One of the popular moral crusades of today concerns “sex trafficking,” which is supposedly an enormous problem, but in reality is blown all out of proportion. It probably is true that prostitution is on the rise, but as usual this is an outgrowth of economic inequality (why work at WalMart for peanuts when you can make a week’s worth of wages in a night lying flat on your back?).
Interestingly, there was a similar moral panic over sex trafficking almost exactly a century ago, and it prompted a crusade by the usual suspects — privileged women with too much time on their hands.
One woman who spoke out about the issue should be familiar to those with some knowledge of 20th century political history. Her name was Emma Goldman, and she was a prominent anarchist activist who was eventually deported for radicalism. In the following essay, although Goldman soon descends into anti-Christian bigotry, she initially makes some observations about the hysteria and hubbub that would be just as relevant today as they were 100 years ago:
The Traffic in Women
OUR REFORMERS have suddenly made a great discovery – the white slave traffic. The papers are full of these “unheard-of conditions,” and lawmakers are already planning a new set of laws to check the horror.
It is significant that whenever the public mind is to be diverted from a great social wrong, a crusade is inaugurated against indecency, gambling, saloons, etc. And what is the result of such crusades? Gambling is increasing, saloons are doing a lively business through back entrances, prostitution is at its height, and the system of pimps and cadets is but aggravated.
How is it that an institution, known almost to every child, should have been discovered so suddenly? How is it that this evil, known to all sociologists, should now be made such an important issue?
To assume that the recent investigation of the white slave traffic (and, by the way, a very superficial investigation) has discovered anything new, is, to say the least, very foolish. Prostitution has been, and is, a widespread evil, yet mankind goes on its business, perfectly indifferent to the sufferings and distress of the victims of prostitution. As indifferent, indeed, as mankind has remained to our industrial system, or to economic prostitution.
Only when human sorrows are turned into a toy with glaring colors will baby people become interested – for a while at least. The people are a very fickle baby that must have new toys every day. The “righteous” cry against the white slave traffic is such a toy. It serves to amuse the people for a little while, and it will help to create a few more fat political jobs – parasites who stalk about the world as inspectors, investigators, detectives, and so forth.
Indeed, there is nothing new under the sun.
