Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 20, 1986)
Page 2/The Battalion/Wednesday, August 20,1906 The fallacy of consent Mika Foarcto This summer a ' number of events have taken place that have caused great division in our country as well as at Texas AJrM. Among the most controversial were the Meese Commission's Report on Pornog raphy. the Supreme Court's upholding of the (.Georgia sodomy law and the crack-down on the use and production ot illegal drugs. Whereas most conserva tives applauded these actions, many so- called “enlightened" individuals screamed and hollered that George Or well’s prophecy — that the government will regulate what goes on between con senting people — was coming true. Actions like these just caused the blood of the ACLU and the People for the American Way to boil because they seem to think that "whatever goes on be tween people is nobody's business." Now picture if vou would that last statement on the wall of a police vice squad's room. Ludicrous? Read on. W’hen vou quiz average liberals on the issue of consent, they seem to agree with the ACLU in principle, but they also have a number of stipulations on who can consent and under what circum stances. For instance, liberals pretty well agree that children are unable to con sent responsibly. Thai is why they are. at legist, against child pornography and pe dophilia. I hank (.aid for that, but when individuals become adults, then they should, with impunity, be able to make their ow n moral chokes. Sounds reasonable, but I am re minded that our prisons are filled with adults who “consented" to do heinous • crimes, so age doesn't have much to do with it. It is not as though there is a mar velous metamorphosis in our charac ters as we reach eighteen years of age. “Society," they go on to argue, “no longet considers homosexuality as de viant.** thereby justifying consenting men or women engaging in immoral acts. I his is a popular view, but if society detri wnm , «i w4wt is right and wrong. 1 am remimiedL that not !>0 years ago. German sdirWfY decided that Jews were a nuisance and therefore expendable. Now whether tacitly or outright, there is no doubt that they consented to the death of more than six million people. So muc h for majority rules. “Well as kmg as they are not hutting anybody, and it’s in the privacy of their own homes it's Ok." This might be ac ceptable if it were the case. Unfortu nately, it rarely , if ever, is the case that what people do in private doesn't spill over and affect the public, l^cw enforce ment offkials have known for a long time that even though rapists read their pornography m the privacy of their own homes, it tends to influence their publk behavior. The same holds true for people who use prostitutes, drugs or engage in a va riety of other illegal activities. Inva riably, society always is burdened in one way or another by those who engage in ‘ such activities The venereal disease and AIDS scare are classic examples of pri vate affairs rapidly becoming danger ously public affairs. Many corporations also are cracking down on employees who use illegal drugs whether in the workplace or at home because it adver sely regulates their performance at work. “If people consent to destroy them selves. that is their own business, not vours, and not the government’s." This is also a popular view, but a departure from the traditional view. There always have been laws against suicide and other self-harm measures because, at one time, we were a people who really held to the sanctity of life. Again, though, it is often the case that people do what is wrong at the expense of others. For example, do you not find it ironic that the homosexual community is out raged at the government's attempt to regulate their activities, but it turns right around and demands that the gov ernment put up millions of dollars for AIDS research? How funny that we don’t want the government to tell us about our sexual habits, but then we ex pect them to support our illegitimate children to the tune of 70 billion dollars — to say nothing about the people who have the nerve to ask the government to f und their abortions! “But if people consent ....** Consent is not the issue. If I wanted to commit suicide but was too chicken to pull the tnggei. and I convinced a f riend to blow my brains out. he still would be guilty of murder, even though we both con sented to the act. The rightness or w rongness of the act in questkrn is the is sue, not whether we consented to do it. So what role does government play? More than three hundred years ago. John Locke wrote in his book Lex Rex, that ~7kr sovereign or government is above lb? laws of God. With this prem ise the cokmists began a revolution and built a nation that we call the United States of America. They drew up a con stitution that guaranteed individuals the rights afforded them by God with the understanding that for society to sur vive and function well individually and collectively, we would all have to abide reasonably by the l^w of God. The Bible tells us that "righteousness exalts a na tion. but sin is a disgrace to any people " Everybody wants a better society, but will we collectively and individually con sent to uphold what is right? Mike Fomrde is a senior education ma jor and the president of the AicM chap ter of Americans for Biblical Govern ment. •->1 : ? yiFfNAn % % Just don't* tw/nk Thavp-rue- iNT^rer/te toirn ANVours boMesrtc squaxblfs. ° Using preventive scare tactics may encourage drug 'crisis' When my friends and I were in the eighth grade, the most in fluential person m our lives was our school softball coach. He was a genial man. gifted in dealing with — boys, and we lis- Rlchord tened intently to Coh#n what he had to say. One dav he told us about drugs, specifically marijuana. He said that if we smoked it just once we would be hooked for life. The coach was misinformed. W’hen I got to college I met people w ho smoked marijuana and did not become ad dicted And of those people, none that 1 knew later turned to heroin. Many in my generation therefore concluded that everything that they had been told about drugs was wrong. Like the coach. we too were misinformed. The consequences were tragic Not only did some of that generatkin turn to cocaine, thinking that its dangers, like those of marijuana, were vastly exagger ated. but they became role models for younger kids. Drugs were extolled in song and incorporated into the anti-es tablishment revolt triggered by the Viet nam War. Now some of those erstwhile skeptics are dead or wrecked and the model thev set for others was. to be charitable, crim inal They were as dumb about drugs as the generation that preceded them. But that pattern is being repeated Along with the current pank about a “drug crisis," has come the revival of old canards.Distinctions are not being made Some anti-drug activists talk aboutmarijuana, cocaine and heroin (and even alcohol and tobacco) as if they were one in they same — equally addk- tive, equally dangerous. When it comes to cocaine, death by overdose is cited as if it is common occurence when such ex perts as Dr. Norman Zinberg of Har vard say it is not. Cocaine users appar ently know that. Not two weeks after coke killed Maryland University basket ball star l^n Bias. Cleveland Browns running back Don Rogers died a similar death. Clearly, Rogers — like mam co caine users — thought Bias' death was a fluke. Now the Reagan administration and House Democrats, both politkally op portunistic, are gearing up for a new campaign against drugs Whatever the administration does — and Nancy Rea gan's efforts already have been valuable — it w ill be counterproductive if the old scare taetks are revived. Some of what already is being said falls into that cat egory — the equating, say, of marijuana with cocaine or arguing that it leads, as day follows night, to heroin addiction. Marijuana is bad enough as it is. No ex aggerations are necessary. The danger is that once again kids might think they have been lied to. A kid who is told that marijuana is both the equivalent of and an inevitable step ping-stone to heroin, might just learn that it is not. And if he has been lied to about marijuana, then he might con- ' elude that he has been lied to about other drugs. If he finds out that mari juana usuallv is not addktive (for some, apparently it is), might he not conclude the same thing about cocaine (it almost always is)? And if lots of people are tak ing coke and not dying, is it wise to tell kids that death is a certain consequence of usage? The ordinary consequences are horrible enough American society has often resorted to wholesale remedies in dealing with the harmful pursuit of pleasure. Once, we coped with alcohol abuse by prohib iting that drug completely. It didn’t work and so reality became the mother of sophistkation. We distinguish be tween a single beer and a pint of gin. al though we recognize that some people start with one and wind up with the other. Still, most of us don't. The analogy between alcohol and ille gal drugs is an inexact one since the rec reational use of wine will not necessarily have the same awful Consequences that the recreational use of cocaine almost al ways has. But the point is that we recog nize gradations of danger and don’t tell kids something they wul discover is false — that a glass of wine (marijuana) at dinner surely will lead to a pint of gin (heroin) for breakfast One generation learned by experi ence that pushers are helped by well- meaning adults peddling scare stories. The dangers of drugs are real enough and need no embellishment But if the new anti-drug campaign, as welcome as it is, falls into the hands of opportunistic politicians, the lessons of a generation that learned the hard way about drugs will be lost. That generation, once mindlessly infatuated with drugs, has much to answer for. At the least, its an swers should be truthful. Copyright IMS. Wmshirngtoo host Writsn Group Suspending “weed rights’ greater danger than smoke f m wji Comes now the National! Academy of Sciences with a report that reminds us that evers now and then scientists tend to forget that human beings aren't squeaks w heels or guinea pigs What the learned aiaaems recom mends is that cigarette smok ing be forbidden in air planes 1 wish that everyone in the whole world (my wife in- | eluded) would stop smoking. Perhaps soraedav thev will, however unlikely this is. But in the mean time we need to remind ourselves of what smoking is. and what smoking does for, as well as to. some people 1 here are an estimated 37 million ex-ciga rette smokers in America, but. strange to sav, many of them appear not to remember how it was in the good-bad old davs. I kicked the habit at age 26. but even so 1 re member what smoking did to me. In the Army, William F Bucklay Jr The Battalion (USPSM5 SM) Mrmbr» ot Prr»* XtMKtaiton S<>u<h«.r*< Jutirnabsm C.omtermcr The Battalion Editorial Board (athie Anderson Ldntn loren Steffi. Opmutn Fsgr tdkor Frank Smith, ( it* Eaitui Sue Krenrk. .News Editor ken Sun. Sports Editor Editorial Polici uImi a 4 nu»-pr«fN trS-wfipartmt nr* yprt aprramf *• • wtmrm le*m CI.M 4.W Sr, aw-C -<0, p flaw a • rstnr^nrtl m 1 hr Smirhiiw -,/r rfcnar a! thr IQmrml Somr4 m 4art <*• mu> imerwih irurnrm thr nfmmttmt of Inm C*V wn Im ,a> m thr Batutl >«/UrgrtK, rOmmttt snrf phutagt afth* • iMart •> mttm ike tffdjHtt foe Mud hr Orpmnmtrnt ut ftmrna a»ii<ar tmutm ( nS ruisira wmttokhrm, 1 raat 4* W ( mnrrmt Ct Hum VX 77*43 • tm I hr S«ualHa. tf* Srrd Mr- Katro 1X77*43 five seconds after reveille, a cigarette was in my mouth. At college during Lent I gave up smoking until sundown. I would find myself, notwithstand ing an overbearing academic and extracurricular schedule, two or three times a week at a movie house at about 4 p.m. Why? Because my genera tion had been trained not to smoke at movies: It was illegal to do so, and long vears of habit quieted the itch in the lung while Greta Garbo or Hum phrey Bogart distracted us from our pain But when the movie was over — the sun was down, and I could resume smoking. The purpose of this autobiographical exercise is to remind our scientists, so many of them removed from the traffic of human experience, that one of the reasons we so much deplore cigarette smoking is that it is an addition. The doctors tell us that if smokers could be persuaded to limit themselves to 10 cigarettes per dav, the human system could ab sorb the poison. Unhappily, even knowing this to be the case, the overwhelming majority of our smokers exceed this limit by a factor of 100. 200. 300. 400 — 500 per cent, and more. It is one thing to deplore that thev should do so, quite another calmly to inform them that effective tne first day of next month they are to give up smoking on a seven-hour flight from New York to Anchorage. You simply cannot do that to people who are smokers, not without turn ing airplane travel into torture. When the news was given that the academy was going to make that recommendation, there were interviews taken on the streets, and many rejoiced. One woman said on television, “It’s about time?” But that is to express a distaste for smoking, which is perfectly legitimate One harbors a distaste for many things — some people don’t like dogs, cats, obesity, bad grammar, film violence, film non-vio lence But the American protocol permits us to be our potty little selves. On what reasoning do the scientists rely? Well, they tell you, air circulation inside an airplane isn't sufficient to contain the smoke within the narrow area of the smoker, and therefore some of it drifts out to annoy passengers, and to damage, poten cy rc MAfteVUIS V' V. A 1 -cfi r, % 7/tr f£> ” KMPLY OBSERVE NO-SMOKIN6 ABCARPMEAL SERV1 OF TOFU-BURGER OR BEAN SmxjT ‘ MEANWHILi WORKOUT' SIT BACK ANP ENJOY OUR ANP RICUARD SIMMONS' FITN >« MEAL SERVICE. WITH YOUR SALAP. WILL B£&)N SHORTLY UR FEATURE FILMS 'THE JANE CHOICE INE'«." JANE F0NPA tially, flight personnel. The first problem is rather ilv ijm pei easily coped with: Those with high allergy to smoke can recommend seats far removed from the smokers’ section. As for the flight attendants, the study by the academy is not likely to document a noxious impact on the health of passengers by passing through an area in which people are smok ing 15 davs per month, for three four hours. It is likely that the same people expose themselves to the same concentration of smoke at restaurants, playing bridge or poker with their friends, or in deed inhaling their spouses' smoke or, for that matter, smoking themselves. It is when the third reason for forbidding smok ing is cited that skepticism gives way to cynicism. That reason is to diminish the danger of fire on board an airplane. The statistics are not handy, but if the honorable scientists can come up with a sin gle fatality caused by someone having set a tobacco fire to a (ommercigl airliner, I hope they will fea ture this in their report Me, 1 would rather once in a lifetime (in a far advanced lifetime — of perpetual flying, I have yet to see a fire aboard a plane) be aboard a plane dur ing a little shoot-out with a cigarette-caused fire in the comer of a cushion than be on every flight with 50 or 100 haunted souls choking for a snort of the weed and taking out their ill humor on friendly folk like thee and me. ^ • - U - f moo * r— i S ^ ^ o r _ < op » rigmi IFOO, LJmiverwtki n wbb 3Ynan air