"The inevitability myth"
Matthew Continetti's editorial, "The inevitability myth," in the November 2nd Weekly Standard asks: "Did the Democrats become Calvinists when we weren't looking?" Continetti discusses the Obama/Reid/Pelosi strategy to pass healthcare reform. They argue, he says, that passage is "inevitable" given the overwhelming partisan majorities on both sides of Capitol Hill. He notes "lately they've been talking a lot about predestination" and claim enactment is "foreordained."
Healthcare reform is a discussion for another forum. Some might find the same pattern for other issues like global warming or the electronic bombardment of those living under high-voltage transmission lines. As usual, I see a salt connection.
I was struck by the synergy of the Standard's construct with an observation noted here in the past: how salt reduction activists have been prying into citizen's lives and larders. We had in mind more the "fire and brimstone" Puritans seeking to affix the "Scarlet S" on the nutritionally/politically incorrect than the Puritans' Calvinist forebearers . But it's much the same.
Now that we think of it, the second strand of strategic embrace of predestination/foreordaination as a rhetorical tool would also characterize these salt nannies. While reasonable scientists find evidence of elevated risk for significant portions of the population with a one-size-fits-all salt reduction strategy and others find evidence that human's salt intake is a physiologic appetite not a choice that can be educated or regulated, these New Calvinists gloss over the scientific controversy and want to skip ahead to "implementation," churning up group endorsements to add momentum to their version of "the inevitability myth."
Science, like time, would seem to answer this myth. Over time, population salt intakes are unchanged. Moreover, it may not be due to sinful choices of salty foods nor the perfidy of food manufacturers who (take your choice) either stuff their products with hidden salt or make wild health claims that low-salt products have proven health benefits. Salt intake, the science now suggests, is the direct result of neural signals from the brain controlling an unconscious salt appetite. Some may see intelligent design. We think it's heavenly.
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