ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author examines how the "scare them straight" strategy of temperance contradicts much of what people know about drugs, fatty foods, cigarettes, teen pregnancy, multiple-partner sex, and other risks. Though purporting to be scientific, the power strategies of temperance actually de-contextualize and misstate risk by taking real-life events out of daily context. The author provides examples of how the universalistic judgments of "dry logic" de-contextualize behavior in order to magnify risk. "Dry logic" depends on a model of life that assumes no anxiety, boredom, worry, pain, sorrow, suffering, joy, or excitement. Although author chosen to focus on four issues—illicit drugs, cigarette smoking, teen pregnancy, and multiple-partner sex, he believes the same tactics are true of other presentations of risk such as warnings against high-fat diets, TV violence, and pornography. These tactics fall into the following categories: Blurring Boundaries, Imposing a False Concreteness, Falling into Ecological Fallacies, Creating Judgmental Dupes.
