The article was discussing "akrasia" (coined by the ancient Greek philosphers Socrates and Aristotle), "those attacks of weak will that lead us to satisfy fleeting desires at the expense of our own acknowledged long-term interests."
Interesting: the article focuses not on how to have strong will, but on a growing trend toward creating situations where we are "parented" by an outside entity (government restriction or person) so we are relieved of the burden of parenting ourselves.
Here's a quote from the article:
"Parentalism is in a sense more insidious: It emerges when we begin to suspect that we ourselves are not competent to make our own choices, to yearn for someone to relieve us of the burden of choice."How many times have we seen this? People who cannot/will-not make healthy choices for themselves and need others to do it for them. Spouses who rely on spouses to 'keep them in line', monitor their food, turn off the TV. Or worse yet, we have a culture which needs laws to keep people from doing things that they shouldn't be doing in the first place.
Another quote:
"... The true parentalist wants to escape not just the burdens of the act of choosing, but the responsibility for making a poor choice. Voluntary market mechanisms for filtering or restraining choice will always, ultimately, have an escape clause: We can fire the personal trainer or tell our friends we've changed our minds about that diet or quitting smoking after all. And, in the final analysis, they allow us only to defer responsibility, not avoid it".It's an interesting article... read it for yourself.
Article: "Save Me From Myself"
