Thoughts on this statement?

[Madame Adequate]

Earlier, when my mother and I were watching a new report about the various measures to stop people smoking, I was doing my thing of defending free, personal choice, and personal responsibility. My mother said at one point

If people are too stupid to do it for themselves, you have to do it for them.

I find it difficult to believe I am in any way related to her. Obviously those who follow me escapades in EotW will know that that statement sits rather at odds with my beliefs. I wanted to know what other people thought about it though.

[bipper]

Morally yes. If someone is gonna put a gun to thier head, you should stop them.

I believe it all sits on the topic of what is wrong though. It should be different per situation. Using one logical statement to entail everything is impossible. There are som many contigancies and occurances that happen to anything that would be difined in that one statement. All we can do is nitpick and look at every single problem, and every instance of that problem, then learn to live accordingly.

You can't write a law book with only 100 words in it. I would think that would be impossable.

Bipper

[Endless]

There are cases where people are too stupid to take care of themselves and I don't feel (much) sympathy for them. These are usually the situations where their own stupidity affects only themselves. Examples: smoking to some extent (open spaces, smoker's house), video game addiction, light drinking, light weed smoking, walking/driving/fishing on a frozen lake... However, I can think of plenty of situations where one's stupidity puts others at risk, at which point I'm for preventing them if possible from being stupid. Examples: heavy drinking (induces violence, and drunk driving if you drive), heavy weed smoking (it's just as bas as drunk driving if you drive) or heavy drugs (same, plus the addiction which is going to cause trouble), overspeeding in city areas (kids don't have the physical ability to see danger like adults do, and can't estimate speed nearly as fast), smoking near a gas pump...

[Teek]

Endless, I think then it leaves the realm we're talking about and becomes a dangerous situation. It's entirely different. In other words, I agree.

You know where I stand on this, MILF. =P

[Cloud No.9]

we do the same for other dangerous practices like drug abuse. and we try and stop people blowing their own brains out when possible.

[Teek]

Yeah, but do you think it's right?

[Cloud No.9]

yes.

[Teek]

Why?

[Cloud No.9]

because it's the job of the state to protect it's citizens.

[nik0tine]

There's a difference between protecting citizens, and limiting citizens. What you suggest is the latter.

[rcabronx]

I used to smoke. Today is day seven without a cigarette for me. I quit ONLY because I wanted to, after ten years of smoking. I have seen every single ad campaign, every nasty little ad on Canadian cigarette packages, read bunches of sad and horrible stories of people dying from cigarette usage, and have even met someone very special whose grandparents died of lung cancer due to tobacco use. But I would not stop. Why? Because I did not want to. If I would have died of some horrible self induced cigarette related illness, then it would have been my own fault, no one else's. However, that being said, I would rather make my own decisions as to what I'm going to do with my own body than let a government do it for me.

About the other things, such as drug abuse and drinking and suicide... there is absolutely nothing anyone can do short of trying to educate people as to why these things are not good. But ultimately, one has to decide for oneself.

[G SpOtZ]

rcabronx is my hero. alla dat was the troof.

[Channing]

I believe people should make their own decisions. I'd rather teach someone to make decisions for themselves than do it for them. That teaches nothing but dependence.

[Vyk]

I have a chip on my shoulder regarding tobacco use and alcohol or drug abuse. Watching people I care about slowly kill themselves, and possibly put others around them in harms way simply because they lack the willpower to put an end to it themselves. I'd gladly watch it all be stripped away from them. But that's just me. And my rather uncouth way of caring.

[Skyblade]

I don't agree with that statement. If people are too stupid to do or not do something, then they get to suffer the consequences. In that way, they can learn from their mistakes, and hopefully eventually develop a rudementary thought process. Forcing people to do the right thing (or, put more accurately, what one person's [such as your mother's] view of the right thing is) is evil. You don't have any right to cause harm to others just because they are total idiots. If people want to kill themselves by smoking, that's there perogative. Unless they try to force me to smoke, or stand close enough that I am forced to inhale secondhand smoke (after I have asked them politely to stop), I don't have a problem with them. People are free to do what they want. That's free will, and your mother needs to understand that it applies to everyone, not just her.

Oh, in response to the above post, if I was watching someone I cared about kill themselves through smoking, I would try to convince them to stop, but I wouldn't take physical action to prevent them, unless they acknowledged that it was killing them and admitted that they couldn't quit on their own, in which case I would offer whatever assisstance I could.