Jonah Goldberg argues that the main problem with Wendy Shalit's prescription for a return to modesty is that it ignores the changed historical context. Modesty flourished in a historical context far different from the modern context, in which modesty, he seems to think, cannot exist. We can't go back to calling cards because we have the telephone now. And birth control and other technological inventions change the whole context in which we live our lives and make our sexual decisions.
But does the changed historical context really mean that we can't go back to modesty? The historical context obviously influences human behavior but does not determine it (perhaps Goldberg underestimates the role of ideas in what human beings do). I see no reason why we can't implement Shalit's prescription in a way that is sensitive to the historical context.
Greg Feirman
San Diego, CA
Jonah Goldberg replies: I have no gripe with Greg Feirman's comments. If I was unclear, let me say it now: I'm pro-modesty. Again, if Shalit were arguing for "neo" Victorianism she might have won me over.
Which brings us to Morgan Knull, who says my critique runs counter to Shalit's goal. So what? If she'd written a cookbook on cake baking and I said her recipes didn't work, would I be against cake? I can applaud her goals, and some of her insights, without rubber-stamping her arguments.
Don't blame me for confusion; go to the source. Simultaneously embracing notions of modesty--or sexuality--from several different centuries causes confusion. Ms. Shalit rejects today's "contractarian" regime. Hey, me too. But does she want to replace it with a system from the 19th century or the 15th? I've read the book and have no idea; yeah, maybe I will when the audiotape comes out.
Lastly, let me dispel the mystery of my curious silence about fellow conservatives who've abetted the destruction of romance. They seem like straw men to me. But if these conservative cads exist, they should be thrashed about the head and neck with a wet fish.
Hot Coffee, Bad Example?
In his article bemoaning the effects of local actions far beyond a given state's borders ("Firing Squad," May), Contributing Editor Walter Olson uses the famous McDonald's coffee case as an example. He complains that now he cannot get a cup of too hot coffee on a frigid morning in New England, apparently overlooking the fact that in a free society he is welcome to pour it, boiling hot, into a thermos from which he can for hours scald his mouth. Olson's spin on the McDonald's coffee case is inappropriate because:
1) The plaintiff suffered third-degree burns despite receiving assistance from her companion immediately after spilling.
2) McDonald's had earlier received numerous complaints that its coffee was served too hot. The company decided not to act due to the high cost.
3) The jury settled on the amount to award the plaintiff, punishing McDonald's for its penurious attitude toward the safety of its customers, by requiring that it pay damages equal to just one day's income from the sale of its coffee nationwide.
I am not aware of anything in the court case that requires McDonald's to reduce the temperature of its coffee nationwide. The company apparently decided that it is now cost-effective to do so. Good thinking. I can't say the same for Olson.
J. Citti
Revere, MA
jer100@compuserve.com
Walter Olson replies: J. Citti does not dispute the point for which I cited the hot coffee case: If one New Mexico jury can compel McDonald's to alter its nationwide course of conduct even though many juries elsewhere would have decided the same case in favor of the company, then the coffee temperature "policy" we get will represent neither local option nor a national regime geared to the preferences of the median jury, but instead a national regime geared to the preferences of whichever local juries the plaintiff's lawyers can find that are most favorable to their cause. (As I pointed out, litigation against gun makers is going to follow the same model, which may allow unrepresentative local juries to impose, in effect, nationwide gun control.)
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