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Everyone loves a moral panic
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Booze. Gambling. P-rn. It’s everywhere, at epidemic levels, apparently, but luckily our politicians are on the case, ready to shake their heads in dismay and demand tougher regulation of stuff that’s nobody else’s business. Even under the crusty conservatives of the Coalition, it’s hard to recall a moral panic being whipped up as fervently as Kevin Rudd, Steve Fielding and Nick Xenophon are managing at the moment. Rudd is claiming binge drinking is a “worsening epidemic” that is “getting out of hand” and needs to be urgently addressed. Steve Fielding, best known for using his PC in Parliament House to Google for p-rn, also thinks it’s a “huge” and “growing” problem, and has got up a Senate committee to consider his private member’s bill to restrict alcohol advertising. But as Richard Farmer pointed out yesterday, there’s no evidence for any of this. Indeed, in historical terms the early twenty-first century is probably one of the most sober periods in western history in the last five hundred years. But you won’t hear any of that in the mainstream media’s reporting – inevitably replete with footage of inebriated teenagers – of Rudd’s dire warnings. With a similar lack of interest in evidence, Minister for Zeroes and Ones Stephen Conroy has been busy trying to get Labor’s plan to regulate the internet up and running via ISP-level filtering to block child p-rn and “violent websites”. Conroy’s plan, which makes the previous Government’s unworkable Netalert program for PC-level filters look benign, should do wonders for Australia’s already quicksilver broadband speeds. But according to the Minister, the only people opposed to it are kiddy fiddlers. And incoming senator Nick Xenophon isn’t waiting until July to get stuck into gambling (or, as it should be known, taxation for innumerates), pushing for a new set of restrictions on poker machines and gambling venues. Not to be outdone, Steve Fielding wants to impose a tax on them too. All this is music to the ears of pressure groups and lobbyists who rely on public funding. Leading the charge on binge drinking was Professor Margaret Hamilton from the National Council on Drugs, an anti-drug body established and funded by the Howard Government and currently headed by former Liberal senator John Herron. According to Hamilton, the mere act of having a drink on a Friday evening sends the wrong signal to Australia’s youth. Daryl Smeaton of the Alcohol Education and Rehabilitation Foundation – of which anti-gambling campaigner Tim Costello is a director — also backed Rudd’s binge drinking warning. These people doubtless do fine work in addressing the impact of alcohol abuse (however defined) or gambling addiction, but are also beneficiaries of the funding that will inevitably flow from Government efforts to be seen to Do Something. They have a vested interest in encouraging state interventionism in their chosen fields. Then again the media also has an interest in hyping social problems. Drunken teenagers and gambling addicts make for great copy. Everyone loves a moral panic. |
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14 Comments
Alcoohol and gambling has always been socially regulated but that regulation is being overwhelmed by the volume and sophisticaion of modern marketing. As a teacher I am aware of how much teenagers are drinking (binge usually) and the damage it is doing
Another point I’d like to make is this: if government wants resposible citizens, then gov policy should be responsible. Following BushCo into Iraq, with the mealy mouthed “reasons” which they gave us, simply gives the youth a good excuse for pissing up.
I wonder what cave these people lived in as teenagers ? 99% of us had lost weekends, peeked at p-rn, one night stands etc. Did this destroy us ? How quick we forget ! Young people have to be able to let off a bit of steam without all this moral humbug
I just reckon science has moved ahead re adolescent brains more vulnerable into the early 20ies, and then there is the economic productivity/ambition imperative of undamaged brains given economics is really the national secular religion.
RF’s ABS stats are equivalent to an annual average of 10 slabs of beer, 40 bottles of wine and 8 bottles of spirits, maybe $800 worth. If some people aren’t drinking, someone else is drinking an awful lot.
Sorry Catherine, I posted before I read your post.
IMHO “The Grog” is just being used as an excuse to hide the real intention. I’m sorry but banning or restricting alcohol will not prevent violent crimes. Drunkeness is NOT a mitigating factor for a crime
It is irritating to have concerns about significant social harms mindlessly labelled as moral panics. No-one thinks it is a moral panic to deal with the massive harm done by alcohol in indigenous communiies so why should we not face up to ‘our’ problems?
Maybe you are right, David, maybe I’m wrong. Personally, I don’t see how we, as a society, have educated the youth to be respectful of other peoples rights and property. This is Howard’s legacy, he actively undermined institutions left, right and centre.
The behavoiurs and habits that we form as teens often stay with us for all our lives. Look at the number of adults who smoke who started as teens. That violence and alchohol are intrisically linked is beyond question, communities in NT will testify to it
Apparently I am indulging in binge drinking when I have a bootle of wine, how shocking!
Glenn, you really know how to throw those smelly red herrings around. I can just imagine the fellas hanging out and saying to each other other: “That lying Howard really pisses me off so much only a dozen tinnies will give me any relief.”
Moral panic, er? Just trying to spoil people’s fun, er? I might find that easier to take as argument if my daughter had not been raped on Friday night by a male acquaintance totally off his face on grog. Getting plastered affects more than just the drunk.
Moral panic is right, but given the senate election results it’s hardly surprising that Rudd is sucking up hard to Steve Fielding and Nick Xenophon. This wowser stuff is far more pernicious than some tosser-ish experts’ conference. Nicely pointed out.
Spare a thought for the returning veteran soldier, back from wars for treasure and oil. Take the grog off him and/or her and you might just regret it. How can we judge the youth, when the old are quite happy to invade other countries and kill and torture?