I think I sometimes assume that since things are obvious to me that I have explained myself. This may possibly be true, but I have done enough teaching to realize that the contents of my brain do not always flow out by inferences and references that seem self evident to me. That may sound arrogant, and maybe it is, but hell that’s the way I see it. You’ll have to go elsewhere for hand wringing false modesty.
In my view, all individuals come into being within social contexts, but particularly the older they get, the more control they DO have–whether they choose to exercise it or not–over their lives. Most of us can imagine doing things better than we do, but we don’t. This is a loss. Whether it is a loss compensated with increased leisure I will leave to individual cases.
We are seeing, at least in a couple cases, “Christianity”, or “rightists” blamed for the murders in Norway of children, by an apparently conscienceless child of a safe home, and secure society.
What does the notion of valuing personal responsibility and following personal empowerment have to do with this? What does a religion devoted to love have to do with this?
In making very general claims about large groups based upon the extreme and deviant behavior of single members, ANY thinker is making a mistake.
Let me put it this way: anyone who wants to make general statements about groups of people this guy did not know or associate with is guilty of EXACTLY the same thought error he was. He thought that shooting terrified teenagers would somehow cause a seachange in Norway with regard to Muslim immigrants. Not only is this stupid, it is the result of the EXACT same structural mechanism–group guilt and redemption–he decried on the Left.
As I said, Leftists in general (and I will address this apparent hypocrisy in a moment) blame groups and not individuals. In this case, they are not blaming HIM, but rather the cultural milieu–the ideas–to which he was attracted; none of which, however, included provision for anything like mass murder of innocents.
Now, when I speak of the Left, I speak of history. I speak of the last century, and the words and actions of people motivated by eutopian [sic} creeds, which led to sickening cataclysms, from which some nations even now have not emerged (Tibet, North Korea, Cuba, and many other nations with curtailed freedoms, like China). There are common patterns one can see.
When speaking of Christians, there are no such patterns, unless we travel far in time or place. Now, today, “fundamentalists” want to oppose the use of the word marriage by homosexuals, and to try to regain the right plainly granted by the
Constitution to the sundry States to ban abortion. They further oppose the meaninglessness and drift so prevalent in our nation. These are not radical aims.
Few thoughts. Long day.