Enslaved to Power

Tobacco in Plain Packages

New Zealand is the second country in the world to opt for restricting cigarettes to be sold only in plain packaging.  The objective is to make the weed less attractive to smokers, thereby cutting the power of advertising to pull people into smoking.  There are inevitable legal challenges--which in our case will be dependant upon legal challenges in Australia (the first country to implement such a ban.)

This move has long been an objective of the Maori Party because Maori have a disproportionately high number of Maori smokers when compared to the rest of the population.  Maori co-leader, Tariana Turia probably believes that tobacco is just one more conspiracy by white capitalists against Maori. 

We suspect that the move will be welcomed in many quarters.  Few people will be prepared to endorse the damage that smoking can do to lungs and its connection with lung cancer.

But, as always, there are broader issues which thoughtful folk will have considered resisted and will see this as a wowsering move by a nanny state.

In the first place there are the rampant political inconsistencies of the Greens
who have long campaigned for the legalisation of marijuana, one the one hand, and government restrictions upon tobacco use, on the other.  Go figure.  One cannot help suspecting that their opposition to tobacco stems from the fact that it is manufactured and marketed by global corporates, rather than being surreptitiously grown in the back yard, as marijuana is.  Populism and Marxism make for an idiosyncratic mix in the Green mind.  One presumes that the Greens would have no objection to tobacco if it were a backyard product. 


Secondly, self-government and self-control cannot be engineered nor commanded by any state.  Tobacco consumption is a matter of self-control.  When, in the name of some vast perceived social good, the government decrees it will help people struggling with self-control in the area of tobacco consumption, its efforts will end up with nugatory effect.  In fact, it may even make the product more attractive.  Whereas now it is argued that smokers stay brand loyal due for subjective reasons engendered by marketing, plain packaging may entice people to experiment with a wider variety of  brands because the only way of choosing will be to experiment--to taste and see. 

Such legislation is an easy, but ineffective measure that will have little effect, except to make the politicians feel good, beneficent, and wise.  They will be congratulating themselves that they are "doing something positive", they are "making a difference", that are "taking a stand" but all along they are fooling themselves about the pseudo-competence of government, and blinding themselves to the obvious: the incompetence of government to change hearts and minds and build the strength of will to break addiction.

Thirdly, the nanny-state philosophy has a thousand applications which the government will likely move more and more toward to solve social problems.  Take just one example: addictive gambling.  It is abundantly clear that addictive gambling is a serious problem in New Zealand, tearing families apart, impoverishing dependant children and spouses, and provoking theft to feed the habit.  Ban gambling?  Make pokie machines have only black and white colours?  Regulate to make them smaller?  But the real problem is human weakness, wilfulness and the lack of self-control.  And there governments are ineffective.  An enslaved people will discover addictions in every place: governments would therefore end up controlling virtually every aspect of human behaviour whilst they have the view that rules, regulations, controls and bans will solve the fundamental problem.

Obesity, alcohol, sex, driving for thrills and adrenaline rushes--all are matters of self-control and personal responsibility.  There can be no end to rules, restrictions, regulations, and penalties once governments get involved in trying to combat or correct such human deficiencies and foolishness.  

If the government has a legitimate part to play in such social destructions it may be in advertising campaigns that focus upon personal responsibility and accountability, such as the anti-drink-driving campaign, with the slogan "If you drink and drive you are an idiot!"  It may also offer encouragement to voluntary welfare groups that actually get down into the nitty gritty of people's lives to help them. 

The Christian gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is clear: the Kingdom of God is a realm of universal totalitarian government--but the most important form of government is self-government.  (Romans 6:6).  We are all called to be enslaved to Christ alone.  We are His bondservants.  Civil government and the state cannot substitute for the rule and reign of Christ.  It is a huge step forward when the state (and the people) recognise its limitations in such things. 

But, without a prior acknowledgement of Christ as Lord of all, such a step is unlikely to be taken.  For there is an enslavement and an addiction which underlies all such measures by government: an addiction to power.  That is the biggest, the most debilitating, and the most destructive addiction of all.