« Carolina Six. New Jersey Zero. Brodeur's Our B*tch. Cam Ward's Our Hero. | Main | For Once. »
May 7, 2006
In Real Life, Very Few People Are Turned On When Strangers Grope Them.
To be sure, this is one of Eugene's more curious postings.
UPDATE: Eugene has revised his views on the issue, saying that he overstated the extent to which getting groped turns on the gropee, and understated the extent to which it turns on the groper. The thread jumps the shark, however, when a commenter tries to advance the discussion by quoting ... Ayn Rand.
Posted by Eric at May 7, 2006 9:18 AM
Comments
There's been a whole series of curious posts on the Volokh Conspiracy on public sex and nudity which shows what happens when people intellectualize moral issues. The first comment by Ilya Somin answers Eugene's post succinctly.
The involuntary arousal aspect would come up with an attractive strange woman who rubs her body against mine, but if she reached into my pants I'd jump three feet straight up and possibly knock myself out on the ceiling.
Posted by: Syd at May 7, 2006 12:52 PM
Have you noticed that the Volokh Conspiracy has noone to the Left of Eugene now that Orin Kerr is in the process of decamping. It makes it surprisingly unpleasant to read and his occasional idiocies less forgiveable. I think it says something that he has allowed his platform to drift so far that it can now be classified as borderline wingnuttery.
ELM: Yes, I'd noticed. And incidentally, I don't see Orin Kerr's departure as entirely unrelated to the drift of the larger project.
Posted by: elliottg at May 7, 2006 3:36 PM
Oy! And what's Dale Carpenter? Chopped Liver?
ELM: True; I'd forgotten about Dale Carpenter.
Posted by: Jacob at May 7, 2006 4:37 PM
That post by Volokh was staying within the movement I call "intellectual stupid-ism."
It reflected how totally divorced from the street they are. (At least Eric Lehigh Muller had a job involving people for several years before leaving for the academy. Those guys -- Volokh and Somin -- I'm betting their closest connection to the street is crossing it on the way to Starbucks.)
I practice employment and criminal law.
In the workplace, men groping women does not involuntarily "get them off" -- as Volokh
seems to believe.
I would say it involuntarily "sets them off."
What Volokh and Somin are thinking is some stupidly intellectualized view of their own reality. At bottom, it must have some connection to protecting large corporations from liability.
What's so sad is people who think as they do run our country.
They advocate torture.
They advocate spying on Americans.
They advocate tax credits for oil companies.
They advocate suppressing research into alternative fuels -- one of Reagan's first acts as President in 1981, i.e., undoing Carter's efforts to get us off Mid-east oil.
They advocate prohibiting Medicare from negotiating discounts for seniors' prescription drugs.
They advocate preemption of state tort laws that protect regular folks in favor of large coroporations.
They are, as I started, proponents of "intellectual stupid-ism."
It scary to say but these are the folks at the turn of the last century who were breathlessly arguing Herbert Spencer's social statics.
Posted by: devoted southerner at May 7, 2006 5:46 PM