A Nation of Meddlers.

This article focuses on the social aspects of meddling. While a certain amount of meddling seems endemic to human association, the historical record indicates that in former times meddling was perpetrated almost exclusively in terms of widely agreed upon precepts of public morality and civic duty. Such moral and civic meddling, while often resented, was at least expected and was confined primarily to legitimate authorities and institutions. Other persons who meddled, such as gossips, snoops, and assorted amateur practitioners of the meddling trade, have always been high on the list of public nuisances. Much meddling appears to be an altruistic service being supplied by helpful benefactors. At its barest minimum, meddling means to mix, mingle, combine, blend, or intersperse. This all sounds fairly neutral, but in actual historical use, meddling has customarily carried with it strongly adverse sentiment, suggesting the unwelcome and usually annoying attention of another to one's affair. During a time when people spoke more plainly, there were countless words that suggested meddling. Workers and bureaucrats in the helping professions are among the more visible representatives of meddling by euphemism. There are also a growing number of meddlers, professional and otherwise, who engage in education and public awareness programs. An understanding of the circumstances in which people meddle tells us much about this pestilence abroad in the land. Unlike more noble attempts, such as apologies and excuses, to mediate disrupted relationships, meddling is rarely a response to those who have somehow directly interrupted or interfered with the meddler's own behavior. Moreover, meddling often arises when the meddlee's behavior is construed by the meddler to be of evil or unsavory portent.