Technology and social justice
I have a piece on “social justice,” technology, and tyranny at Catholic World Report.
Rights
More of the same
Here’s a discussion of the future of race relations.
More of the Same
The state of American race relations in twenty years will depend on the status of a conflict among various immovable objects and irresistible but slow-acting forces. Such conflicts generally don’t go anywhere fast, so neither will race relations.
The most obvious immovable … More ...
Equality and Catholicism
I have yet another piece at Catholic World Report, this one on equality and Catholicism. It points out that the progressive understanding of equality is at odds with Catholicism, good sense, good order, human well-being, and what not else, because it demands the abolition of all significant social institutions other than global markets … More ...
More on Islam, women, and the West
A correspondent, who had read my previous comments on women in Islam, asked whether I thought he was hysterical to say Islam enslaves women. He lives in a part of England where Muslims have recently become more of a presence, finds the routine sight of women in niqab shocking, and can’t understand why intellectual … More ...
More human righteousness
So far as I can tell, “human rights” has become another name for compulsory PC managerial liberalism, with horror stories mixed in to stir the emotions and show how bad opponents are. I’ve commented recently on the ACLU view that “civil liberties” mean forcing a printer to suport a cause he finds appalling, and … More ...
What is freedom?
The meaning of “liberty,” anno Domini 2004: Following ACLU Intervention, Refusal to Print Invites to Same-Sex Wedding Ends With Printer Apology and Agreement Not to Discriminate. The moral, as stated by the ACLU staff attorney: “Business owners are entitled to their private opinions about same-sex marriage, but discriminatory business practices are not permitted.” Freedom … More ...
Melanie Phillips on human rights oppression
In the forum, a reader draws attention to a recent piece by Melanie Phillips on “The coercive culture of human rights”. The piece was prompted by the release of a UK government White Paper (*.pdf format) about proposed comprehensive administrative arrangements for enforcing equality, rooting out discrimination, and generally doing what has to … More ...
Inhuman rights
Theodore Dalrymple has a rather slight but nonetheless helpful piece on what’s wrong with rights. His basic point seems to be that when something becomes a “right” there’s no further need for civility, reasonableness or mutual accommodation, so the more rights the more brutish social life becomes.
Canada summarized
I’ve written some things denouncing the “tyranny of liberalism,” and here at Turnabout we’ve had a number of entries describing how that tendency is playing itself out in Canada. There’s a brief article at First Things worth reading as a summary of the latter point. A detail that reveals something about where things stand: the … More ...
The new human rights struggle on
The language of international diplomacy: Homosexuals Call Barbaric Church Purveyor of Nasty Dogmas. Apparently “gay rights” advocates were upset that the drive to establish international homosexual rights has stalled at the UN Commission on Human Rights, which is now meeting in Geneva. I’m naturally pleased the drive has stalled, but don’t really understand the … More ...