beware of, so that they don’t have to think for themselves. Isn’t the easiest way to control the people to keep them uneducated? If the people are uneducated are they not more reliant on the government to take care of them? Can this be an attempt at getting more people on more social programs? Could they possible be teaching our children about all these perceived dangers so as to also teach them that BIG GOVERNMENT is the only possible solution to save the people from all these dangers?

 The government seems to have gone above and beyond their job scope, if you will, and there has to be a reason why. I know how conspiritorial this post may sound, but tell me, can it be true?