Showing posts with label left. Show all posts
Showing posts with label left. Show all posts
Monday, July 17, 2017
Power Conflicts Masquerading as Battles of Ideas
There is no conflict between "left" and "right" - there is only conflict between personal liberty and different forms of tribal enslavement. There is no conflict between "political correctness" and "political incorrectness" - there is only conflict between dispassionate factuality and different forms of emotional bluster. There is no conflict between religious fanaticism and "secular humanism" - there is only conflict between mature spirituality and different forms of ideological ritualism. And there is no conflict between the individual and society - there is only conflict between individual reason and collective madness.
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Ten Popular, But Not So Self-Evident Claims
Below is a list of ten claims often made in the mainstream press that are usually presented as more or less self-evident. More specifically, claims 1-3 are the province of those normally identified or self-identifying as "the Left", claims 4-6 the province of those normally identified or self-identifying as "the Right", and claims 7-10 the province of both.
I list them here in order to emphasize that, at least as far as I am concerned, far from being self-evident, they are actually in dire need of rational justification, and, despite what I would like to think of as my ongoing, honest attempt to find one, I am so far not aware of any. Here is the full list:
1. Wealth inequality is inherently bad.
2. The moral status of a given claim depends on the number of claimants.
3. Discrimination in one's private space is not a right.
4. Contingent cultural factors can generate objective and enforceable duties.
5. Institutional permanence usually implies moral worth.
6. Sacrificing oneself for a collective construct can be an act of heroism.
7. There is such a thing as noble coercion.
8. In the area of social service provision, coercion is the ultimate guarantee of success.
9. Order in society is a function of organized violence.
10. Self-sacrifice is a moral virtue.
I do not intend to suggest here whether any of these claims is true or false. What I do intend to suggest instead is that none of them can be accepted at face value, if only for the reason that defiance is the intellectual self-preservation instinct.
I list them here in order to emphasize that, at least as far as I am concerned, far from being self-evident, they are actually in dire need of rational justification, and, despite what I would like to think of as my ongoing, honest attempt to find one, I am so far not aware of any. Here is the full list:
1. Wealth inequality is inherently bad.
2. The moral status of a given claim depends on the number of claimants.
3. Discrimination in one's private space is not a right.
4. Contingent cultural factors can generate objective and enforceable duties.
5. Institutional permanence usually implies moral worth.
6. Sacrificing oneself for a collective construct can be an act of heroism.
7. There is such a thing as noble coercion.
8. In the area of social service provision, coercion is the ultimate guarantee of success.
9. Order in society is a function of organized violence.
10. Self-sacrifice is a moral virtue.
I do not intend to suggest here whether any of these claims is true or false. What I do intend to suggest instead is that none of them can be accepted at face value, if only for the reason that defiance is the intellectual self-preservation instinct.
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