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April 05, 2005
Feeling left out of the Revival tent?
Here's a guy whose so upset at those who don't see things his way (especially libertarians) that he's clearly beyond talking to them. And he's beyond preaching to his choir; instead he's resorting to scolding them. And nearly everyone: .....[T]he [Supreme] Court has defined freedom as the freedom of the solitary individual from any and all community standards and responsibilities that he personally deems offensive, especially when it comes to sex. This is not the freedom for which our fathers fought the Revolutionary War, or the Civil War, or World War I, or World War II, or the Korean War, or the Cold War, or (we hope) for which we are fighting the Iraq War today.What bothers me the most about the above is that the author purports to speak for my father, who served in World War II, and who most definitely did not share the author's views. Is the situation as hopeless as it appears, or is the above essay an aberration? I mean, with moral conservatives scolding each other for not being "Christian" enough, I think it's fair to ask whether libertarians are even in the same tent. posted by Eric on 04.05.05 at 12:03 PM
Comments
Excellent piece. I think if people would stop shouting and scolding, they might be able to remember what they have in common -- and what brought them together in the first place. It tries my patience to go out of my way to be polite, to always be willing to compromise, and to be insulted anyway. (To be told what my father fought for goes too far.) I had my fill of ideologues on the left, and now I'm getting my fill of ideologues on the right. Eric Scheie · April 5, 2005 04:27 PM Mutual disrespect is the problem. Telling people they are disordered, perverted, or evil is seen as disrespectful. Telling people what their parents (complete strangers) fought for is seen as disrespectful. (Lecturing others about their personal sex lives is the most personal form of disrespect I can think of.) Yet others see homosexuality and birth control as intrinsically disrespectful. The First Amendment fully recognizes and countenances the right to say all these things, and to be disrespectful to others, and I recognize that the people who say these things are doing so out of a sense of duty. The problem is that it's unreasonable to expect those who disrespect each other to join together in any cause. Especially when such disrespect is defined as a cause for which our ancestors died. Is it possible to respect each other in spite of the fact that we so obviously disrespect each other? Limited respect, perhaps? Eric Scheie · April 5, 2005 04:44 PM |
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Eric,
I do think that libertarians/classical liberals are in the same tent as conservative Christians and need each other. I wrote this article about it today. Thought you might like a different perspective.