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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 01/06/2010 : 05:06:12
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I stumbled across this little article the other day. It nicely details the Prohibition Era and how it came about.
On Dec. 5, 1933, Americans liberated themselves from a legal nightmare called Prohibition by repealing the 18th Amendment to the Constitution. Today most people think Prohibition was fueled by puritanical Protestants who believed drinking alcohol was a sin. But the vocal minority who made Prohibition law believed they were marching in the footsteps of the abolitionists who sponsored a civil war to end another moral evil—slavery.
At least as important was the belief that Prohibition would produce health and wealth. Yale economist Irving Fisher, the best-known economist in the nation in the early 20th century, predicted that a ban on alcohol would guarantee a 20% rise in industrial productivity. He cited "scientific" tests that proved alcohol diminished a worker's efficiency by as much as 30%.
Fisher and many other anti-alcohol proponents were fervent believers in eugenics, the science that preached humans could and should control the evolution of the race. His book, "How to Live: Rules for Healthful Living Based on Modern Science," was a best seller. Removing alcohol from the national diet was central to many eugenicists' belief that an invigorated America would eventually create a race of supermen and women.
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All crusaders are fools, as we have seen in the current Teabagger Movement, the anti-gay mega-churchs and Al Qaeda. And, as we've seen from those same traveling lunatic asylums, we never seem to learn the lesson of our predecessors. History is rife with examples.
Anyhow, here is how it all went down, to the benefit only of organized crime, disorganized moonshiners, Canadian bootleggers and a few others clever enough to take temporary advantage of nonsense, ever notably; politicians.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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bngbuck
SFN Addict
USA
2437 Posts |
Posted - 01/06/2010 : 11:15:04 [Permalink]
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Filthy......
| For the next 13 years, Prohibition corrupted and tormented Americans from coast to coast. A disrespect, even contempt for law and due process infected the American psyche. Rather than discouraging liquor consumption, Prohibition increased it. Taking a drink became a sign of defiance against the arrogant minority who had deprived people of their "right" to enjoy themselves. The 1920s roared with reckless amorality in all directions, including Wall Street. When everything came crashing down in 1929 and the long gray years of the Great Depression began, second thoughts were the order of the day. Large numbers of people pointed to Prohibition as one of the chief reasons for the disaster. |
There is a frightening parallel in the ascendency of Christian fundamentalism within the Republican party and it's subsequent effect within the Congress of the United States. The fanaticism of a few begins to infect the legislative progress and already we see the intrusion of religious insanity into the deliberations of our lawmakers.
One can only hope that more Republicans in Congress after the 2010 elections does not lead to increasing theocracy contaminating our already suffering democracy! |
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13477 Posts |
Posted - 01/06/2010 : 11:16:12 [Permalink]
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filthy:
Anyhow, here is how it all went down, to the benefit only of organized crime, disorganized moonshiners, Canadian bootleggers and a few others clever enough to take temporary advantage of nonsense, ever notably; politicians. |
And yet we are still enduring the stupid and unwinnable war on drugs. |
Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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Prohibition: A brief history of stupidity
