We live in a dangerous time my friends. In my opinion it is blatantly obvious that intolerance and illiberality are derailing the positive influence the peace movements of the 60’s and hero’s like Martin Luther King had on our culture and leading us down a road of a new type of “Far Left Fascism” at the hands of the righteous naive.
Feminism is no longer about giving women equal political and legal rights—it’s about confronting the male power structure and the “rape” culture.
Fighting racism is no longer about ensuring that African-Americans and minorities are treated equally before the law—it’s about eradicating “systemic” racism and promoting affirmative action.
Environmentalism is no longer about conserving natural resources—it’s about “saving” the planet from overpopulation and climate change.
With such utopian causes, it seems perfectly acceptable to “break a few eggs” to make a new liberal omelette.
The traditional notions of tolerance, dissent and virtue have morphed into completely different ideals that exemplify a type of oppression not unlike those we have fought so hard to eradicate over centuries.
In other words, intolerance is now seen as a good thing—if it serves the purpose of a certain definition of social liberation.
Rather than an expression of individual conscience, dissent is now seen as a weapon to overthrow the old order. The end justifies the means. It is perfectly justifiable, according to the “New Left”, to shut out the views of the ruling class, defined now along race, gender, and sexual orientation lines, and throw out the constitution in the desire for immediate change.
Virtue has historically been understood as a positive habit that forms one’s personal character. One acquires virtue by repeatedly choosing to treat others well and act in accord with objective standards of morality, even when it is difficult. The “New Left” understands virtue very differently. The “self” is not something that has to be restrained; it is unique and has to be expressed openly, even loudly, to be fulfilled. Individual freedom is to be experienced through the liberation of one’s group (i.e., one’s gender, race, or sexual identity). Traditional morality—particularly sexual morality has become a force of repression just as capitalism had been in the days of the Old Left. Virtue has been politicized and defined ideologically; it is no longer seen as a measure of personal responsibility or as a right of individual conscience but as a measure of the collective good the government is supposed to guarantee.
I am just writing this as a cautionary argument that we must not fall into traps the righteous that shout and rage and take offence and directly seek to over shadow the core beliefs that we have held sacrosanct for centuries like freedom of speech, freedom of religion, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
