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Eating sugary food, drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes are
legal activities. But politicians still use the law to discourage
them. They raise their price, prohibit or limit their
advertisement, restrict where they can be sold and consumed, and
sometimes ban them outright. These politicians thereby violate John
Stuart Mill's famous principle that people should be free to do
whatever they like, provided they harm no one but themselves. Why?
What can justify these paternalistic policies? Killjoys reviews the
full range of justifications that have been offered: from the idea
that people are too irrational to make sensible decisions to the
idea that they are effectively compelled by advertising to harm
themselves. The author, Christopher Snowdon, exposes the logical or
factual errors that undermine each purported justification. He thus
provides a comprehensive critique of the health paternalism that
has been adopted by governments around the world.
The subject of advertising is often treated with indifference by
economists and disdain by the public. Indeed, from time-to-time,
there have been calls to ban advertising. Though there has been no
general ban, advertising has been prohibited in some sectors and
further regulation in this field is continually being considered.
Given the importance of advertising in political discussion and the
lack of evidence regarding its role and effectiveness, Ralph Harris
and Arthur Seldon published Advertising in a Free Society in the
late 1950s. This seminal work provided a dispassionate and serious
analysis of the subject. It concluded that advertising played a
positive role in communicating information and building brand
loyalty. Interestingly, some of the most dishonest forms of
promotion came from politicians. Christopher Snowdon has skillfully
abridged Harris and Seldon's work whilst adding important modern
insights. Perhaps the most important of these is his critique of
the claim that advertising coerces people into acting against their
best interests. He also finds that the modern economic literature
largely supports Harris and Seldon's view that advertising
facilitates competition and lowers prices. This new study is an
important work for all interested in public policy as well as for
those studying marketing in business schools or as part of a
professional qualification.
The prohibition of alcohol in the USA was a notorious fiasco.
The War on Drugs has been a deadly failure.
Bans on alternative nicotine products keep people smoking
cigarettes.
Attempts to suppress legal highs result in more drugs hitting the
market.
Prohibition doesn't work but the world is filled with
prohibitionists. Why?
Christopher Snowdon's new history of prohibitions is a panoramic
study of how bans begin, who instigates them and why they fail. It
is a story of moral panics, vested interests and popular hysteria,
driven by people who believe that utopia is only ever one ban away.
Includes: The campaign for alcohol prohibition in the USA
The worldwide ban on opium and the dawn of the War on Drugs
The curious case of the European Union's ban on oral tobacco (snus)
The 1920s crusade to suppress drinking worldwide
The prohibition of Ecstasy and the rise of designer drugs
The enduring appeal of prohibitionist policies today
"The new Ken Burns and Lynn Novick documentary Prohibition is a
five-and-a-half-hour missed opportunity to demonstrate why bans on
substances are doomed from the start. Fortunately, for those who
want to understand the irresistible lure of all types of
prohibitions, there is Christopher Snowdon s The Art of
Suppression: Pleasure, Panic and Prohibition Since 1800. Although
Snowdon s comprehensive history will never reach as many people as
the PBS series, The Art of Suppression makes the case that Burns
seems to go out of his way to avoid: that prohibition of products
that people desire, whether alcohol a century ago or Ecstasy today,
is bound to fail miserably.
It is easy now, as Ken Burns has masterfully done, to ridicule the
prohibition of alcohol. But Snowdon does the heavy lifting of
catching modern-day Carrie Nations in the act. Despite a long
history of failure, the public always seems ready to enlist in
prohibitionist campaigns, perhaps believing, as Snowdon puts it,
that utopia is only ever one ban away. - Jeff Stier, Reason
magazine
"In masterfully charting the history of the prohibitionists war on
pleasurable substances, in highlighting their endless failures to
impose restrictions on the public, in exposing their dodgy use of
statistics and evidence bases to disguise moral arguments, and in
emphasising the ability of us as individuals to exercise our
capacity for self-restraint and personal responsibility, Snowdon
does all of us determined to challenge the contemporary
prohibitionist movement a great service." - Patrick Hayes, Spiked
When the law cuts off one avenue of pleasure, new sources are
invariably found, as Snowdon puts it. If there is any great demand
for a certain product, be it food, drink, drugs or sex, then the
risks of purveying it are met by colossal rewards. The Art of
Suppression is full of great facts its description of
opium-addicted Britain before the wars is particularly memorable.
But its real impact is its pithy denunciation of the prohibitionist
cause. It ends with a modest proposal for a more practical and
tolerant approach to drugs of all kinds. In his modesty Snowdon
does not hold much hope for implementation. But this book must make
that goal more likely." - Tom Miers, author of Democracy and the
Fall of the West
Spain, 1493 - Europe's first smoker imprisioned by the Inquisition
England, 1604 - Massive tax rise on tobacco in a bid to discourage
smoking Canada, 1676 - Smoking is banned in the street United
States, 1899 - Anti-smoking campaigners call for the eradication of
tobacco Germany, 1944 - Smoking banned on public transport to
protect workers from secondhand smoke In this revealing and
meticulously researched account of an untold story, Christopher
Snowdon traces the fortunes of those who have tried to stamp out
tobacco through the ages. Velvet Glove, Iron Fist takes the reader
on a journey from 15th century Cuba to 21st century California, via
Revolutionary France, Victorian Britain, Prohibition Era America
and Nazi Germany. Along the way, the author finds uncanny parallels
between today's anti-smoking activists and those of the past.
Today, as the same tactics begin to be used against those who enjoy
alcohol, chocolate, fast food, gambling and perfume, Velvet Glove,
Iron Fist provides a timely reminder that once politicians start
regulating private behaviour, they find it very hard to quit.
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