Thursday, August 19, 2010

The modern liberal rejection of tradition

What? This man is not on our list of Modern Wise Men? What is wrong with the Induction Committee? Oh, wait. That's me. Well we won't be too critical then.

Here is Jim Kalb, author of the seminal The Tyranny of Liberalism, on the modern liberal rejection of tradition:

The problems among us today are unusually radical. People aren't dissatisfied with this tradition or that, or at a loss how to achieve old goals in new settings. Instead, they want to reject the authority of tradition as such, along with the goods it proposes. They adopt views like liberalism that claim to possess a universal rationality that trumps all tradition, and insist that the only acceptable standard for social life is giving people what they want, as much and as equally as possible. Hence the California Proposition 8 decision that declared legal recognition of marriage unconstitutional.

The current situation results from an ever-greater insistence on a clear but extremely limited understanding of rationality that tells us that knowledge and conduct must be modeled on modern natural science and technology. That understanding works well if you're putting a man on the moon, not so well if you're figuring out how to live and relate to other people. It can't deal with identities, essences, or ultimate ends, so it has no way to make sense of our lives and those of others. The result is that belief and conduct lose their ability to order human life in a satisfying and non-arbitrary way.

That means the current state of affairs isn't going to last, and we'll have to go on to something else. Some would describe the current situation as the collapse of the Western tradition. I think it's better to describe it as the distortion and suppression of that tradition as a whole by part of it that has become too dominant. The scientistic outlook has to be ditched in any event, since it's at odds with the needs of human life. Once that's done the obvious way to proceed is to stick with the remainder--actually by far the greater part--of the tradition of the West, and try to bring it into a workable form. We can't get by without a tradition, the tradition of the West is our tradition, and there's no superior one to adhere to. So isn't the way forward obvious?

Read the rest on his blog here.

21 comments:

KyCobb said...

If Jim Kalb had been alive in 1776, he would have been a Tory. Just see have far we have declined since we rejected the sensible, traditional Western deference to nobility and gave legal equality to men just because they wanted it!

Don't you find it sad that the only justification you can give for opposing equality for gays is to, like Tevye, shout "Tradition"!

Martin Cothran said...

So you're saying that the only argument I've ever give on this blog against gay marriage is tradition?

KyCobb said...

Martin,

I haven't searched your blog to look for your reasoning. Do you have rational, secular reasons for treating homosexual couples differently than heterosexual couples? The Prop 8 proponents utterly failed to support their case at trial in California.

Martin Cothran said...

KyCobb,

Yes there are, but I first want to find out why you think tradition is not a rational, secular reason.

Joe_Agnost said...

To be fair to Martin - I've also read him use the 'because that's not what a penis is supposed to be used for' excuse too... No less pathetic though.

Martin Cothran said...

Joe,

Actually, I never so much as used the word. You all on the other hand, seem to have fixation with this particular body part.

But I hear this is just a stage and you grow out of it.

Joe_Agnost said...

Martin wrote: "I never so much as used the word."

That's classic right there... you can't bring yourself to mention the word "penis" (not that you don't talk about it: "organ in question" is how you put it I believe) - but you have no problem telling people where they're ~supposed~ to put it and where they aren't.

And your suggestion that I "seem to have fixation with this particular body part" is based on ~what~? My one comment above? Show me your evidence that I'm all about the penis... go on.... I'll wait.

Martin Cothran said...

I'm sorry Joe, but I can't do that, since I can't bring myself to use the word. Remember?

Besides I was not just talking about you. I said "you all" by which I was including Singring. I guess maybe Singring ups the average per line usage of the word between you though, doesn't he?

But on this one thread you have now used the word two times in two posts.

Let's see that comes to ... let's see ... one time per post.

Maybe you can not use the word in the next post and bring your own personal average down a bit.

Singring said...

Martin, how old are you? Three?

When we are discussing the human genitals its perfectly normal to use the words that refer to them: penis and vagina. Are you so utterly repressed that you think people who use normal English words that are the dictionary terms for what we are talking about are 'obsessed' by them?

When we talk about cars, are we 'obsessed' if we use the word driveshaft as opposed to 'the part of the car in question'???

Truly bizarre to see a grown man too embarassed to use plain English words.

Martin Cothran said...

Okay, let's see that makes three mentions in three posts.

Joe, your turn.

Joe_Agnost said...

What does Singring's use of the word have to do with me?

And I believe it's you that started discussing the "organ in question" when you claimed it should only be used to urinate or impregnate a woman...

I don't want Singring to beat me though... so... penis penis penis. Sorry for making you blush.

Martin Cothran said...

Six.

Joe_Agnost said...

Singring wrote: "Truly bizarre to see a grown man too embarassed to use plain English words."

Indeed... until you realize this grown man believes masturbation is wrong. You know what they say: %95 of men masturbate, and %5 are liars. ;)

Martin Cothran said...

You all ought to form a club or something.

Singring said...

There already is.

It's called 'Anglophones'. Or maybe I should be more precise: 'Non-repressed anglophones'

Martin Cothran said...

I was thinking of something like the "verpalites." From the Latin word "verpa." I'll let you all look it up. I know you'll like it.

Singring said...

So saying penis in latin is alright but in English its bad?

Your view of language is getting more bizarre by the minute, Martin.

Martin Cothran said...

Seven.

Singring said...

You have the mentality of a toddler, Martin.

Martin Cothran said...

Holding at seven...

KyCobb said...

Martin asked,

"Yes there are, but I first want to find out why you think tradition is not a rational, secular reason."

Because "that's just the way it is, and some things will never change" isn't going to cut much ice with a judge in a section 1983 lawsuit.