Since the New York Attorney General can’t possibly have enough wars to conduct against personal choice and lifestyle, here goes another one: the war on energy drinks. This is from the Wall Street Journal:
New York’s attorney general is investigating whether the multibillion-dollar energy-drink industry is deceiving consumers with misstatements about the ingredients and health value of its products.
…If energy-drink makers are found to have violated certain New York state laws regulating food and drugs, they could be forced to pay civil fines and penalties, and to change their labeling and marketing.
This is a criminal investigation straight from the bowels of Bloomberg.
First off, I think that the obsession with these beverages on the part of the sugar-addicted masses is another great tragedy of an American society that shuns – and also attacks – great, healthy food traditions while embracing the freakish poisons of the Industrial Machine, along with its lies and myths. People are so easily swayed by mythical marketing blitzes, it is unfortunate that they can’t see the forest for the trees. And yes, it is unfortunate that so many people place so little emphasis on their own health.
However, a big part of the freedom of choice is to choose your own poison, or, to make your own judgments as to what is or isn’t poison and therefore decide that you are right even if you are factually wrong. After all, it can be said that your preferences end where my nose begins. As the quote on my website states, from voluntaryist Auberon Herbert, “By what right do men exercise power over each other?”
In this age of unlimited tyranny and the unlimited appetite to control others, most folks don’t even bat an eyelash at these obnoxious power grabs aimed at dictating and/or limiting personal choices of individuals that involve no aggression and make no one a victim. On that note, do read the excellent book by Larken Rose: How to be a Successful Tyrant (The Megalomaniac Manifesto).
