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From: russ@wpg.UUCP (Russell Lawrence)
Newsgroups: comp.edu,sci.philosophy.tech
Subject: Re: Blooms `Closing of the American Mind'
Keywords: morality family enviroment
Message-ID: <882@wpg.UUCP>
Date: 1 Sep 88 19:50:52 GMT
References: <2909@bath63.ux63.bath.ac.uk> <4101@pdn.UUCP> <558@vim.ARPA> <2970@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu>
Organization: WP Group, POB 306, Metairie, LA 70004
Lines: 19

In article <2970@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu>, matloff@iris.ucdavis.edu (Norm Matloff) writes:

> ...I disagree with your assertion that it is impossible to "legislate 
> morality." There are some cases where it has apparently worked.  For 
> example, sociologists have done studies which have found that civil 
> rights legislation of the 60's did in fact change people's attitudes in 
> the South.  

Big difference.  Civil rights legislation destroyed legal barriers 
(prohibitions) that inhibited *access* between blacks and whites, thus 
giving everybody a chance to learn.  By contrast, prohibitions have the 
opposite intent and seek to make forbidden practices *inaccessible*.  
Prohibitions appeal to a certain kind of mentality, but they don't 
really make much sense if one believes that progress depends on 
education and a broad mind.  

-- 
Russell Lawrence, WP Group, New Orleans (504) 456-0001
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