Ron --
Ham:
The alternative is turning out human beings in the same mold,
with no differences, no original ideas, no unique aptitudes or
personalities, no powers of discrimination. That's the dull, gray
world of egalitarianism where nothing and no one is better or
worse than anything or anyone else. Go find it, if you can.
I choose to stay here where I can value Difference.
Ron:
Doesn't this go against your thesis? that each individual has unique
agency?
therefore what you fear can not exist by virtue of Essentialism correct?
Yes, of course it goes against the essentialist thesis. The individual is
innately the free agent of Value. It's "intellectual" ideologies like
collectivism, socialism, and egalitarianism that turn man's consciousness
away from his essential core and make him a pawn of the collective soiciety.
Since we cannot escape the differential nature of existence, such ideas are
but utopian dreams. We are all different -- unique in our own way -- just
as are the phenomena we experience in the world external to us. All
experienced values are relative to our finite locus in space/time, so they,
too, are unique to the individual being-aware.
The great challenge for mankind is to reconcile the contrariety and
difference between individual perspectives so as to live harmoniously with
our fellow man. That process is the history of civilization. To achieve
it, some societies have relied on the teachings of prophets, while others
have allowed themselves to become subjects of the state or an oppressive
tyranny. My contention is that man will realize his true freedom only when
he becomes his own authority.
We came close to this ideal when we broke the chains of tyranny and founded
a free republic with limited government and maximum liberty for its
citizens. Except for the war between the states, it worked well for the
first hundred years or so. But by the middle of the last century we began
to lose our bearings and take freedom and prosperity for granted. We
thought we could "improve" upon the value of life by treating everbody as
equals and passing "progressive" programs to spread the wealth and make
government society's caretakers. We opened our borders indiscriminately to
people of other cultures, attempting to accommodate value systems contrary
to our own. Following Europe's model, we transformed our Free Republic into
a gigantic Welfare State that supports the poor and indigent at the expense
of the industrious and creative. We reduced our moral, academic, and
economic standards to the lowest common denominator. While others still
plot against us, our younger generation, who are taught the virtues of
multiculturalism but have never read "Animal Farm"' or "Atlas Shrugged",
believe we have ushered in a brand new era of peace and love where
individual responsibility doesn't matter and everyone is entitled to the
fruits of life under the patronage of a debtor state.
As I wrote in one of my essays, "The refrain we hear most often is: 'It
can't happen here -- America is different.' But the reality is that
civilized nations are not immortal; they are born and die just as
individuals do. Although their longevity may exceed the average person's
lifespan, we cannot escape history. And history teaches us that empires
also die."
Essentially yours,
Ham
Moq_Discuss mailing list
Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc.
http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org
Archives:
http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/
http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
