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Authors: Deborah Cohen
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but do provide us the possibility of achieving our full potential.
A Manifesto Claiming Victimhood? Is There No Role for Personal Responsibility?
Personal responsibility is always the ultimate determinant of people’s behavior; even with the best social and environmental conditions, there are some individuals who manage to get into trouble. And of course, given the worst conditions, there will be some with the capacity to triumph—but they will be the exception. Nevertheless, in a free society, it is not the role of government to strictly regulate people’s behavior. But if people find it too difficult to achieve their goals or to stay healthy even after repeated attempts, it is a societal role to address the environmental conditions that undermine or interfere with their well-being. If 96 percent of the water is not potable, you can bet that a lot of people will be getting waterborne diseases. If most restaurants, supermarkets, and advertisements primarily encourage the consumption of foods that increase the risk of chronic diseases, we should anticipate that a lot of people will get sick.
Are we victims? Definitions of “victim” include a person who is harmed by or made to suffer from an act, circumstance, agency, or condition; one who suffers injury, loss, or death as a result of a voluntary undertaking (e.g., a victim of your own scheming); one who is tricked, swindled, or taken advantage of (e.g., a victim of misplaced confidence). We are victims of our own DNA, the forceful strategiesof marketers, and an affluent society with more than enough to go around. In the end, it doesn’t matter whether we blame human nature, the aggressive nature of the food industry, or our wildly successful systems of food production and distribution. People are suffering, and thus need protection.
Going Up Against the Food Industry
There is no doubt that the food industry will fight any regulatory changes tooth and nail. Its advocates will invoke the typical complaints: The government should not interfere in the marketplace. Individuals know best and we don’t need any “nannies.” Regulation will cause the food industry to lose money, which will prompt layoffs and increase unemployment. The economy will crash and farmers will go broke. Food isn’t the problem behind obesity; it is the lack of physical activity.
The food industry will bring all its resources to bear to forestall any action that will protect consumers, as did the tobacco industry in the struggle to regulate tobacco and stop the epidemics of lung disease, cancer, and heart disease that smoking caused.
Nevertheless, public health advocates were able to make a dramatic dent in smoking rates by addressing how, when, and where tobacco is advertised, priced, and sold; thus we should be able to tackle obesity. But more people have to be convinced that food environments are the main concerns. Once we have the correct targets in our crosshairs, there should be no stopping progress. We must move forward to protect our friends and families from exposures that threaten our health and well-being.
I have made many suggestions, though I am the first to admit that there is no existing proof that these new policies will work. But there is also no reason to expect that the obesity epidemic will spontaneously resolve itself. We must try something new.
13
Conclusion
In the hot days of the summer of 1972, the New York City Health Department investigated an unusually high incidence of deaths among toddlers who fell out of tenement windows. 1 Initially mothers and caregivers were blamed for not being alert, not properly supervising children, or simply neglecting naturally curious toddlers and adventurous young children who leaned out of apartment windows or crawled onto fire escape stairwells to cool off.
After an investigation, the Health Department launched a campaign, “Children Can’t Fly,” and offered free window guards to families in tenement buildings. The next
A Manifesto Claiming Victimhood? Is There No Role for Personal Responsibility?
Personal responsibility is always the ultimate determinant of people’s behavior; even with the best social and environmental conditions, there are some individuals who manage to get into trouble. And of course, given the worst conditions, there will be some with the capacity to triumph—but they will be the exception. Nevertheless, in a free society, it is not the role of government to strictly regulate people’s behavior. But if people find it too difficult to achieve their goals or to stay healthy even after repeated attempts, it is a societal role to address the environmental conditions that undermine or interfere with their well-being. If 96 percent of the water is not potable, you can bet that a lot of people will be getting waterborne diseases. If most restaurants, supermarkets, and advertisements primarily encourage the consumption of foods that increase the risk of chronic diseases, we should anticipate that a lot of people will get sick.
Are we victims? Definitions of “victim” include a person who is harmed by or made to suffer from an act, circumstance, agency, or condition; one who suffers injury, loss, or death as a result of a voluntary undertaking (e.g., a victim of your own scheming); one who is tricked, swindled, or taken advantage of (e.g., a victim of misplaced confidence). We are victims of our own DNA, the forceful strategiesof marketers, and an affluent society with more than enough to go around. In the end, it doesn’t matter whether we blame human nature, the aggressive nature of the food industry, or our wildly successful systems of food production and distribution. People are suffering, and thus need protection.
Going Up Against the Food Industry
There is no doubt that the food industry will fight any regulatory changes tooth and nail. Its advocates will invoke the typical complaints: The government should not interfere in the marketplace. Individuals know best and we don’t need any “nannies.” Regulation will cause the food industry to lose money, which will prompt layoffs and increase unemployment. The economy will crash and farmers will go broke. Food isn’t the problem behind obesity; it is the lack of physical activity.
The food industry will bring all its resources to bear to forestall any action that will protect consumers, as did the tobacco industry in the struggle to regulate tobacco and stop the epidemics of lung disease, cancer, and heart disease that smoking caused.
Nevertheless, public health advocates were able to make a dramatic dent in smoking rates by addressing how, when, and where tobacco is advertised, priced, and sold; thus we should be able to tackle obesity. But more people have to be convinced that food environments are the main concerns. Once we have the correct targets in our crosshairs, there should be no stopping progress. We must move forward to protect our friends and families from exposures that threaten our health and well-being.
I have made many suggestions, though I am the first to admit that there is no existing proof that these new policies will work. But there is also no reason to expect that the obesity epidemic will spontaneously resolve itself. We must try something new.
13
Conclusion
In the hot days of the summer of 1972, the New York City Health Department investigated an unusually high incidence of deaths among toddlers who fell out of tenement windows. 1 Initially mothers and caregivers were blamed for not being alert, not properly supervising children, or simply neglecting naturally curious toddlers and adventurous young children who leaned out of apartment windows or crawled onto fire escape stairwells to cool off.
After an investigation, the Health Department launched a campaign, “Children Can’t Fly,” and offered free window guards to families in tenement buildings. The next
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