The Giver - Lois Lowry

            A news report this morning quoted a doctor who suggested sugar should be regulated the same way as alcohol and tobacco.  He based this on the fact that over-consumption of sugar destroys a person's health and contributes to diseases like diabetes.
           Anyone who imagines creating a better world by eliminating risks, temptations and by taking control of random occurrences, should read Lois Lowry's - The Giver.  In Lowry's world everything runs smoothly from birth to death, because they have chosen "Sameness" over individuality and personal choice.  At the beginning of the book, readers appreciate the benefits the society provides each of it's members. A wise council chooses a young person's career and training is provided; the same goes for the formation of a family unit - men and women are matched for marriage, healthy children are born of anonymous mothers and are raised in nurseries until they are distributed to couples who have applied to raise a child.  No depression or pain (medications are readily available).
           The cost of "Sameness" is slowly revealed when the protagonist begins his training as the society's  keeper of memories.  Total control has robbed the population of their experience of being human, including the development of personal responsibility.  Choose to eat less sugar?  What a concept.