As witnessed on the campuses of so-called higher learning and elsewhere, the champions of inclusion and tolerance don't seem very good at being, well, inclusive or tolerant. The late Richard Neuhaus, in The Unhappy Fate of Optional Orthodoxy, described them as a "rampaging harridan":
The new liberal orthodoxy of recent decades is hard and nasty; compared to it, the old orthodoxy was merely quaint. The old orthodoxy was like a dotty old uncle in the front parlor; the new orthodoxy is a rampaging harridan in the family room.
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| A Typical Rampaging Harridan |
But what's under the harridan's hood, what drives the motor of radical inclusion to run over any and all opposition? A set of radical ethical imperatives, for sure, to say nothing of good old fashioned revolutionary ardour. And what lies behind this? Neuhaus parses the issue in terms of "identity" and "experience":
Proponents of the new orthodoxy will protest, with some justice, that they, too, are committed to normative truths. These truths, however, are not embodied in propositions, precedent, ecclesial authority, or, goodness knows, revelation. They are experiential truths expressing the truth of who we truly are —“we” being defined by sex, race, class, tribe, or identifying desire (“orientation”).
He goes on:
With the older orthodoxy it is possible to disagree, as in having an argument. Evidence, reason, and logic count, in principle at least. Not so with the new orthodoxy. Here disagreement is an intolerable personal affront. It is construed as a denial of others, of their experience of who they are. It is a blasphemous assault on that most high god, “My Identity.”
There can be no appeal against this other than an assertion of identity, of self, and the rules of that playing field are at best a short step away from a raw assertion of power, to a triumph of the will that allows no dissent, whatsoever.
You have been warned.
Your Old Friend,
LSP
10 comments:
Let me put into LL speak:
Never try to teach a pig to sing.
It wastes your time and annoys the pig.
Never roll in the mud with a pig.
You both get dirty and the pig enjoys it.
So it is with the new age harridans, trampling the Holy word with their hooves.
What is it the Good Book says? Don't cast your pearls before swine or, in this case, rainbow unicorns. You'll get gored by the horn, at least.
The Emperor Nero had two SSM as well as at least one heterosexual marriage. He had Christians torn to pieces by wild animals, fed to lions and covered in pitch and burnt alive to illuminate his garden parties. It is one of the advantages of Christianity that it has two thousands years of experience to draw from.
Nero was pretty keen on SSM and hated Christianity; perhaps there's a paradigm in play here...
Having lived through the 1960's, since I am older than most dirt samples, I would have to moderately disagree that the counter culture back then was more polite ('quaint') than kids on campus today.
Those hippies of old could get pretty darn surly, truth be told. Just go ahead and try to stamp out the fire that these flower children lit to the American flag. See what happened to you. Go ahead and refuse to take a toke on the doobie that was passed your way, and then be prepared to soak in the wrath and hatred of these 'peace-niks.'
As they say, the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. Or words to that effect.
Booring thugs are boorish thugs, then and now. They just call themselves something other than boorish thugs.
Fredd, that reminds me of a story a friend tells. He was a combat diver and had to go on all kinds of difficult missions in SE Asia. On returning from one he was given leave and flew out to LAX, in uniform, and was waiting for a taxi when a hippie called him a "baby killer." He ignored the hippy, who got enraged and spat at him, so he knocked the hippy out. A policeman saw what had happened and asked him if he wanted to press charges against the hippy for "assault." My friend let it rest.
The point of this story, apart from amusement, being -- the hippies were bad then and they're bad now.
I like to mess with hippies' at a visceral level.
Nobody falls victim to a practical joke faster than a hippie.
Don't believe the new orthodoxy when they say they are atheists. They are the most profoundly religious people alive. Only their god is Caesar.
All hail the State. The State is a jealous god, you shall have no other.
Infidel: "We have no King but Caesar" said the followers of the false prophet as they wrote the mark of the Beast upon their foreheads.
But maybe the thing that'll save us is the sheer, mind numbing, low level incompetence of the State. The phrase "banana republic" springs to mind.
Heh, hippies. Open season, LL.
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