When fair isn't fair

Last Sunday my suburb, (which likes to pride itself on being a "village") held its annual street fair.

Sounds quaint doesn't it?

Indeed it used to be. Local arts and crafts displayed and sold by hobbyists who took pleasure from a casual passer-by admiring their work. Footstalls with sausage sizzles, home made cakes and jam, fairy floss and ice cream. There were even wine stalls where you handed over a voucher for a glass of the old white or red. It was something I used to enjoy. Not any more.

The last few years it has changed completely. Gone are the wine stalls on the grounds of public responsibility. In all the time I had been going, I had never seen anyone remotely tipsy - just sitting or strolling casually with a plastic glass of a wine they probably would not have tried in different surroundings. But you see - the "Cause Mafia" had moved in, those who make it their life's work to ensure the safety, health and wellbeing (or should that be "wellness"?) of others - whether they like it or not. The yuppie equivalent of a committee of mothers telling you to put your jumper on so you don't catch cold. Like mothers, the Cause Mafia rarely base their theories on facts or reality.

Then, like a marauding army of do-gooders, The Cause Mafia launched an all out assault. One of the two streets used for the fair, became dedicated to the latest flavor-of-the-month causes. Stall after stall adorned with signs that proudly promoted goods or services that are "sustainable" "environmentally friendly" "green" "alternative" "green energy" "plastic bag free day," "gluton free" and of course the biggest yuppie con of all - "organic." Of course, no wank-fest would be complete with the Merchants of Doom, warning of the dire dangers of "climate change" and "global warming."

Something that was quaint and simple has been taken over by the agenda pushers. Those who promote the ineffective and costly "green energy" cause, while not lifting a finger to do anything about six street lights that have been on continuously for over a year - despite the fact that other streets have been left in total darkness due to the removal of street lights on the grounds of "energy saving."

The world is not going to frizzle, sizzle or have the seaboards of continents flooded, we are not going to drown in a sea of highly useful plastic bags (I hardly see one in the street), and middle-aged, middle-class citizens are not going to turn into lager louts on the basis of one glass of plonk in a plastic glass - even if the glass is not - biodegradable!

Life used to be a lot simpler and more enjoyable for all of us before those who do more reading than thinking, started sticking their noses into other people's business. Now that is what I call environmentally unfriendly!

Wherever you may be - be safe
Copyright Mike Hitchen Online, Lane Cove, NSW, Australia. All rights reserved