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Does more law mean more order? : Comments
By Ellen Goodman, published 21/9/2007Politicians use the 'law and order' agenda drawing on a mythological past where all was secure and serene.
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Daniel06,
You are spot on - a Nanny State; and determined by the dullest and dreariest in our society.
In age, I am closer to seven decades than six, and I have no doubt that whenever I step out in public, I am unwittingly breaking some law or another - somehow. The last time resulted in a police car circling the carpark of a shopping centre and stopping alongside me. I was about to take a two-inch twig from a large, spindly and overgrown geranium bush. The driver enquired: "Can I help you, Madam?"... and he wasn't offering to get a better twig from the top ... the subtext was obvious. Resisting the sudden urge to be part of a police drama, lying flat on the ground with my hands behind my head, I managed to gracefully extricate myself from the situation.
However, now, I am indeed criminally disposed. I am determined to get that twig whatever it takes ... and I might even take two.
On a more serious note, we certainly don't need a Nanny state; especially when it imposes "morals" from one group on another - such as in same sex unions.
I remember the fifties/sixties with no affection whatsoever. The hysteria of "reds under the beds", the six o'clock swill, the prejudice towards anyone/thing different, when teenagers were non-persons until the 21st birthday, when women died in backyard abortions, when domestic violence was acceptable in certain quarters, the "respectability" and self-righteous judgement ... even the expected dress code for visiting the city - frock, hat and gloves (which I refused to wear)
I recall standing in a bus in the final stages of pregnancy. I was married and 24, but looked 16. Two seated matrons, directing their comments at me, loudly voiced their disapproval about girls who “got themselves into trouble”. That was the sixties.