Thursday, November 01, 2007
(9:35 AM) | Adam Kotsko:
Razorblades and Candy
Last night, in discussion with M. Leblanc and her boyfriend, I expressed my incredulity at the idea of people putting razorblades in Halloween candy. I went so far as to say that, in some counter-factual situation where I had a steady job, I would bet $100 that razor blades had never once been found in actual-existing candy.As one who has read a lot of John Calvin, I know that the heart of man is depraved, so my argument is certainly not that no one would be so sick. The problem, rather, is a logistical one. First of all, wrappers pose an obvious obstacle, but even if there were some way to reseal them perfectly, standard razor blades are too big to fit even in a "fun size" candy bar. Last night, I received the objection that one could use full-size candy bars, but I don't think that the girth of a regular candy bar is sufficiently bigger to be able to hide a razor blade.
Candy apples are another possibility. We discussed various ways of getting the razor blade into the apple, but I think that the most significant point here is that most children are just going to eat the caramel part and discard the apple altogether. Even if, by some freak accident, they end up eating the apple, I daresay that any child is going to be familiar enough with apples to know that a metallic object should not be in there and thus to pause and inspect the apple. There's a very narrow chance of some kind of small cut in the mouth area, and perhaps a worse cut if the child tries to remove the razor blade in order to continue eating the apple.
Overall, I think that even if razor blades are routinely put into Halloween candy, they pose only a small danger to our nation's youth. More children die in car accidents every single day than have ever died from swallowing a razor blade in their Halloween candy. Our hypersensitivity on this issue stands in stark contrast to the attitude of Israelis, who have become inured to razor blades in candy after decades of routine Halloween candy tampering. If we allow ourselves to be paralyzed by our fear, the terrorists have already won.
