Kinsley: What's the next worst thing?
What injustice do we accept today that will seem outrageous in 20 years?
July 26, 2012
"Today's prohibitionists and abolitionists are already working on some issue that will look completely different to most of us two decades from now than it does today. What is it? Appiah has four nominees:
Prisons. We incarcerate more of our population than any country in the world. Jokes about prison rape are staples of American comedy. In 20 years, we may look back in amazement that people would think this was funny.
Industrial farming. The long-standing discussion of the conditions under which animals are grown for food is turning into a discussion of the morality of using other animals for food at all.
The elderly. Baby boomers already feel guilty about how their parents spend their last years. Just wait until it's the boomers' own turn.
Greenery. Environmental degradation is a debt to our children that parallels the debt to our parents.
My own favorite nominee will win me no friends: high school football. In 20 years I think it may seem incredible that loving parents used to send their kids out to bang their heads against each other in the certain knowledge that this was damaging their still-growing brains. "Certain knowledge" may overstate the case now. But this smells just like smoking, about which the evidence dribbled in until it was undeniable. Let me add (for my own self-protection): I hope I'm wrong."
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