It is tempting to seek various exotic explanations that relieve us of any accountability for our condition. But doesn’t it make sense first to elimate the most obvious causal factor of overeating?

It would be simple enough: Ask a number of obese people to keep a daily record of their calorie intake and exercise schedule, and then juxtapose that to those of us who are not overweight. If the calorie consumption/exercise ratio is higher for those who are obese than those who are not, then why seek exotic explanations? Then we would face the possibility that many people are overweight because, uh… they eat too much!

Yes, we are still left with the question - why is it in these times that so many people tend to overeat? That would be a whole other discussion. But as much as we might feel compassion for obese people, what merit is there to obscuring the likely causal nature between overeating and obesity?

Now, if we were to firmly establish this central causal factor, would that give the rightto police our eating habits as described? This is yet another manifestation of a difficult issue - the tension between the individual and the collective, between rights and responsibilities.

Should society be able to tell you that you have to wear a helmet when you ride a motorcycle? That you may not use a cellphone when you drive? That you shouldn’t smoke? Emotionally we recoil from being told what to do, but surely at times the collective has the DUTY to tell the (irrational, self-destructive) individual how to behave…?

Should society intervene if a mother is abusing her children? Most of proabably say “yes” (though that mother probably sees it differently. Should society be able to tell parents that they can’t smoke in their house because of the health of their children?

These are tough questions. We have rights, and yet we also have responsibilities. Today’s culture tends to forget the latter!