You remember her, right? The author of Against Autonomy: Justifiying Coercive Paternalism? Here she is again, making her case in the New York Times apropos the almost-universally-scoffed-at ban on 64-ounce “sodas” (sorry, the term is still a little foreign to me). I continue to be astounded by her serene confidence that social science and government–armed social scientists, in short–will lead us to a much better world, in which our capacity to harm ourselves is extremely limited.
But has it not occurred to her and those of similar mind that the same logic could be used to proscribe a great deal of sexual behavior which is clearly harmful not only to the individuals involved but to society at large? That’s hard to imagine, but perhaps she has an answer to that in her book, which I certainly don’t propose to read. “What a staggering copout,” says James Taranto in the Wall Street Journal, and I agree.
By the way, just for the record I find the idea of a 64-ounce cup of some extremely sweet drink both absurd and a bit sickening. I remember when the 16-ounce RC was introduced and people thought it was excessive. Which it was.
Light On Dark Water 
Leave a reply to Rob G Cancel reply