[CliffFletcher]

This is one of those cases where my personal experience differs so dramatically with the others posters in this thread that I wonder if we're living in the same city.

In my experience, the most hand-wringing, busybody demographic in society are university-educated, upper-middle-class women. The two schools our kids go to have quite different socio-economic intakes, and the more affluent and educated parents are far more restrictive of their kids and more demanding that the schools cater to their anxieties and neurosis over safety. The working class parents at my daughter's school are more hands-off and live-and-let-live.

Authoritarianism is not confined to the right. In fact, I'd say these days it's the left who are more eager to condemn, restrict, and legislate in favor of security over freedom. You won't find a more fussy, rules-obsessed group of people than the thousands of volvo-driving latte-sippers who take part in the Calgary Folk Festival every year. That's hardly a bunch of UCP supporters.