ABSTRACT
This chapter examines in more detail some of the origins and sources of meddling in contemporary society. It develops some illustrative historical themes, showing how meddling was viewed in previous eras in American history in order to suggest the development of the meddling impulse. The chapter deals specifically with the colonial period, when the founding fathers put into place a constitution that was predicated on anti-meddling sentiments. It discusses the Jacksonian era, when health and religious fundamentalists flourished and the beginnings of formal therapeutic meddling could be seen. Hiding oneself from the meddling intrusions of the agents of the therapeutic state was seen as having something to conceal. The chapter considers the prohibitionist era, when meddling in the name of the good society, righteousness, and decency resulted in two decades of lawlessness and violence. It concludes with the modern and postmodern eras, which in many respects harken back to previous meddling themes and failed experiments.
