Cultural Freedom? Not Yet....

Is the Culture War really over?

"DON'T GO WOBBLY"

That's what Jonah Goldberg is being urged not to do, by someone he respects "who toils in the trenches of the conservative movement." Mr. Goldberg (who has my sympathy for trying to be fair) cites the following email as a "common sentiment" among conservatives:

What they seek is not simply a comfortable life and social acceptance. They already have much of that. What they want is 100-percent complete acceptance. Many social conservatives in America believe there is a God and a Holy Spirit and a Bible that condemns homosexuality as an abomination, and they will not be defeated.

The problem is that no one outside a few ragtag religious-right groups is really fighting the tide you cite. Most conservatives do not. The GOP certainly does not. It is considered censorship to fight Hollywood, and religious discrimination to fight it in Washington. But the real "culture war" on this issue is person by person, endangered soul by endangered soul.

Don't be so pessimistic. The last great wave of gay activism was followed by the conservative takeover of 1994. A wave of gay-marriage activism in the United States could be yet another wave of political disaster for the Democratic Party. But it won't be if we wave white flags. Now is the not the time to go wobbly!

I don't like to believe in slippery slopes. But when people refuse to tell me what they are seeking, then how am I to know what it is?

How the hell do I know they don't share the agenda of the god they claim is so bigoted that he sent the 9-11 attacks to punish us? Many of them say they do. Take the time to read what which is preached routinely by the "few ragtag religious-right groups," and it becomes clear why they hesitate to tell you what they really think. (Similarly, Communist groups like the anti-war ANSWER do everything possible to conceal their real purpose.) Let me give a few examples -- "a few ragtag religious-right groups" -- of the sort cited in the above letter to Jonah Goldberg:

TEN COMMANDMENTS.ORG

GOD HATES FAGS

AbidingTruth.com (too slick; they pull the cool sites after I notice 'em!)

HOMO FASCIST WATCH

CovenantNews.com (Note that this and the linked HOMO FASCIST guys were both pulled from Abiding Truth since my post on the subject.)

Whose souls are endangered? Homos or nudists? Does that depend on whose interpretation of whose god prevails? Is that really up to those who claim to be God's warriors here on earth? They think so.

Is this the Culture War or is it a religious war? To the extent that it is a religious war, then the warriors lost before they started, because they're stuck with the First Amendment, and try as they might, they'll never be able to impose a particular interpretation of a particular book upon a free people. Seen this way, religious warriors in the United States are destined to be little more than permanently sore losers.

But the Culture War, in the pure sense, will never be over -- not as long as some human beings believe they have a right (indeed, a duty) to force others to comply with their beliefs. There are too many issues to fit into a single war, and the attack on homosexuality is only one of them.

I abhor people who attack lifestyles, because telling people how to live is the essence of tyranny.

I'll fight any and all lifestyle attacks, because they strike at human freedom. I don't care whether they come in the form of taxes on the Internet, gun control, drug laws or numerous other attempts to control people. Most of these ideas spring from twisted altruism, which rationalizes one of the most insidious forms of tyranny.

I speak of the modern idea that doing good unto others means interfering with their personal lives. As long as there exist busybodies with ideas about how others should be made to live, there will be a Culture War. The innumerable forms it takes are limited only by the imaginations of the cultural busybodies themselves.

That is the Culture War. On the one side are those who seek to control. On the other are those who wish to be free.

I don't think it's over.