Nanny State: How Food Fascists, Teetotaling Do-Gooders, Priggish Moralists, and other Boneheaded Bureaucrats are Turning America into a Nation of Children [Hardcover]

David Harsanyi (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 18, 2007

When did we lose our right to be lazy, unhealthy, and politically incorrect?

Move over Big Brother! An insidious new group has inserted itself into American politics. They are the nannies—not the stroller-pushing set but an invasive band of do-gooders who are subtly and steadily stripping us of our liberties, robbing us of the inalienable right to make our own decisions, and turning America into a nation of children.
 
As you read this, countless busybodies across the nation are rolling up their sleeves to do the work of straightening out your life. Certain Massachusetts towns have banned school-yard tag. San Francisco has passed laws regulating the amount of water you should use in dog bowls. The mayor of New York City has french fries and doughnuts in his sights. In some parts of California, smoking is prohibited . . . outside.

The government, under pressure from the nanny minority, is twisting the public’s arm into obedience. Playground police, food fascists, anti-porn crusaders —whether they're legislating morality or wellbeing—nannies are popping up all over America. In the name of health, safety, decency, and—shudder—good intentions, these ever-vigilant politicians and social activists are dictating what we eat, where we smoke, what we watch and read, and whom we marry.

Why do bureaucrats think they know what's better for us than we do? And are they selectively legislating in the name of political expediency? For instance, why do we ban mini-motorbikes, responsible for five deaths each year, and not skiing, which accounts for fifty deaths each year? Why is medical marijuana, a substance yet to claim a single life, banned and not aspirin, which accounts for about 7,600 deaths?

Exhaustively researched, sharply observed, and refreshingly lucid, Nanny Sate looks at the myriad ways we are turning the United States into a soulless and staid nation—eroding not only our personal freedoms but our national character.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Denver Post columnist Harsanyi's libertarian opus makes the case that government meddling in private lives demands our full attention. Whether bureaucrats are banning trans fats, trying to reduce drinking or legislating where citizens can smoke, Harsanyi objects. Such regulation, he believes, insults a freeborn citizenry. As he puts it: the five most frightening words in the English language: something needs to be done. Aiming at predictable targets like New York's Mayor Michael Bloomberg, he finds no meddler too insignificant to escape his contempt, including a Dublin, Calif., councilwoman who tried to further tighten the city's antismoking law. Harsanyi also trashes the religious right for trying to legislate morality. But the book would have benefited from more anecdotes and original reporting, instead of incessantly naming overzealous do-gooders. Moreover, Harsanyi barely considers business's role, as these dangerous do-gooders fight fast food and tobacco companies armed with hundreds of millions of marketing dollars. There's not much new, but fellow libertarians may enjoy getting carried away by the flood of Harsanyi's outrage. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Besieged by do-gooder legislators and activists pushing health, safety, or "family values," Americans have been subjected to bans on everything from trans fats to cookie-scented ads in bus shelters to happy hours. Harsanyi offers a catalog of rules imposed by "Twinkie fascists" and "playground despots" who are micromanaging all manner of bad habits and immorality that threaten to remove from citizens the right to choose how they live their lives. For example, he notes that the Centers for Disease Control has evolved from an agency concerned with infectious diseases to one concerned with overeating. Conceding that one person's idea of government intrusion is another's idea of prudent policy, Harsanyi stakes a claim on common sense as the judge. Laws against illicit drugs and prostitution are good for the public welfare; laws against smoking outdoors are intrusive. This is not just a rant against overzealous legislators but a thoughtful look at how the government is overreaching into everyday life and how Americans are quietly going along with it. An interesting look at freedom and personal responsibility. Bush, Vanessa

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Broadway; First Edition edition (September 18, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0767924320
• ISBN-13: 978-0767924320
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #452,111 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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70 of 79 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Freedom isn't free, September 21, 2007

By 

John - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nanny State: How Food Fascists, Teetotaling Do-Gooders, Priggish Moralists, and other Boneheaded Bureaucrats are Turning America into a Nation of Children (Hardcover)

Great book on creeping nannyism in the U.S. The good thing about this book is that it doesn't present the case as being only about the "Left" trying to take our freedoms away (it includes an entire chapter on social conservatives). The book is about all kinds of "busybodies", who have a pet issue that they convince the local government to enforce. It usually is something they don't like and consider a "danger" (smoking, fast food, trans fats, alcohol, etc.).

Examples are of course smoking bans, "zero tolerance" alcohol policies, fun-free playgrounds (where any type of childhood exuberance is not tolerated), skateboarding bans, New York banning transfats, the Christian Right trying to ban pornography, etc.

Always, there is what the author calls a "nanny", who of course thinks they know better than us, what is good for us and society, and who then use police power to enforce this morality. The nanny is basically a puritanical authoritarian who can't tolerate anyone living differently than they do.

I can only say that this book rings very true. Having moved back to the U.S. from Germany, I noticed that even compared to Germany, there are a LOT of laws in the U.S. In Germany, there were also a lot of laws, but people were also much less uptight than Americans about certain things. For instance, it is legal in Germany for people as young as 17 or 16 to drink alcohol. And yet, there are not massive societal problems due to this. If you read and listen to the neo-temperance movement in the U.S., you would think that the world would end if we went back to the 18 drinking age.

Ditto many other things. In Germany, I noticed that older people might nag kids who skateboard around their neighborhood, but there are not the all-encompassing neighborhood bans on skateboarding, etc. that we have here. And why do we need them ? We then wonder why American kids turn to drugs, because they are so bored and so many things that might be fun are banned where they live. I personally think this is one reason American teens turn to drugs.

The Christian Right of course also wants to ban a lot of things, and they are in league with the Left on much of this ("zero tolerance"). I read through Sen. Brownback's recent book and it is scary how many things he wants to ban. And I think Brownback is typical for most "social conservatives" (under his and their logic, one could ban almost anything using the logic that it is "dangerous to the social fabric", and "harms the family". Exactly how family structures are harmed by porn, I fail to see, particularly considering that Utah is the U.S. state that downloads the most porn (and also has by far the strongest family structures in the U.S.).

Speakig of Utah, it is in some ways a great state. I found the state extremely clean and well organized. People are uber-friendly. But to me, it is one example of where we might be headed. Try ordering a beer in Utah. It is easier to get into some countries, than it is to order a beer in that state. They harrass you at every turn (this is why it is considered "America's least fun state"). Obviously, to the social conservative nanny, having fun on this earth is not a goal, and we should not have it as a goal. This is the religious philosophy behind bans - don't make life too fun, because that would be bad for religion.

I can tell you from personal experience of my own fight against the Nanny State. I live in Texas. As the author mentions, a Houston Democrat got it into his head that what Texas needs most is to not allow anyone to get a buzz on in a Texas bar. As the book mentions, the result was a practice in which police officers ("undercover") would "stake out" bars for people who "look inebriated". I am not kidding. They would arrest you INSIDE the bar. This happened particularly in Irving, Texas (coincidently, the world headquarters of Mothers Against Drunk Driving), and in some "po-dunk" counties outside Houston. [by the way, MADD is a useful organization, and has its purpose, but the author is also very correct in his attacks on MADD, because they have basically gone from being a safety-promoting organization to being an anti-alcohol organization].

All I can say is, if hundreds of us here in the Lone Star State had not gone absolutely ballistic and written to everyone in the state (the local news, the congressman, the governor, etc.), we might all be enjoying a cool lemonaide on Saturday night, rather than a beer, and Texas would right now be even worse than Utah, and all fun would have been exported out of state.

What I am trying to say is, yes, the author is right. The nannies are out there, and they are fighting hard. But we are also out there, and we are fighting hard. Write to congress, the governor. Go to local town council meetings. Write a blog. Write to your newspaper. Do something. It works !!

Freedom isn't free.

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book on Libertarianism, October 4, 2007

By 

Nabeel - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nanny State: How Food Fascists, Teetotaling Do-Gooders, Priggish Moralists, and other Boneheaded Bureaucrats are Turning America into a Nation of Children (Hardcover)

I first saw this book when Charley Reese had shown it in his article. When I saw it at the book store, I picked it up just to skim. Since then, this book has been a page turner I couldn't put down. The Libertarian ideas that are present can be used not only for the Libertarian but also for anyone that has a problem with big government. It goes to show how ridiculous some of the laws that have been instated have been. From laws requiring people to walk outside to smoke even in their own homes to taxes on fast-food, the book presents some great problems with big government.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars I Don't Need a Nanny!, January 10, 2008

By 

Jennifer Sopranzi "JenReader" (CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Nanny State: How Food Fascists, Teetotaling Do-Gooders, Priggish Moralists, and other Boneheaded Bureaucrats are Turning America into a Nation of Children (Hardcover)

Thomas Sowell calls them "the anointed." David Harsanyi calls them "Nannies." They are the paternalistic social engineers who have appointed themselves the guardians of the public good.

This group of elite social engineers have appointed themselves the protectors of the public whom they treat like children. Like children the American public cannot be trusted to manage their own lives and must be protected from their irrational decisions by the Nanny elites, those annointed to protect us.

Each chapter of the book is dedicated to dangers from which we must be protected by our Nannies. The list includes fast food, playground equipment, alcohol, smoking, etc. In their quest to protect us from ourselves, these paternalistic social engineers enact often innnane and insulting regulations designed to relieve us of any personal responsibility for our lives. Not to be deterred by a scarcity of data the Nanny class often resorts to scare tactics, "creative logic," and twisting the facts to suit their arguments.

Many of the Nanny laws described in the book would be funny if they were not real. But they are real laws--real laws that take away our right to make our own descisions, and the responsibility to accept the consequences of our own decisions.

I would have given the book four stars if the author had included more discussion about why the American public seems so willing to be treated as a bunch of incompetents. Eventually children outgrow their Nannies and assume an adult role. But the American public seems willing to give up their adult responsibilities. The Nannies are not taking away our right to make our own decisions. We are willingly surrendering our rights to our new Nannies. Harsanyi's book describes the results of this surrender, but neglects to explain why we surrendered in the first place.

I would recommend this book. But after you read Nanny State I also recommend that you read Thomas Sowell's The Vision of the Anointed, a much more difficult book but well worth the effort.