Who among us does not want a better world? That's the easy question. Things become more complicated when the community tries to decide how to achieve that good life. For some, the decision rests on controlling the "evils" around us. The control takes many forms. OTR is especially fond of H.L. Mencken's assessment of the Puritan effort at achieving a religious utopia. He described it as a society based on "the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, was happy." Well, one man's trash is another man's pleasure. That brings us to a review of Christopher Snowden's new book, The Art of Suppression: Pleasure, Panic and Prohibition Since 1800. Here's a link to the review via Instapundit. It has been updated to include a post about Mayor Michael Bloomberg's new crusade against liquor stores in New York City.
Bloomberg's effort gives us an opportunity to recommend Prohibition, the superb new (2011) three-part documentary by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick. This production has all the magic we've come to expect from the Burns organization and some surprises most of us never heard in history class - if there ever was a history class.
 |
| Mencken (r) celebrates the end of Prohibition |
This post would not be complete without a vision of OTR's moral crusade utopia. Now that he's on the other side of 65 years, only two vices drive him to disgust. First is the the use of tobacco in public. It is the equivalent of experiencing copious cubic feet of flatulence at your favorite restaurant. The passer doesn't mind because he enjoys smelling his own essence. And second is the mobile subwoofer, a device almost always preferred by narcissists who have no taste in music. Whenever he encounters the mobile subwoofer, OTR wishes to summon the "Graboids" and "Shai-Hulud" to terminate the operator. Such extreme prejudice, on the other hand, is a poor moral choice for such vices. OTR should be content to let nature take its course, summoning the gas passer to an early demise and the "boom-boom" narcissist to quick and early deafness.
Photo: H.L. Mencken Collection, Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore
No comments:
Post a Comment