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War on terrorism expected to halt clean living movement, says IU expert
Oct. 31, 2001
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The war on terrorism will bring an early end to the clean living movement now underway in this country, according to Ruth Engs, an Indiana University professor of applied health science and expert on reform movements.
"Because of the war on terrorism, the nation has entered a 'crisis' phase of the clean living movement," explained Engs, the author of a recent book on this subject. "National attention, along with personnel, money and material, will shift from perceived health issues, such as college student drinking or youthful smoking, to the major dangers threatening our way of life, or even survival as a nation. The health crusades of the 1980s and 1990s will become trivial, and likely forgotten, in a generation."
Engs said the thrust of clean living movements deals with changing public perceptions and societal views on such issues as liquor, tobacco, health, sexuality, women's movements, marijuana and chastity. "Reformers in each era claimed that, based upon the latest evidence, activities like these were extremely detrimental to America's physical, mental, social or spiritual health. The substances or behaviors were demonized, and reformers claimed that it was now time to eliminate them completely from society."
The book by Engs, her fifth on addictive behaviors, is titled Clean Living Movements: American Cycles of Health Reform (Praeger Press). It addresses the clean living movements of the past two centuries and notes their cyclical nature. She said the Civil War and World War I halted the momentum of the first (1830-1860) and second (1880-1920) clean living movements, respectively. Now the war on terrorism will do the same for the clean living movement that has been underway for some 30 years and would normally be expected to last another two to four years.
According to Engs, when a war ends the country isn't ready to immediately return to the mores of a reform movement. "In the aftermath of war there has been an increase in the use of mood-altering substances such as alcohol, tobacco and other drugs among soldiers, which may have been caused by exposure through medicine, commercial interests and social pressure. It remains to be seen if this will occur after the war on terrorism," she said.
For more information, the best way to reach Engs is by email at engs@indiana.edu or go to the Web site at http://www.indiana.edu/~engs/book/index.html. Her phone is 812-855-9581.
(Richard Doty, 812-855-0084 or rgdoty@indiana.edu)