Foolish Freedom of the Press

The New York Times, the once proud "paper of record," has fallen far from its lofty position atop the news media pyramid. It has made some ridiculous claims in recent years but perhaps the most ludicrous was in last Sunday's paper. The article was a review of a book on economics that suggested that people who resisted promiscuous sex were really causing AIDS.

Here is their blurb:

"It's true: AIDS is nature's awful retribution for our tolerance of immoderate and socially irresponsible sexual behavior. The epidemic is the price of our permissive attitudes toward monogamy, chastity, and other forms of extreme sexual conservatism. You've read elsewhere about the sin of promiscuity. Let me tell you about the sin of self-restraint.

Consider Martin, a charming and generally prudent young man with a limited sexual history, who has been gently flirting with his coworker Joan. As last week's office party approached, both Joan and Martin silently and separately entertained the prospect that they just might be going home together. Unfortunately, Fate, through its agents at the Centers for Disease Control, intervened. The morning of the party, Martin happened to notice one of those CDC-sponsored subway ads touting the virtues of abstinence. Chastened, he decided to stay home. In Martin's absence, Joan hooked up with the equally charming but considerably less prudent Maxwell - and Joan got AIDS.

When the cautious Martin withdraws from the mating game, he makes it easier for the reckless Maxwell to prey on the hapless Joan. If those subway ads are more effective against Martin than against Maxwell, they are a threat to Joan's safety. This is especially so when they displace Calvin Klein ads, which might have put Martin in a more socially beneficent mood."

The author, Mr. Landsburg, says: "If multiple partnerships save lives, then monogamy can be deadly. Martin's chastity is a form of pollution -- chastity pollutes the sexual environment by reducing the fraction of relatively safe partners in the dating pool. Factory owners pollute too much because they have to breathe only a fraction of their own pollution; Martin stays home alone too much because he bears only a fraction of the consequences."

I love it. Now I can say that the reason I have flunked my diet is because so many others are failing to eat all the food and leave just enough for me to survive. All those skinny, self controlled folks have led me to be fat against my will.