The Pursuit of Happiness & Other “Preferences”

Not long ago, my seniors’ writing class at MIT considered the essay of one student—a kind, strapping fellow: no fool—on a political subject of his choice, of all things, the virtues of prostitution. Well, not the virtues of it, exactly, let us say the inevitability of it. Prostitution will always be with us, his essay began with a certain familiar elegance; “even Thomas Aquinas” conceded as much; and Gail Sheehy reports that there may be as many as 250,000 hookers “working” in the United States alone. Prostitution is a release-valve for sexual frustration that might otherwise lead to worse things, such as random violence, or rape. Besides, polls show that attitudes have changed; a majority of Americans n...