Monday, February 18, 2002

Condom policy

Glenn Reynolds doesn't get it about conservatives and condoms. I won't claim to be a conservative or to speak for anyone but myself. But let me take a shot at an explanation.

I believe that to maintain a stable society, our rules should be such that we reward approved behavior, or as a minimum don't penalize it. Likewise irresponsible behavior should not be accepted passively or winked at.

Pushing condoms violates both rules. We accept the irresponsible sexual behavior as a given, and offer a troublesome failure-prone method as a solution to demonstrably irresponsible people. And we offer further temptation to those who behave via a false sense of security.

We all owe our fellows a minimum standard of responsible behavior. Among these are "support your own kids" and "don't spread disease".

A lot of us are tired of perpetually bending the system to accommodate those who don't play by the rules. And when this rule bending can work to the detriment of those practicing approved behavior, it's especially maddening. You would have us endanger those who are doing right in hopes of convincing those who have proven themselves irresponsible to behave responsibly under especially challenging circumstances. I think that's a lousy deal.

Then comes the twist of the knife. There are plenty of rich foundations out there who lavish money on liberal politicians. Why can't they pay for their own message? No, they have to rope in the feds, so we all have to pay.

We're everlastingly hearing bitching about those bogeymen on the "religious Right". If they're so bad, then it makes sense not to provoke them, right? Why would anybody expect them to be pleased when we spread a message they don't approve of, then make them pay for it to boot?

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