Good evening,
It’s a clear night, with the overnight temperature expected to be fifty-six degrees. Perfect, just perfect.
There’s a story over at Walworth County Today about a planned reunion of former Playboy bunnies and staff at the Grand Geneva, formerly a Playboy Club, years ago. I wasn’t at the hotel when it was part of the Playboy chain. For those who were, I’m sure the story brings back memories of another era. (One can say that however odd the bunnies look in rabbit ears and puff-ball tails, it’s still more reserved (almost demure!) when contrasted with what one might see today on the cover of Rolling Stone or Sports Illustrated.)
I do have a story about the Grand Geneva, from the 1990s. The hotel had a hunting lodge feel, more so than it does now. They had a gift shop off the main lobby, and others who visited then will recall that the shop sold small, taxidermy squirrels in odd poses and clothing. These were stuffed squirrels as fishermen, hunters, etc., in doll’s clothing. Not toys, but a taxidermist’s work. They looked something like the photo I’ve embedded to the left.
It’s impossible to imagine the hotel selling something like that now. Animals lovers, animal rights activists, and other patrons would find gifts like that vulgar and disturbing. It just wouldn’t happen in today’s polite establishments. Yet, for all the tenderness that recoils at the sight of a stuffed squirrel, there’s not the least concern with guests dressed more immodestly than any Playboy bunny ever was. The concern for small rodents exceeds guests’ concern for respectable attire.
This hardly makes me wish that we should return to more conservative times; it reminds me that contemporary, self-declared arbiters of fashion, taste, and propriety, of the appropriate, are just middling men and women whose taste is, generally, tasteless. It’s one more reason that their judgment should not express itself through law and regulation over others.
On propriety and the acceptable and appropriate, one finds all sorts of contradictions. One scold or another will try to ban a practice or activity, as against supposed community values. Many of these same people have not the slightest humility or reticence about self-promotion at every turn. I would have thought that pride was a fault, and humility a virtue, but those who profess an obligation to advance regulations in the name of the community are often the first to boast, look for a camera, or expect notice. When in the Declaration the the patriots sought to explain why ” governments are instituted among men” they contended that it was “to secure these [unalienable] rights.” They never said, and never believed, that government was simply a public relations tool.
For those who are interested in a single volume of classics of liberty, the Liberty Fund’s Online Library of Liberty is also available as a DVD, free of charge. I have the 4th Edition, but there’s now a 5th. Readers can request a copy at this link: http://oll.libertyfund.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1543&Itemid=352. The DVD “contains 1,002 full text titles in EBook PDF format, 36 hours of MP3 interviews with classical liberal political philosophers and economists (The Intellectual Portrait Series) and lectures on the thought of Friedrich Hayek (The Legacy of Friedrich Hayek), and a version of our collection of Quotations about Liberty and Power which is designed to run on a data DVD.”
I’m sure it’s a great collection, even better than the 4th Edition.
I’ll have an open forum topic tomorrow that’s suited to the Independence holiday weekend.