Motus Mentis

When a political movement seeks to control behavior, an important first step is customarily to stigmatize the practice in question as morally offensive. For example, during the First World War, when criticism of the Wilson administration’s policies was suppressed by harsh restrictions of the press, it was common to hear calls for severe punishment, all the way up to execution, for dissenting voices. Likewise, nowadays one must be prepared to face vicious ad hominem attacks if one dares to express skepticism regarding prevailing political orthodoxies concerning multiculturalism, religious “tolerance”, race relations, global warming, etc.

One area where the net has been tightening lately has been obesity; where once it was merely awkward and embarrassing to be fat, in recent years it has come to be seen more and more as a moral weakness. Till now the stigmatization of the corpulent has had to do with health-care costs and a general Puritanism regarding physical fitness, but now a powerful new moral weapon is being brought to bear: it has been determined that being fat contributes to global warming.

This inspired move should provide ample political leverage for progressive social engineers to really get to work. Though we no longer, in these enlightened times, operate debtor’s prisons — after all, personal debt is now the government’s responsibility — dieter’s prisons may not be far off.

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