Thursday, March 6, 2014

The 'should' word

You can spot an authoritatian by the language they use, they'll move from could, would or should directly to 'must' and drop in all sorts of reasons as to the where's and why's of it from 'for the sake of the children' to the ever perennial 'it's bad for you' something that's rolled out for everything from alcohol, salt, water, sugar, fatty foods etc.
Telegraph.
Sugar consumption should be halved to help reduce health problems such as obesity and tooth decay, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned.
The WHO set out draft guidance advising a dramatic reduction in sugar intake amid growing evidence that it contributes to chronic diseases.
The move follows calls by some leading scientists and campaigners for the current recommended daily limits on sugar intake to be halved to 5 per cent of an individual’s overall calorie consumption – the equivalent of six “level” teaspoons a day for the average adult.
It's almost like they use a template to make a move on any product they disapprove of or feel that people enjoy a little too much. Thing is your body needs sugar for quick release energy, granted there are problems with over-indulgence, but those ought to be dealt with by the person over-indulging once they realise they have a problem. It's the same principle with alcoholism, the alcoholic has to realise they have a problem and want to do something about it.
In the case of kids, it's the job of the parents to deal with healthy diet, that some parents don't is either down to laziness or economics, it's often far cheaper to buy the unhealthy processed food than something healthy due to the fact that processed foods require various items in them to prolong shelf life which means a lot of companies will look to their profits and not sell anything that won't spend a decent amount of time on the shelf.
Trying to force someone to comply is a regular trick of the state, education is the key here. Raising the price and hectoring people simply gets their backs up, expert warnings when read properly often aren't, they're simply the desire of the authoritarian to control people.
Until people are educated and want to do something about their diet, nothing will happen.

2 annotations:

Mark Wadsworth said...

No.

"Could" and "would" are acceptable. Once people say "should" they have usually gone too far, "must" then just follows automatically.

James Higham said...

Used to explain these to the Russian students - should is one of those words which can be taken so far.