American Nightmares by Joel Best

Author:Joel Best
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780520296343
Publisher: University of California Press

• “[A study] connecting porn and sexual aggression . . . points to the tiniest tip of the iceberg when it comes to pornography’s destructive influence on American society. Porn is literally polluting the minds and ripping up the souls of tens of millions of Americans. It is leading huge numbers of people into relational failure, family breakdown, heartbreak, addiction, misery, and disease” (WorldNetDaily 2016).

• “In the current craze to deploy conscience arguments to scuttle unpopular provisions of the Affordable Care Act, birth control is just the tip of the iceberg” (Lithwick 2013).

• “Law-enforcement issues, such as marijuana-intoxicated driving and the illegal movement of vast amounts of cannabis product into other states [in the aftermath of Colorado’s referendum to legalize recreational marijuana], are the tip of the iceberg” (Haun 2015).

Claims about iceberg tips invoke the future in at least two ways. First, they predict that we will eventually discover that a problem’s magnitude is much greater than we might imagine. When the news media report a terrible crime, advocates can declare that crime is just a visible instance of a vastly larger number of similar yet invisible crimes awaiting recognition, acknowledgment, and action. Second—as all students of the Titanic’s history know—it is not the visible tip of the iceberg but its larger hidden mass that threatens to do the real damage. Ignoring the problem’s true extent can have serious consequences. Moreover, these warnings are difficult to refute: how can anyone prove that a hidden social problem is not real—and dangerous?

Just as the slippery slope can be a strategy to promote change—and not simply a figment of the imaginations of those who oppose change—some sightings of iceberg tips prove correct. For instance, a 1982 article in the New York Times quoted public health officials saying that the number of diagnoses of GRID (for gay-related immunodeficiency) “probably represent ‘just the tip of the iceberg’” (Altman 1982); this prediction can hardly be faulted for exaggerating the impact of what would later be called HIV/AIDS.

Slippery slopes and icebergs (which have slippery slopes in real life) are familiar metaphors, images intended to help us envision the future. They are cultural resources that are readily available to be used by virtually anyone in the service of pretty much any cause. They invoke commonsense reasoning to make claims about future social problems seem more convincing.

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