Yes, we do have Freedom Of Speech and the right to question.
We don't have the right to shout "Fire!" in a crowded movie theatre.
We also have the responsiblity to act in the best interests of our nation and society.
Americans should weigh the consequences of their speech and consider the fact that the content of their speech will give aid and comfort to our enemies -- whether they are North Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s or al Qaeda and Islamo-fascists in the present.
People such as Noam Chomsky and Michael Moore are not only wrong in their "theories" on America, they are contributing to its problems and helping its enemies.
Name: Francesca Palazzolo
Date: Mar 20, 2006 Views: 104
RE: Tired American
I am tired, too--tired of too many of us unwilling or unable to understand that if this country was founded on the principle of "liberty and justice for all", then we all must be able to voice our views without being made to feel that we are "unpatriotic". We also need to open our eyes, so we can see varying points of view. We are not alone on Earth; we must learn that we live in one world and behave accordingly.
If anything renders people sheep among wolves, it’s when they convince themselves that every creature is a sheep. We live in an age in which one of the few sins is giving offense, one of the only virtues is a tendentious tolerance and one of the top priorities is getting along. In light of this, it’s not surprising that a steadfast refusal to draw moral distinctions is all the rage.
Our divorcing of charity from morality takes many forms. Enter many American classrooms and you will find a multi-culturalist curriculum that paints all cultures as morally equal. Take a course in comparative religion and you’ll often see disparate faiths cast merely as equally valid (or equally invalid) competing myths. Of course, the preponderance of this phenomenon extends well beyond the walls of the academy.
To lay claim to any kind of superiority on behalf of your culture or religion is considered very bad form in today’s polite society. Dare to do so and you’ll often be rebuked with the favored mantras of the day: “Those are your values, someone else’s may be different,” “Don’t impose your values on me,” or perhaps, “Don’t be so judgmental.” Yes, it’s not so much that deviancy has been defined downwards, it’s that it has been defined as just another perspective. Such are the fruits of the equivalency fiction.
On the surface, the outer nanometer of it anyway, this seems to make sense. We live in a pluralistic society, thus, it behooves us to avoid descending into a morass in which hegemonist factions vie for cultural supremacy. Chastened by a world history replete with examples of man’s inhumanity to man, with religious disputes, cultural clashes and ethnic cleansing, we fear a moral certainty that could have some strutting about, puffing up their chests and planting their flag firmly atop Mount Olympus. So we have embraced an unwritten contract. To wit:
I won’t say that my culture or faith is better than yours if you don’t say yours is better than mine. Deal?
Then, like two callow little lads in a schoolyard who have each renounced the claim that his daddy could beat up the other’s daddy, we shake on it and bury the hatchet . . . for a time.
So we live in an age in which, ostensibly, no culture or religion is elevated above any other. That’s how it works in theory, anyway. In practice, western culture and its formative religion, Christianity, are cynically sneered at and cast as the bane of civilization. But make no mistake about it, the equivalency fiction has corrupted judgment. And, despite its seemingly benign nature and supposedly palliative effect, it breeds an indifference more perilous than any religious zealotry.
One problem with the equivalency fiction is that it negates the good it was designed to promote. The reason for this is that it – and its manifestations, such as multiculturalism and the notion that all faiths are equal – is nothing but moral relativism gussied up in a seductive guise. (As many know, moral relativism is the idea that right and wrong are determined by man and are, therefore, relative to the time, place and people. It is the notion that morality is merely a function of consensus opinion.) The reason for this is that different cultures and faiths espouse different values, so they cannot all be morally equal unless all values are so. And if you claim that all values are morally equal, that’s moral relativism.
Now let’s close the loop. The more sincere purveyors of these ideas aim to engender tolerance and civilized behavior, noble ambitions both. But if all values are equal, how can tolerance be better than intolerance? How can civility be better than barbarity? How can peaceful resolution be morally superior to violent action? The truth is that moral relativism and all the various expressions of it (i.e., multiculturalism, religious equivalency) are mere philoso-babble. They are products of emotion and a desire to buttress agendas, not that of credible intellectual inquiry. They are philosophies that collapse upon themselves under their own very, very modest weight. In the name of the principle of tolerance, we embrace the notion that principles don’t matter.
Adoption of this lie has some very serious consequences. For one, when your eyes have been trained to see all that is black and white as gray, how can you cling to the good and shun the bad? How can you distinguish between the two when you’ve been taught to recognize no such distinctions? Let’s examine how this relates to our lives in a very practical sense.
We have been told that Islam is a religion of peace, as valid as any other. And in keeping with our unwritten contract, we’re enjoined to make this a knee-jerk assumption. We must believe all religions are equal even if exhaustive evidence to the contrary rises to the fore. In fact, so powerful is this suppression of intellectual inquiry that supposedly learned men would rather descend into worthless scholarship than run afoul of its Orwellian proscriptions.
A good example of such a bad example is contained in a piece titled Why is Turkey the Only Muslim Democracy?, which deals with the possible impediments to the success of democracy in the Muslim world. Written by former Princeton college professor Bernard Lewis, ostensibly it was a scholarly analysis of its subject matter. However, I was quickly disabused of this notion upon reading the following sentiment:
If I had been writing one hundred years ago, or perhaps even less, I might have begun by considering what characteristics the Turks as a nation might possess that others lack. In the intellectual climate of our times, such explanations are no longer acceptable. Even if we replace the word "nation" by the word "culture," the inquiry would still present some hazards. Fortunately, an inquiry along these lines is hardly necessary, since a wide range of alternative explanations is on offer.
Absolutely staggering. In other words, whether or not cultural phenomena are where the answer lies is irrelevant because such discussion is forbidden. In the “intellectual climate of our times, he says? Why, it’s more like an anti-intellectual climate. I ask you, what is the purpose of engaging in intellectual inquiry? Is the purpose merely the dual one of mental self-gratification and the impressing of others with your erudition? Or, could the goal be that antiquated one of ferreting out Truth?
What the professor was guilty of is akin to a physician observing all the symptoms of a certain cancer and saying that he won’t test for such disease because it’s not fashionable to do so. And, “an inquiry along these lines is hardly necessary, since a wide range of alternative explanations is on offer”? This reminds me of an old joke about a man who was informed by his dentist: “I have some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that you need to have two teeth pulled. The good news is that you can choose any two you want.” Professor, you’re guilty of academic malpractice.
Now, I’m not going to present a comprehensive exposition of Islam and contrast and compare its tenets with those of other faiths, since such a venture would miss the point. For one thing, this relates to far more than just Islam. Secondly, our problem is not that we can’t find the answers, it’s that we can’t ask the questions. At least, not when they concern the sacred cows of foreign religions and cultures.
On the face of it, the equivalency fiction smacks of the most juvenile foolishness. Would we say that the ancient Aztec religion, which prescribed human sacrifice on a massive scale, could be equated with today’s dominant faiths? And one needn’t reach back to antiquity to find such jarring examples. Even today there are religions that allow similar savagery, although their darker elements are practiced most furtively. Why, just recently a Haitian woman was detained at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport for possession of a human head, and not the one on her shoulders. She believed it would ward off evil spirits, in accordance with her Voodoo beliefs. But now let’s analyze this more deeply.
Religion and culture share something with ideology, in that all three of these things involve values. Islam labels polygamy morally licit, whereas Christianity deems it not so. Our culture places a premium on equality, while others respect the hierarchy of caste and station. Communism holds up “From each according to his means, to each according to his needs” as an ideal, but to free economy ideology adherents (I eschew the word “capitalism”) such a principle is anathema.
Another commonality among religion, culture and ideology is that their values are a good indication of their validity; the value set that attends a given religion, culture or ideology informs us as to how healthy an embrace of it would be on a personal or societal level. It follows then that a refusal to evaluate that value set would render us incapable of making such determinations. Is it pristine or polluted? You’ll never know if you won’t sniff the air.
Let’s now gain some perspective. What would happen if we embraced the equivalency fiction with respect to ideology? And if values truly are relative, how can we not? How can we condemn any ideology – be it communism, Nazism or something else – on the basis that it promotes that which is “wrong” if all values are equal? If it’s all a matter of perspective, how do we justify contradicting our relativistic standard by labeling certain ideologies inferior?
But then, ponder the implications of applying the equality fiction to ideology. If we blinded ourselves to the existence of dark ideologies, we couldn’t possibly know which ones would lead us toward destruction. How could we, on a personal or societal level, know to avoid communism if we credulously fancied it to occupy the same moral plane as ideologies responsible for much that is great and good? No mainstream religion or culture can constitute the kind of destructive force that some ideologies amount to, say some? Well, we’ll never know unless we’re willing to be a good doctor, conduct a thorough examination and render a proper diagnosis. And if something, anything espouses values and demands a place at the table, it also demands scrutiny.
Hearkening back to my third paragraph, we so desperately fear the re-emergence of old prejudices that we have flipped from one extreme to the other. We have gone from condemning both the sin and the sinner to being willing to condemn neither the sinner nor the sin. We want to engender good will toward our fellow man but have forgotten that one of the challenges for anyone seeking to walk with angels is to view people as they are, warts and all, with all their frailties, foibles, vices and ugliness, and love them anyway. Thus, blinding oneself to others’ ignobility doesn’t serve the end of achieving true charity toward all. For then we are not loving people for what they are, but rather, what we imagine them to be. We don’t love the person, but the mystique we have built around him.
But more significantly, dangerously and ominously, we have been trained to cast the discerning eye only inwards, never outwards. We have been cowed into believing that any recognition of unpleasant truths involving a culture or religion not our own is to descend into bigotry. Thus, like the three monkeys, we hear no evil, see no evil and speak no evil. That is, unless that evil can be ascribed to the one group where casting blame gratuitously harms our cause, and that group is us. Otherwise, we often walk where angels fear to tread, blind as we are to the differences between Hell and hallowed ground.
The United States in the third millennium stands at a precipice, with the constant accommodation of foreign cultures and faiths driving her culture steadily toward extinction. Should we allow Islam or other incongruous forces to make further inroads into our nation? We’ll never know if we remain the truly blind, namely, those who will not see. We’ll never know if we’re experiencing an age of enlightenment, or trading the promised land for peace in our time.
The opinions expressed in this column represent those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, views, or philosophy of TheRealityCheck.org
I am tired, too--tired of too many of us unwilling or unable to understand that if this country was founded on the principle of "liberty and justice for all", then we all must be able to voice our views without being made to feel that we are "unpatriotic". We also need to open our eyes, so we can see varying points of view. We are not alone on Earth; we must learn that we live in one world and behave accordingly.
I Am A tired American Warner Todd Huston March 8, 2006
I am tired of many things going on today, things that seem designed to undermine and destroy our great country. Certainly, we all have the right to express our opinions and, naturally, every American holding any particular ideology will see things that do not correspond to his idea of the "real America" at any given time. It is right and good that we, as citizens, should seek to make the changes we think necessary to make our country strong. We can all agree that people of intelligence and integrity might agree to disagree, but there are some things about a country, that when abandoned or abruptly changed, creates a place markedly different than what it was previously.
But I am tired of the many people who are native to this country that want to destroy what it is to make it into what it isn't, never was, and cannot be. This self-destructive behavior must be stopped if we wish this country to be as great into the future as it has been in the past.
I am tired of the Constitution being treated as if it is written on a chalkboard to be erased and re-written at will. I am tired of judges imagining they can write laws instead of just read them. There is a reason that judges are said to be "reading law" and why they aren't legislators.
I am tired of people claiming that this country isn't a "Christian nation." When 51 out of 55 members of our Constitutional Convention were Christian, when nearly every president has taken the oath of office with his hand on the Christian Bible, and when Congress has opened every session with a prayer, it is ridiculous to claim this isn't a majority Christian nation. I am tired of people imagining that the Constitution says it is freedom from religion and not freedom of religion.
I am tired of teachers who imagine that teaching feelings is better than teaching facts. Tired of schools that operate as if self-esteem is more important than math, science or the correct answers on a test. I am ashamed that American children know more about the Simpsons cartoon than they do of American history and angry that our schools don't seem to care.
I am tired of people who claim that any American president has ever been "just like Hitler" or "just like the terrorists." These people reveal that they don't know the definition of "terrorist" or the history and crimes of Hitler.
I am tired of being told that our nation is "just as racist now as it has always been," even though the opportunity for minorities in the USA tops that of nearly every other country now or in history. Further, I am tired of the racism that did exist in the USA in generations past being claimed as worse than that of any other country or people in history even though it then existed side by side with the same racism everywhere. Every race color and creed has been a slave or oppressed by some other race color or creed since man first ventured out from his own cave. America did not invent racism, but America has done much to eliminate it.
I am tired of people who think all our soldiers are thugs or are too stupid to make it in the "real world" and that their only chance in life was to join the military. Despite that the US military has always had the most independent minded and selfless soldiers in the history of the world and despite that the US military has far more often been deployed to feed the starving, clothe the destitute, and rebuild other people's country after disasters, these people want to tear down our homegrown heroes and I am bone-weary, tired of it.
I am tired of being told that Americans "deserve" to die just because they got up to go to work that day. No one, anywhere, deserves to be blown up in an office building, a disco, a mall or as they travel in a commuter train. I am tired of being told that the people who perpetrate such acts are driven to it by the United States and merely need to be "understood" instead of stopped. Sick of being told they should be treated like a purse-snatcher instead of a terrorist.
I am tired of actors being somehow considered as "experts" on issues that they portrayed in a movie. Acting like a doctor studying a disease or acting like a lawyer representing the downtrodden does not equal being one or having the expertise to discuss it in the halls of Congress. I am also tired of singers who think that because they have sold a few thousand albums they are entitled to impose their every harebrained political, environmental, or religious theory upon their audiences. Playing a guitar does not qualify one for brain surgery or rocket science. Being able to rhyme with a mouthful of gold-plated teeth does not make one a philosopher.
I am tired of comedians who present every southerner as a buck toothed, knuckle dragging, moron who can't think beyond a six-pack of beer and a hunting rifle. I am also tired of so-called artists who think it amusing to cover religious icons in dung or use the American flag as a doormat. And I am sick and tired of our Federal tax dollars going to fund such trash.
I am tired of every TV show presenting American parents as stupid, selfish, dolts who are uninterested in their children's well being. I am also sick of children in those same shows being presented as smarter than every adult in the series. Children are not "little adults" they are CHILDREN.
I am tired ... and repulsed... by the sexualization of our children. As young girls' clothing gets smaller, tighter and more revealing we desensitize everyone to the joys of being a child and cause young people to delve into areas for which they are unprepared by nature to fully comprehend or deal with. I am tired of sex being peddled to our children by Madison Avenue and the music industry.
I am tied of every company being presented as an evil monster that wishes its employees to be ripped from the bosoms of their family to work for slave wages when the American worker has one of the highest continuing standards of living in history.
I am tired of the political elite who look upon the space between Washington DC and Los Angeles as "Fly over country" fit only for the moronic, lowly and unimportant people. Even though it is those same people whom they fleece on a continuing basis to pay for their comfortable living, from whom they acquire their free health care, and from whose generosity they retire with bloated pensions.
I am tired of people who feel that government should be our Mother and Father, giving those politicians such power. Tired of people who want everyone else to take responsibility for giving them the money to buy liquor and supply them with Play-Stations and cell phones. Sick of people who imagine anything they desire is somehow owed to them just because they were born.
I am tired of sports fans that imagine that because the team they support wins a series this, then, gives them the right to burn people's automobiles, destroy businesses, or perpetrate violence. Sports do not justify criminal behavior. I am also tired of the millionaire players who act like petulant 12 year-olds, breaking the law, doing and dealing drugs, and treating women and the public like playthings just because they think they are "stars."
And, finally, I am tired of patriotism being presented as some sort of disease or mental illness. I am proud that this great country has sponsored some of the greatest inventions in history. It has entertained and let soar the imagination of every soul on the planet. It has raised the standard of living for every nation on earth. It has brought food and products of necessity to the world. It is responsible for bringing democracy to many oppressed peoples across both time and geography. It truly has been a beacon of freedom spreading its light o'er the earth.
America is not an evil place. And I am sick and tired of being told it is.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Warner Todd Huston's thoughtful commentary, sometimes irreverent often historically based, is featured on many websites such as renewamerica.us, townhall.com, opinioneditorials.com, and americandaily.com, among many, many others. He has also written for several history magazines, and appears in the new book "Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture," which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions at igcolonel@hotmail.com
