French Nanny State Is As Stupid As Ours

Far too often in this country there are people who want to tell others how to live their lives, and if we're not willing to do what they say, they are happy to pass laws to force us to do it. This should be anathema in a country that claims to value freedom, equality, and individual choice, but these people are convinced they know what is best for everyone and they're just doing it for "our own good". Personally, I don't see any "good" in others ordering me around when I am not hurting anyone else.

And sadly, these "nannies" who know how to live our lives better than we do exist on both sides of the political spectrum. The ones on the right want to dictate our religious beliefs or our sexual preferences, while the ones on the left want to tell us how to raise our kids, or what we can't smoke, or what we can or can't eat and how we must cook that food. Both sides are wrong and need to mind their own business. Freedom means we all get to make our own choices, even when those choices may not be "good" for us.

Evidently, we're not the only country with these busybody nanny-state politicians. France seems to have their share also, and they have shown they are not above passing a stupid law. Their latest "nanny state" effort is to outlaw American-style ketchup in school cafeterias throughout the country. It is now illegal to serve or make ketchup available for any food except french fries -- and french fries can only be served once a week. My initial thought was if ketchup is so bad for kids then why isn't it bad for them when french fries are served?

Speaking on the new rule, French agriculture and food minister Bruno Le Maire said, "France must be an example to the world in the quality of its food, starting with its children." That's an incredibly arrogant and stupid statement. The only example the French are setting is in how to nibble away at the freedoms of its citizens.

Christophe Hebert, chairman of the National Association of Directors of Collective Restaurants, made an even stupider statement. He said, "We have to insure that children become familiar with French recipes so that they can hand them down to the following generation. We absolutely have to stop children from being able to serve those sorts of sauces to themselves with every meal. Children have a tendency to use them to mask the taste of whatever they are eating."

First, if French school cafeterias are as notoriously bad as American school cafeterias are (and I suspect they most likely are) then that is not the place children will find recipes to pass on to their children. The recipes they'll pass on are the ones they learn at home. Second, children are very finicky eaters and many of them will hide the taste of something they don't like with ketchup so they can eat it. Do these fools really think it is better for a child to go hungry the rest of the school day than to cover the taste of something they don't like with ketchup? I certainly don't.

Sometimes adults are dumber than the children they are supposed to be taking care of. I think this is one of those occasions.