Those selfish obese!
How could they be so greedy and heartless as to threaten global food security?
It must be true. Scientists said so.
On June 18, 2012, the Irish Times featured an article in their ‘breaking news’ (!) section, ‘Obesity threatens world food security’ (emphases mine):
Increasing population fatness could have the same implications for world food energy demands as an extra one billion people, researchers claimed after examining the average weight of adults across the globe.
Scientists from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) said tackling population weight is crucial for food security and ecological sustainability.
The UN predicts that by 2050 there could be a further 2.3 billion people on the planet and that the ecological implications of the rising population numbers will be exacerbated by increases in average body mass, researchers said.
However, not everyone is obese nor is everyone likely to be obese. Note the words ‘there could be’ followed by ‘will be’.
The words ‘population fatness’ sounds semi-literate, too. Will this turn into a new buzzword featuring in headlines about obesity? ‘America’s population fatness breaks all records’.
An Irish blogger, Grandad, at Smoking Out The Truth, had this to say:
It has been mentioned in the past that I have a habit of using the words “study” and “scientists” within quotes, and the reason I gave was that I have nothing but contempt for these blatant attempts at propaganda. I had only read the first few lines of this latest garbage before I started tripping up on the loopholes in their arguments.
The most glaring error is in their comparison of Asian, American and European average weights. Have they never noticed that there are genetic differences within the Human Race? Has it not occurred to them that Orientals tend to be shorter and lighter than Caucasians? Their basic argument is that cattle will go short of food because elephants are eating too much.
So is this the Holy Grail for which they have been seeking? Is this argument sufficient to denormalise the overweight? Is this Second-Hand Obesity?
I think they’ll have to do better than that.
Negative reactions to this story — mine included — are not too different from the ones voiced against anti-smoking articles 30 years ago. Most people found the propaganda over the top. Then, gradually, as prohibitionists repeated their message ad nauseam, it began to sink in. Today, no one wants to be around smokers except other smokers.
The same thing could happen with the obese, who find comfort in food. A reasonable person won’t mind: to each his own. However, propaganda has a way of turning reasonable people into authoritarian bullies, even at a young age.
Think of the bus monitor in upper New York State. What did the children taunt her about? Her weight.
It would be disappointing if we were to witness torment of the obese and their denormalisation. Denormalisation — depersonalisation — of any kind is inhumane.
Churchmouse Campanologist 
12 comments
July 22, 2012 at 10:46 pm
Tom
“… However, not everyone is obese nor is everyone likely to be obese. Note the words ‘there could be’ followed by ‘will be’. …”
Thus, the slight of hand trick, confidence trick and magick transformation from a broad sweeping generalized hypothetical, the fairy-tale, into that of pure science and God spoken fact, the false-hood turned “truth”.
—
“… What did the children taunt her about? Her weight. …”
When growing up, prior to the current age of constant state intervention and indoctrination at the fake-“education” centers passing as schools these days, that kind of thing was considered rude and objectional to on moral grounds as well. We actually did have morals and scruples back then and actually were reminded of the last world war fought in order to defend freedom, not decrease it the way the current governments worldwide are aiming for through this indoctrination technique of theirs. If they can do this now and get away with it, and I have seen the same done to smokers, how soon until we devolve back to an uncivilized pre-prior-WW type period, where it eventually leads to either having to fight for freedom or joining the side of fascist/socialist/repression. It will be no fence-sitting soon, if they keep pushing at the rate they are going. One will have to decide, thus the war.
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July 22, 2012 at 11:01 pm
churchmouse
It seems that our fence-sitting days are well and truly over. I don’t want to end up like SF, NYC or Australia. The UK is dangerously close with plain packaging and smoking in private cars.
Agree with you on the ‘slight of hand trick’ and what Glantz said (my Saturday post) about a president who puts ‘science’ (I use the term advisedly) over politics.
Yep, when we were growing up it was unseemly to pick on fat people. We were told that people cannot help what they are and to accept them, same as anyone else. Do you remember the ads in the back of magazines for Ayds diet candies and the ‘real-life’ (maybe they were) stories that accompanied them? I always wondered what was in those candies and if they went off the market because of the name.
(Later edit: From Wikipedia —
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayds
‘Ayds (pronounced as “aids”) was an appetite-suppressant candy which enjoyed strong sales in the 1970s and early 1980s and was originally manufactured by The Campana Company. It was available in chocolate, chocolate mint, butterscotch or caramel flavors, and later a peanut butter flavor was introduced. The original packaging used the phrase “Ayds Reducing Plan vitamin and mineral Candy”; a later version used the phrase “appetite suppressant candy”. The active ingredient was originally benzocaine,[1] presumably to reduce the sense of taste to reduce eating, later changed in the candy as reported by The New York Times to phenylpropanolamine.[2]
‘By the mid-1980s, public awareness of the disease AIDS caused problems for the brand due to the phonetic similarity of names. Initially sales were not affected, but by 1988 the chairman of Dep Corporation announced that the company was seeking a new name because sales had dropped as much as 50 percent due to publicity about the disease.[3] The product’s name was changed to Diet Ayds (Aydslim in Britain), but eventually it was withdrawn from the market…’)
We really are morally derelict now. The thing that annoyed me about the bus monitor story was how the one father went in tears to apologise for his son’s behaviour. If that were my child, I would have arranged to take him to the local cells (picked up ‘spontaneously’ by two cops) for an afternoon, then on another day, also ‘spontaneously’ arranged, a trip to the local juvenile detention centre.
It sounds harsh, but when Alfred Hitchcock was a little boy (see Donald Spoto’s biography of him), he nicked some sweets from the penny candy shop. The owner told Mr Hitchcock, who took young Alfred to the police station and asked the police to lock him up for the afternoon. He was in a cell on his own, and was terrified. (He never tried that one again and, yes, it did influence him to create the films he did, often using a detective or senior officer as an advisor.) Put the fear of God into these kids, and they will learn.
You perhaps haven’t had time to answer my question, but (third request) may I please use some of your SF vignettes as guest posts? (They don’t half paint a picture.) Please advise — thanks in advance.
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July 22, 2012 at 11:21 pm
Tom
If you wish to use some of my personal observations as story line, that is perfectly okay and I have no objection.
Alfred Hitchcock, BTW, he once lived in Santa Cruz County, up in Pasatiempo Estates, which is an exclusive area up on the hill above town and before Scotts Valley. Back when he owned his estate there, in the 1930’s or 40’s, there were codicils written into all the property deeds that stated that no Black or Hispanic people could ever own property there, nor were they allowed to stay on any properties within Pasatiempo Estates unless they were employed as hired help (butlers, maids, gardeners, etc.).
How times have changed. Those codicils still show up as they are in the original deeds and the deed copies cannot be altered by Title Companies that insure the legitimacy of the deeds and insure ownership title to each successive purchaser – California law simply negates any such references as invalid, and so they are. But they still show up in title searches as evidence they existed.
But instead, try smoking tobacco or merely “possessing” tobacco in some areas of Santa Cruz City and County both and one will be breaking the law and subject to arrest and fine.
So comparing today’s anti-smoking diatribe from an area famous for it with how they were back then in regards to excluding races and cultures of which they highly disapproved, one could almost say they are repeating the same snobbery and eugenics like racism of the past, only in a more modern sense, by way of lifestyle snobbery, fascist healthism and of course smoking bans.
But anything I have said, I have said that to give fair warning, that what happened here, beginning in the 1980’s until now, as I have described, could happen there too if one were not aware of it, how it comes creeping in – so if you wanted to restate some of that in your articles, I have no problem with it.
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July 22, 2012 at 11:34 pm
churchmouse
Many thanks, Tom — and much appreciated. I would like to illustrate for readers in the UK and other countries how this creeps in and how it ends up only a few years later. Your posts are a powerful testament to what has turned out to be a tragic situation.
But, as is the case with lefties in charge, they do not care.
Interesting story about Pasatiempo Estates — the racism still exists today. As you say, it’s eugenics and snobbery. Yet, tobacco is another story in the same county: BANNED.
It’s difficult waking people up to this. ‘It doesn’t affect me’. Uh, no, not yet, but what if —– were banned? ‘Oh, I’d worry about it then. As that’s not on the cards, it’s nothing to do with me.’ Rather like where the US is with the upcoming presidential election. Many Americans are too absorbed in their reality and celeb shows to care. Bread and circuses.
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July 23, 2012 at 9:42 am
lleweton
There was a style rule at the national broadsheet where I sub-edited for a while 30-odd years ago. The word ‘may’ was banned in headlines. If that applied on newspapers now we’d be spared most ‘healthist’ propaganda
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July 23, 2012 at 10:11 am
churchmouse
That’s what I remember from my journalism class.
Now ‘may’ is everywhere, as if synonymous with ‘does’. When I see the word now, it means ‘unproven’, ‘probably untrue’ and ‘just another press release’. 😉
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July 23, 2012 at 11:21 am
lleweton
Yes and the press release dropped in the page, barely tasted, edited or followed up. The trouble is, I suspect, that these items are used, often against the better judgment of the specialist or the sub-editor involved, through the fear that rival papers will use them and if they don’t there will be an office ‘inquest.’ I remember once a time when my office was in trouble with our bosses because we did not use a story which we knew was ‘old’, i.e. it was not ‘news. Despite that it was the front page story on The Daily Telegraph. It got through the system and, of course was exactly what the Government of the day wanted, for it was a press release on behalf of a Government department. We could protest but it was no good. Black mark for us… Even so, it was a great job in many ways.
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July 23, 2012 at 11:31 am
churchmouse
‘the press release dropped in the page, barely tasted, edited or followed up’
Same with the polypill puff piece the other day. Many commenters asked whether it was a press release and chided the Telegraph for not investigating it further.
I read in the Press Gazette about four or five years ago that there are hardly any sub-editors left and for the less critical pages, e.g. television listings, the jobs have been outsourced to … India.
It would be great if more journalists and sub-editors could stand their ground against this rubbish, even if other papers are using it, but one suspects they fear for their jobs. Therefore, it becomes a matter of choosing one’s battles.
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July 23, 2012 at 4:21 pm
Linda Kimball
“Scientists from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) said tackling population weight is crucial for food security and ecological sustainability”
Sustainability is code for population control. Some call for the death of everyone but a billion or so while others, like Zero Population call for total liquidation.
This is hatred of self and hate + covetousness rationalized into politics, sustainability goals, and faux concern for (fill in the blanks).
Elsewhere Churchmouse points to the real problem, “We really are morally derelict now.”
While a percentage of Westerners and Americans are moral imbeciles, meaning they no longer know what is true and false, right and wrong, an equal if not larger number are morally relative barbarians who worship idols of destruction.
The following commentary, “America’s Idols of Destruction” can easily be tweeked and expanded upon here and there in order that it may apply to Australia, the U.K., Canada, etc.
“America’s Idols of Destruction”
http://patriotsandliberty.com/?p=17978
Dr. Keith Ablow is horrified that Carla and K Roundtree, parents of a 6-year-old boy, put him in an erotic music video in which he,
“raps about having sex with an adult woman and shoots a long, tubular and very phallic water pistol into the air—mimicking orgasm—while sandwiched between two bikini-clad woman who dance erotically within inches of him. The six-year-old is clearly exposed to erotic behavior from adults who appear in the video and is portrayed as a sexual conquerer himself.” (Why aren’t ‘Booty Pop’ boy’s parents in jail? foxnews.com, 2012/07/11)
Ablow’s outrage is not that of a self-gratifying narcissist toward one who has failed to prostrate himself before the delusions and bigotry of the self-worshipper or failed in some other way to submit to his demeaning egoistic demands. No, Ablow’s moral outrage is not on behalf of self but on behalf of a child being sacrificed by his own self-centered parents on the altar of the pagan deity Hedon.
Ablow ardently desires to save the six year old from his own parents who, like increasing numbers of Americans at every level of society, from the White House to our cities mean streets, are self-gratifying moral imbeciles, the morally relatvistic inventers of their own ‘truths’ and ‘realities.’
Ablow asks why the parental rights of the Roundtrees are not suspended pending an investigation by child protective services and then responds that more than likely, the right thing will not be done by the boy.
Why not?
Despite the facts, said Ablow, none of this will likely happen because Americans have declared open-season on children as sexual objects:
“We seem to have no will to enforce the notion that little girls and little boys at five or six-years-old ought not be commandeered for profit or notoriety and made to strike seductive poses or simulate sex acts.”(ibid)
In painting all Americans in this manner, Ablow has over-generalized. That said, he is not too far off the mark because it is true that vast numbers of Americans do in fact worship various idols of destruction.
For some, the idol is hedonism. All self-centered Americans who worship the pagan deity Hedon willingly sacrifice babies, toddlers, older children and teens, their own and others, on the altar of Hedon, or perhaps on the altars of other idols such as Carnivale, the sadistic Baal-Peor and the obscenely unnatural deities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Other egoists willingly sacrifice everything on the altar of Mammon—from the rights of hard-working Americans to defend their lives, personal property, wealth and society from being plundered to the sovereignty of America itself. These self-worshippers seek the power and parasitic-lifestyle that comes from wealth, status symbols, star-power, and the exhilaration of belonging to exclusive inner-circles.
The one idol of destruction all self-worshippers have most in common is Molech, in our own age known as abortion, euthanasia, and population control.
America was not founded on the idols of destruction but rather on the pillars of self-sacrificial Christianity. The most important pillars are the living God and man created in His spiritual image, the fallenness of man, God’s transcendent Moral Law and eternally unchanging Truth, and procreation within the confines of the one-man-one-woman family.
While not all of America’s founding generation were practicing Christians, even those who were not recognized the unique merits and blessings of these pillars.
With regard to man’s fallenness, the founding generation accepted the absolute need for all men to acquire self-discipline through submission of their base passions, appetites and ambitions to unchanging moral absolutes and social taboos because:
“… when People are universally ignorant, and debauched in their Manners, they will sink under their own weight without the Aid of foreign Invaders.” — Samuel Adams, Founding Father
And should the time come when unbelief, ignorance and debauchery prevails over belief and self-discipline, then the pillars of Christianity shall be overthrown and,
“…. our present republican forms of government, and all the blessings which flow from them, must fall with them.” — Samuel F.B. Morse, the son of educator Jedediah Morse, known as “Father of American Geography.”
America is indeed fallen, for it is almost universally turned away from all of the sacred pillars on which it was grounded and subsequently blessed. Thus Truth and Moral absolutes are no longer sacrosanct and any honest citizen who claims they are is hated and suppressed.
Like the prophet Jeremiah in his own age, the honest man of our age who dares to contradict popular lies and delusions–whether secular or apostatizing ‘Christian’– finds his message coldly ignored. He is shunned, verbally abused, openly ridiculed, his good-name destroyed, and he is even physically attacked. Honesty wins only persecution because it has become the crime of politically incorrect heresy. All public utterances must now reflect the delusions, lies, self-gratifying demands and bigotry of the mob, or win persecution. For Truth there is no defence, thus its’ adherents must either deny that white is not black or face psychological torment and perhaps even physical execution.
Verse 3 Of Paul’s Second Letter To Timothy describes the self-worshippers of our age. It says they are selfish, greedy, boastful, and conceited; they are insulting, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, and irreligious; they are unkind, merciless, slanderers, violent, and fierce; they hate the good; they are treacherous, reckless, and swollen with pride; they love pleasure rather than God; they hold to the outward form of Christian theism, but reject its real power.
Early Church Father John of Damascus describes self-worship as barbarism, and adds that in the days of Noah barbarism prevailed almost universally. Barbarism is the primordial heresy, the conscious or subconcious idea that man is god:
“Barbarism is that which prevailed from the days of Adam down through ten generations to the time of Noah. It is called barbarism because of the fact that in those times men had no ruling authority or mutual accord, but every man was independent and a law unto himself after the dictates of his own will.” (John of Damascus, “The Fount of Knowledge,” cited in Political Apocalypse, Ellis Sandoz, p. 131)
Unless there is a spiritual transformation as the result of society-wide repentance and turning back to God, America’s death looms in tandem with a rising spiritual catastrophe as the demonic in back of the idols of destruction penetrates ever deeper into the souls of Americans, turning them inward, away from the cleansing power of Light and Truth.
On a daily basis, America’s secularized, morally debauched media, institutions of learning, Hollywood, law, and politics reinforce the demonic closing of souls to God the Father. Thus every day witnesses the spread of barbarism, that is, the inversion of reality resulting from the delusions, lies, self-gratifying demands and bigotry of the mob.
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July 23, 2012 at 8:30 pm
churchmouse
Thank you, Linda, for another excellent post. I fear that we are drifting towards that day of reckoning — not the Final Judgment yet — of living in a totalitarian, debauched state (both in terms of government and personal morality).
We deserve the leaders we get in many ways — we have only ourselves to blame.
I have been thinking about the physical fitness (e.g. bodybuilding, gym membership) which goes some way towards being symptomatic of this self-idolisation. Along with that is the instant gratification: non-stop coffee, snacks, nail jobs or clothes because, after all, ‘we deserve it’.
One of my most unforgettable history lessons was as a 13-year old (1972) when our history teacher gave us about a dozen quotations and asked us if we agreed or disagreed with each one. They were all about the primacy of the body over the mind and how essential that was. First, we had to read and think about each one individually. Then we had to break up into groups of three or four to evaluate each other’s decisions. After that, a leader from each group had to present the ‘agreement’ or ‘disagreement’ argument to the class. Finally, the teacher discussed them and — final words — gave us the origin of the quotes. Every group (and about 80% of the class) came out against the primacy of the body over the mind.
Source material, which the teacher used to see if we were ‘on track’ for liberty? Mein Kampf.
Ever since, I have been suspicious of too much — not just slimming down — actual body worship. That can be self or others. I don’t understand why people can’t get the same exercise in the house and garden. There’s always loads to do, it seems. Training as an athlete is one thing; idolising oneself or a ‘perfect’ body image is another. Apologies to those who work out — and that’s not a bad thing in and of itself — but I have always toyed with the idea of God’s punishments for certain things. Inappropriate sex means an STD, which a faithful married couple with a history of clean living does not experience. Gym-goers who overuse the facility often come out with things like athlete’s foot or a toenail fungus (at least in the UK).
Your news story about the six-year old was utterly depraved, yet so typical of our times. I pray that that child makes it through life with God’s grace upon him. Honestly, who is capable of such things? There is much more I would like to say about it but am truly lost for words. Yet, this goes on every day. Many more cases must go unreported.
Folks, let’s get our heads out from where they don’t belong and start reassessing our priorities. Our nations are going down the pan and all we can think about is our vanity and our materialism. It’s depraved.
All this effort being wasted on dominance through eugenics and totalitarianism. That energy could be turned into helping the unfortunate. This is another time when, in all sincerity, we should be thinking of the children.
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July 23, 2012 at 9:33 pm
Linda
I have been suspicious of too much — not just slimming down — actual body worship…
Indeed. The ‘gyms’ and saunas of ancient Greece and Rome fall into insignificance compared to Western and American “temples” of body-worship.
And not to denigrate real science as opposed to scientism, but science must be numbered among Western and American idols.
Comte’s Religion of Positivism replaced the Bible with social science and clergy with scientists, thus today Westerners idolize both. So if someone identified as a scientist, no matter that he is a crackpot, says thus and so, well it must be true because science said so.
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July 23, 2012 at 10:13 pm
churchmouse
So pleased to read your view of gyms and health clubs — only my better half and I agree on this. Our friends look at us blankly.
Agree with you on science v scientism. We have the latter in trumps today. Loads of fake statistics everywhere from ‘studies’ which haven’t been conducted properly (why bother with a control group?) and haven’t passed objective peer review. Science used to be impartial (e.g. Gregor Mendel, Marie Curie); it hasn’t been for at least 20 or 30 years. It’s been corrupted by whoever is funding the experiment. ‘”Find” these results or lose your job.’ ‘Okay, no problem.’
You know, the more I read your essays, the more I have to rethink the French Revolution. Whilst it served to overthrow a negative upper-class / monarchical dominance, it does not appear to have had the biblical input that the American Revolution did. (My study of French history went from the first French kings through to Louis XIV, so I’m admittedly no expert.) And, until 2009, American presidents often referred to God at Thanksgiving and other times of a national coming together in times of tragedy or joy.
However, the French — even today — are missing this element. The Enlightenment for them was different than it was for our Founding Fathers. We can see this in Auguste Comte’s biography, excerpts of which follow (emphases mine):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auguste_Comte
‘Comte’s stages were (1) the theological, (2) the metaphysical, and (3) the positive.[7] The Theological phase was seen from the perspective of 19th century France as preceding the Enlightenment, in which man’s place in society and society’s restrictions upon man were referenced to God. Man blindly believed in whatever he was taught by his ancestors. He believed in a supernatural power. Fetishism played a significant role during this time. By the “Metaphysical” phase, he referred not to the Metaphysics of Aristotle or other ancient Greek philosophers. Rather, the idea was rooted in the problems of French society subsequent to the revolution of 1789. This Metaphysical phase involved the justification of universal rights as being on a vauntedly higher plane than the authority of any human ruler to countermand, although said rights were not referenced to the sacred beyond mere metaphor. This stage is known as the stage of investigation, because people started reasoning and questioning although no solid evidence was laid. The stage of investigation was the beginning of a world that questioned authority and religion. In the Scientific phase, which came into being after the failure of the revolution and of Napoleon, people could find solutions to social problems and bring them into force despite the proclamations of human rights or prophecy of the will of God. Science started to answer questions in full stretch. In this regard he was similar to Karl Marx and Jeremy Bentham. For its time, this idea of a Scientific phase was considered up-to-date, although from a later standpoint it is too derivative of classical physics and academic history. Comte’s law of three stages was one of the first theories of social evolutionism …
‘In later a ‘religion of humanity’ for positivist societies in order to fulfil the cohesive function once held by traditional worship. In 1849, he proposed a calendar reform called the ‘positivist calendar’. For close associate John Stuart Mill, it was possible to distinguish between a “good Comte” (the author of the Course in Positive Philosophy) and a “bad Comte” (the author of the secular-religious system).[6] …’
And, as one of N T Wright’s videos explains, all these strands of thinking came together in Europe following the Englightenment. Mill seems to have hit on something by saying that whilst there is some good, there is also some bad. Discernment is needed.
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