Technology to the Rescue of Sloth
And of Many Marriages as well, Probably
The sloth I’m talking about here is NOT the slow-moving critter that you may have seen in a zoo or suspended upside-down from a branch of a tree overhanging the Tortuguero Canal in Costa Rica, or another nature tour.
I refer instead to the sloth that is a very pervasive human condition, found in Manhattan as well as Mumbai and Morocco, and from Boston to Berlin and Beijing.
This sloth is a terrible affliction and is included in the medieval Christians’ list of seven deadly sins——- a serious moral offense, along with: pride, covetousness, lust, envy, gluttony, and anger. This sloth means the indolence shown when a teenager drops his or her clothes on the floor instead of hanging them up right away. It speaks of the habitual avoidance of any exertion, effort, or work whenever possible. I view it as a personality defect.
Do you know anyone who squeezes toothpaste from the top or middle of the tube, rather than from the bottom? That is also an example of sloth. In my experience and informal, anecdotal interview data, that behavior is somewhat gender-related in couples living together: men generally squeeze from the bottom; women from the top.
Before materials technology replaced the lead-tin alloy toothpaste tubes with all-plastic tubes (in the 1990's) this was an IRRITANT IN THE RELATIONSHIPS OF MANY COUPLES. The reason was that the metal tubes were NOT resilient. Dents from squeezing remained permanent; if they happened to occur at the top or in the middle of the tube, they often made it problematical to get further toothpaste out.
Plastic ELIMINATED THAT IRRITANT; no matter where it is squeezed, the wall of the tube springs back!! Sloth is rescued because it no longer irritates the other person in the couple.
My hypothesis is therefore that this irritant with the toothpaste may have been a(n) silent and unexamined factor in producing the HIGHER DIVORCE RATES in the US from 1945 to 1985. Sure, other factors were also at play, so my case cannot be airtight, but perhaps, at least suggestive
For that 40-year period, the US divorce rate climbed from 35% to 50% per year (that is from 35 divorces for every 100 marriages to 50 divorces per 100 marriages per year.) This was the same period during which daily tooth-brushing became a widely-practiced habit in the US (brought back from Europe by returning World War II soldiers.) The tubes were not yet all-plastic.
When the all plastic tubes took over (in the ‘90s), the divorce rate fell noticeably and has leveled off. Mere coincidence?
