From: David Buchanan (DBuchanan@ClassicalRadio.org)
Date: Sat Aug 07 2004 - 21:17:45 BST
Mark,
Thank you very much for this post, Mark. You saved me from wasting precious
time and gave me a chuckle to boot. You rock.
sincerely,
dmb
MSH said:
...Hand-slap to forehead. Damn. He's talking about Muslim extremists,
not the Bush administration! And then was wafted my way the sickly
scent of jingoism. But I kept reading anyway.
I then turned to your sixth essay, on Freedom, and was greeted by
wonderfully waving American Flag. Here I read:
"In the interest of America's future, I would add a caveat of my own:
A free society is not immune to the laws of gravity; left to its own
devices it runs downhill."
Yes, I thought. And this would be the perfect place to mention the
most recent attacks on freedom in America, such as the Patriot Acts,
and other legislation. But I was disappointed. Instead there's
this:
"History has shown that establishing and maintaining a free society
is typically a hard-won struggle led by enlightened individuals who
appreciate its value and are ever vigilant to protect it from those
who through public apathy, geopolitical envy, religious fanaticism,
or the abuse of power would allow its downfall."
This is the myth of the enlightened leader as the catalyst of
freedom. The reality is that freedoms are won, and maintained,
through the combined efforts of countless individuals, almost all of
whom struggle, and often die, and remain nameless.
Then comes:
"The legacy of secularism has fostered a generation of morally
bankrupt dependents who worship at the altar of Celebrity and submit
only to an ethic of "political correctness", as if existence had no
other purpose."
I'm always concerned when so much negativity is blamed on poor old
secularism. So now, it's clear that you not only have a nationalist
agenda, but a religious one as well.
I then hopped to your "Value In The Balance" page where I'm treated
to another waving American flag, and I get a chance to see your two
agendas coalesce with a third, political agenda: Anyone who might
suggests that terrorism is not the greatest danger we face is one of
those "liberals" behind the "Hate Bush" campaign.
All in all, you offer a pretty neat little tripartite package: God,
guns, and country, not necessarily in that order. You'll enjoy a
great affinity with the views of at least one of this lists regular
contributors.
As for me, I find unattractive and malignant any value-based
philosophy that fails to reveal the extremely low-quality underlying
nationalism (or tribalism of any kind), which fails to identify the
highly artificial and violently enforced nature of the world's nation-
state system, and which, apparently, assigns different levels of
value to beings based upon their geographical and religious
circumstances.
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