thoughts in and out of season
James Kalb The basic problem of American conservatism is that it appeals to tradition while refusing to accept anything but liberty, equality and universal reason as authoritative.
The refusal is of course more apparent than real, since conservatives define themselves as such by their resistance to the logical implications of liberty and equality. Nonetheless, the unwillingness or … More ...
Tolerance triumphs everywhere, to the point that I’m afraid of boring any remaining readers if I keep on mentioning it: Stanford rejects a football coach because they don’t like his views on homosexuality, student told to support gay rights or get an “F”, and
school district sued for forcing gay propaganda.
Now online: Anthony de Jasay’s The State, one of the best libertarian books. “What would you do if you were the state?”
It’s good bad language is being so vigorously suppressed in England: “Minister prompts race row over ‘nitty gritty'”.
Back to homosexuality! Another possible dialogue:
… More ...Alter: So what’s your problem with gays?
Ego: “Gay” covers a variety of situations.
I have something of a problem with someone habitually engaging in homosexual acts. I have more of a problem if he claims that engaging in homosexual acts is basic to what he is.
I suppose the point should be made explicitly—the contradiction between “tolerance” and “multiculturalism” in the Fortuyn case illustrates a genuine insoluble contradiction within liberalism. There’s no “true liberalism” that can resolve it.
Both tolerance and multiculturalism say that one system of habit and attitude is as good as another. What happens though when two systems, … More ...
If America was not well founded, what then? Not that it is a bad country, or an unworthy object of loyalty, or that an American should not look upon its history as his own. A country has to be mostly good to exist at all, and if it has problems we owe it the concern … More ...
So Fortuyn’s party is gaining, and even suing other politicians under Holland’s hate-crime laws for inciting his assassination, tra-la! Meanwhile, it appears that in addition to his other oddities he was openly pro-pedophilia, not that it mattered to anyone of consequence over there.
Back to homosexuality! Another possible dialogue:
… More ...Alter: So what’s your problem with gays?
Ego: “Gay” covers a variety of situations.
I have something of a problem with someone habitually engaging in homosexual acts. I have more of a problem if he claims that engaging in homosexual acts is basic to what he is.
How did we get where we are in America today? Was it in the cards from the beginning? Right-wingers sometimes argue about whether America was well-founded. It’s very awkward of course if it wasn’t, but the question must be considered soberly.
The strongest argument that it was not is that the supreme political power the … More ...