One thing that caught my eye in the news recently was the recent bill by the Scottish Parliament with the warm fuzzy sounding name of  “Children and Young People (Scotland) Act.”. The act is a serious extension of state power into the lives of families as it gives every child in Scotland a ‘state guardian’ or as the bill calls them, a ‘named person’. This person will have access to the child’s records – medical, school, drama class, optician and any other record you can think of.

Their purpose? To ensure the ‘wellbeing’ of the child. What the Scottish government has essentially done is appoint a person to oversee the upbringing of every single child in the country thereby negating the role of parents and putting the ‘named person’ as a state watchdog. It is in effect removing the primary responsibility for the child from the parent to the state.

This ‘named person’ will not be an expert but someone who presumably will apply to the government for the role just as someone would apply to be a teacher. Not that its important even if the named person was  a doctor or lawyer – the critical aspect of this legislation is that parents will no longer have absolute decision making power in respect of their children. That function will fall to the named person and woe betide any parents who do not agree with the ‘named person’

Of course the government claims it will protect ‘the vulnerable’ – how convenient a cover story for ever increasing state control of our kids. Whenever there is increasing state control of our lives it is dressed up as protecting the poor/vulnerable/kids/handicapped/elderly. After all, what monster would protest at legislation that protects poor children?

I hope Scottish people value their freedom and have this legislation overturned. It is due to take effect in August 2016. Generally, legislation which affects our freedoms is always to take effect at some point in the future – it dissipates peoples anger as something that is coming ‘down the line’ and therefore our need to protest immediately. When later rolls round – and it always does – well, your child belongs to the state now – did you not see the Act that was passed?

But in reality, that legislation is nothing more than a stepping stone to making us all simple products of the state. Destroying people’s ability to be independent is a critical goal for most western states. People who are able to make independent decisions are a threat to those in power, therefore people need to become ‘dependent’ on the state thus reducing their ability to protest against it or change it.

Consider the vast range of policies designed to make us ever more dependent on the state. Everything from unemployment benefit, housing, medical consultations, water, heating, sewage and pensions are generally paid by western governments. Which is great to an extent – it provides a safety net in periods of want and common services that would be non-sensical for every person to instal. Which is what a government should do  – provide services to the people as they were elected to do.

But what happens when a government goes one step further to actively designing legislation to keep people indebted to the state? When policies are designed to make people so used to state handouts and subsidies that they lose the ability to rely on their own faculties to make their way in the world?

What happens when governments stray outside their remit of providing services to ‘we the people’ to becoming obsessed with remaining in power? A state that serves a certain class of people rather than ‘the ordinary people?’

Why is it that a criminal with 30+ convictions is left to wander the streets rather than being locked up? Is it to increase the reliance of ordinary citizens on a state police force? Anxious citizens afraid of the next assault or break-in are more likely to support increasing state control of all aspects of their lives.

Why is it that people can claim unemployment benefit for 20 years along with free housing, medical and every other extra without ever having to give back to the state? Is it because that class of people might prove troublesome for the state were they not ‘paid off?’

Why is the ordinary citizen tracked from birth to death with a number that is now accessible to nearly every state organisations? Why does the government engage in wholesale recording of our mobile phones and internet usage and actively store this information for ever? What business does the government have with your internet history and why is it actively storing it for future use? Think about it – everything you googled, binged, tweeted and facebooked plus everything in between is sitting on a government hard drive somewhere.

Why is it that the state is actively replacing the family as the primary support structure for individuals? A close knit family and thus a close knit community offers a support structure that is detrimental to a state seeking permanent governance over our lives. It provides a structure for individuals that empowers them to act for themselves and their community and is thus detrimental to the goal of a nanny state which sees people as commodities. A close knit community and family provides a defence mechanism for individuals to resist both criminals and state control.

Consider the following basic requirements that we all have;

Water – the state provides water and charges additional fees for it. In many cases, that function has been sold off to private companies. The basic primary requirement for life is now controlled by the state or a private company.

Building – the state regulates the type of house you can build, making cheap, self sufficient houses a nightmare to obtain via planning legislation. We are dependent on the state to permit us to build a house.

Medical – We have become reliant on the state for routine medical needs. Only big pharma is considered worthy for research grants of billions. Treating people is not possible without being registered by the state and being a graduate of some pharma college. Natural medicine is not funded or researched the way governments invest in big pharma. Removing our ability to heal ourselves makes us reliant on the state.

Children – In 2016 children will be the responsibility of a state ‘named person’ instead of the parents. Expect this to spread to other countries.

Family – The state is now the de facto family. For example, no longer do we take in parents in their golden years and care for them – that is the job of nursing homes, right? State indocrination of our kids in schools, the loss of family values, state funded housing  – the continuous fragmenting of the traditional family structure is a critical goal in increasing our dependce on the state. Individuals with little ties to the community and without a strong family and community support structure are easier to control. After all, who wants to fight the state on their own?

In nearly every area of our lives we are becoming dependent on the state, we are becoming a society of individuals with little ties to the communities where we live.

Eventually, we will become so dependent on the state that any attempt by us to change it would result in catastrophic failure in our lives – is it too far fetched to imagine a state that withdraws welfare payments, medical cards, child support payments, housing and water because you dared engage in protest?

 

 

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