Over at the Agitator, Ryan Grim is taking a really interesting look at the early temperance movement. Grim points out one of the most dangerous aspects of these seemingly-pious movements:

The movement against insobriety has risen and fallen at different points in the history of this nation founded on high idealism. But whenever the American campaign against drunkenness has gathered strength, whether in the 1830s, the 1870s, or the 1980s, the call for temperance has evolved into a demand for full abstinence—zero tolerance, in today’s terms.

Luckily most Americans still believe an individual can make rational decisions and risk-reward calculation in their daily lives.