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From: csdf@mit-vax.UUCP (Charles Forsythe)
Newsgroups: net.philosophy
Subject: Puritan Morality
Message-ID: <425@mit-vax.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 20-Jul-85 02:40:06 EDT
Article-I.D.: mit-vax.425
Posted: Sat Jul 20 02:40:06 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 21-Jul-85 22:03:06 EDT
References: <508@ttidcc.UUCP> <52700001@hpcnof.UUCP>
Reply-To: csdf@mit-vax.UUCP (Charles Forsythe)
Organization: MIT, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 42
Summary: 

In article <52700001@hpcnof.UUCP> dat@hpcnof.UUCP (dat) writes:
>	To move into a slightly different topic, continuing the above
>bit, does anyone else see a prevalence of the Puritan attitude
>in this country?  I can point to any number of public attitudes towards
>things that seem to spring from the original religious and moral beliefs
>of the founding fathers.  Even with the 'Melting Pot' amalgamation of 
>people that created the United States there still seems to be a continuing
>thread.  Comments?

Your article brings to mind a recent case:

MIT student 'A' harrassed MIT student 'B' who is homosexual (and damn
proud of it). Student 'B' went to the deans' office and complained. As a
result, student 'A' was forced to leave the dormitory in which 'A' and
'B' had both lived. Student 'B' was not entirely happy and asked that
student 'A' be completely kicked out (in his last term at MIT!). Student
'C' pointed out that had MIT tried this, Student 'A' could have sued
them for a lot of money. The main reason? Homosexuality is ILLEAGAL in
Massachusetts and therefore student 'B' was standing on shaky ground,
legally. Of course, this absurdity never happened but it sounds like the
sort of thing that could.

More of MIT: Massachusetts just raised the drink age to 21 and now only
about 23% of MIT students are legal. Despite the fact that the MIT
Campus Police have sole jurisdiction on campus, MIT has been going out
of it's way to enforce the drinking age. Nobody really knows why. This
seems to be vogue among colleges now -- following the drinking ages. I
recently saw a copy of "The Engineers' Song" who's chorus goes:
           We are we are we are we are
           We are the engineers
  	   We can we can we can we can
	   Demolish forty beers

Not any more. "Tank '85" team speed drinking contest at MIT used
non-alcholic beer. Sad.

-- 
Charles Forsythe
CSDF@MIT-VAX
"Don't get bogged down with details, just eat
     the stupid peice of paper."
        -Rev. Wang Zeep