“Condoning the erosion of lifestyle liberty (exercised in ways that harm no one) leaves us without a principled argument against the erosion of all liberty. Although tobacco-related rights are ends in themselves, regulatory and fiscal diarrhoea regarding everything else (fat, sugar, sweeteners, salt, fast-food, liquor, baby food, flavourings, colourants, preservatives, etc) proves that antismoker fanaticism is the tip of a deadly dagger. Our health ministry will display good faith if it encourages harm-reduction alternatives to conventional smoking”.
Beware the ‘fascist incest fest’ that will be the WHO’s COP7 tobacco meeting: Leon Louw, executive director of the Free Market Foundation, in BusinessLive today published by Business Day.
Self-serving empire
Prepare yourself for a deluge of detritus next week when the WHO meets in India. According to an increasing number of critics, the WHO is reprehensible and dangerous. It spews preordained resolutions designed to legitimise the erosion of lifestyle liberty. It proclaims, contrary to evidence, that healthy alternatives to smoking tobacco (e.g. filters, vaping and e-cigarettes) are unhealthy. It is about to inflict another body blow against your right to control yourself. Superficially, it is about smoking, but substantively about everything.
“Why,” you might ask, “would the WHO deceive us? Aren’t the growing number of critics deluded conspiracy theorists? Aren’t most countries willing supplicants? Surely the WHO is benevolent and devoid of perverse interests?”
On the contrary, it is a massive, self-serving empire. It legitimises control of populations. To that end, it denies the existence of the obvious mental and physical health benefits of human autonomy, satisfaction and coping strategies.