Every Day In Every Way Tyranny Creeps A Little Closer

Some stories in the UK last week ought to remind us that freedom and democracy (or freeman moxy if you are American) is being eroded by creeping fascism.
First story concerns the fatigued firefighters of Bury. They were in trouble over sleeping while on shift. Now everyone knows fire brigade staff are allowed a kip on the watch so that they will be fresh and alert when called to action. It was not the actual sleeping that caused the problem but the blatant breaches of regulations involved. Special regulation chairs had been provided, tired firefighters for the use of. Bury's finest however were using their own sleeping bags and kipping on the floor because having tried the special reclining chairs the crews decided they were not fit for purpose. "You can't bloody sleep in those, they're like piles of rock" one officer said.
It turned out the crews could not sleep properly in the chairs because they had not been trained in the proper use of the special sleeping furniture. The chairs should not even have been sat on by untrained personnel.
So now you know that if you are troubled with insomnia its probably because you have not been trained properly in sleeping.
Next is the woman whose hip replacement operation was cancelled because she was six pounds overweight. This is part of the National Health Service initiative to encourage anorexia by witholding treatments from those who are obese. Only a bureaucrat working for a fascist regime could possible make a thick line on a spreadshhet and say "OK, above the line they don't get treatment because they are anorexic and their problems are self inflicted, below the line they don't get treatment because they are fat bastards and their problems are self inflicted. And if they are exactly on the line they are so treatment will be withheld until they tell us what we want to hear..
The person whose op was cancelled did get some help and support from her sympathetic family doctor who gave her laxatives hoping the resultant diarreah would get the numbers right for the spreadsheet.
Next we go to our old favourite the education system. There is an idea being pushed in the Education Department that asking children to put up their hands in class to answer questions should be banned as "it causes the quieter, less demanding children to be overlooked and fall behind." Well the two Primary teachers I know both tell me that the noisier, more demanding children don't answer questions to get praise, they are more interested in being disruptive to make their friends laugh. Then there are the noisy little victims of pushy parenting who wave their hands frantically and yell, "me sir, me sir, me me me," hoping to earn a housepoint to report to the pushy parents because they have been told "if you don't get straight As Mummy and Daddy will not love you anymore because you have not lived up to our expectations". Can the "educationalists" not see that the quiet, thoughful kids who don't answer questions are actually taking stuff in and thinking about it?
And then of course there are the clever little shits who sit picking their fingernails as the teacher seeks a correct answer. They are thinking, " I know this but I can't be arsed answering. I'm nobody's poodle. One who fitted this description is sitting not a million miles from the keyboard this artyicle is being typed on.
Do you see the thrust of all this?
So many of the little things that happen almost unnoticed are driving us towards becoming a society of obedient conformists conditioned to blindly follow rules and procedures and to never, never ever question authority.