From: Arlo Bensinger (ajb102@psu.edu)
Date: Thu Nov 04 2004 - 16:04:27 GMT
Platt wrote:
>Thanks to the MoQ, what I detected in those who said they voted for Bush
>because of moral values was the conflict between social and biological
>values. Pirsig put it in a nutshell:
>
>"Vice is a conflict between biological quality and social quality. Things
>like sex and booze and drugs and- tobacco have a high biological quality,
>that is, they feel good, but are harmful for social reasons. They take all
>your money. They break up your family. They threaten the stability of the
>community." (Lila, 13)
>
>What many voters instinctively saw in current American culture was
>acceptance by many of the "If it feels good, do it" philosophy of the
>60's Hippies. In Lila, Chap. 24., Pirsig describes how this desire for
>"freedom from social restraint" led to the current state of affairs where
>promiscuous sex is glorified and erectile function is a major concern,
>resulting in the backlash expressed in the election.
What Platt misses, and what has been repeatedly argued, is that this was
not a victory of "social over biological", it was a victory of "social over
intellectual". Even if one accepts the skewed belief that the only thing
the "hippies of the 60's" fought for was sexual promiscuity, todays'
liberals are the ones who brought civil equality, women's rights, fair
wages for labor, workers' compensation, and the rights of individuals over
society to bear. We have challenged the right-ist propaganda of social
Darwinism. The rights the "right" have fought for are the rights of
corporations and wealth, that the poor deserve their lot in life due to
laziness, inability or sloth, that all things are reducible to a financial
bottom line. When we question the validity of the current war (intellectual
level), we are drummed out by idiotic cries of patriotism and accused of
being traitors (social level). When we argue that any couple should be able
to enjoy the same state-benefits as any other couple receiving state
benefits (intellectual level), we are drummed out by dark-age fear of the
gays (social level). When we seek to protect our natural landmarks from
corporate abuse (intellectual level), we are drummed out by monetary
desires of corporations (social level). They have used fear to spread a
wave of xenophobia, fear that the intellectual will end the social (as it
should, morally) to convince people to return to an even greater level of
social level control.
Funny how one can trumpet "freedom" so loudly when it serves financial
interests, but denounce it so readily when it serves any other interest at
all.
As Sidney Blumenthal, a leftist response to the likes of the rightists
Limbaugh et al, writes in the Salon, "[t]he evangelical churches became
instruments of political organization. Ideology was enforced as theology,
turning nonconformity into sin, and the faithful, following voter guides
with biblical literalism, were shepherded to the polls as though to the
rapture", as continues "[t]hese emotions were linked to what is
euphemistically called "moral values," which is actually social and sexual
panic over the rights of women and gender roles... Only imposing manly
authority against "girlie men," girls and lurking terrorists can save the
nation.". Finally, "They grafted imperial unilateralism onto provincial
isolationism. Fear of the rest of the world was to be mastered with
contempt for it."
The democrats are certainly not a perfect ideological platform. Both sides
should receive equal criticism when they use the social to quell the
intellectual.
But this newspeak warping by the neo-cons into "social over biological" is
nothing to be proud of, or thankful for, at all. What we are witnessing in
America is an aggressive campaign of de-enlightenment. Very, very, very sad.
Arlo
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