The big picture is this: secular leftists have an extraordinarily large and powerful tendency toward their own kind of "fundamentalism."
What is "fundamentalism" in this sense? It is a doctrinaire approach to issues that allows no dissent and reacts harshly to any questioning (as Lucy does with Linus in this classic Peanuts strip). It is a quest for purity that will allow no association with anything or anyone that even remotely represents departure from established orthodoxies. It's the closed-mindedness for which the left routinely condemns the right.
Our timely example is the campaign at New School University in New York to disinvite Senator John McCain as commencement speaker. What is McCain's great sin per New School's leftist fundies? There are two:
- supporting a gay marriage ban in Arizona
- speaking at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University
The nerve of some people!
Says one student:
I think the thing that bothers me the most is him speaking at Jerry Falwell's school.
Says another:
In all of our classes we're taught the value of inclusion of all people, and we're taught to question our leaders.
SWNID loves this progressive educational philosophy: "we're taught . . ." like sheep. And be careful which leaders you question, by all means.
We can only compare the moral outrage at McCain's invitation to the outrage at a certain blogger's support for Rudy Giuliani.
Nevertheless, it will certainly burnish McCain's conservative image to be heckled at one of higher education's most notoriously liberal institutions. Don't think that he didn't calculate that when he took dueling invitations at New School and Liberty.
4 comments:
"We can only compare the moral outrage at McCain's invitation to the outrage at a certain blogger's support for Rudy Giuliani."
Where is the outrage at your support of Rudy Giuliani? We who do not support Giuliani(at this point in time at least) are merely voicing our concerns over his possible candidacy.
My problem is not with your support of Rudy, but with the snide remarks(like the one quoted above) that you post to those who disagree with you.
You come across more like Lucy than Linus in the comic you linked to.
Good! That fulfills my sinister intentions.
Fiona
Giuliani can only fall if he decides to run. That may or may not happen. If he decides to run and he is the most promising conservative candidate then I would have no problem voting or him. It is too early to make an endorsement.
SWNID can be snide and opinionated but he is not a bad person. Sometimes we are even in agreement.
Which reminds me.,.,.
SWNID
That was a great piece on OT
I am not a jazz afficiando but his show was a favorite of mine when it was on GUC.
We intend to do some serious dating around politically before prom night in November 2008. Have some laughs, get to know some people . . . you get the idea.
Waiting to endorse means no blogging material until everyone else has done all the good stuff.
So we endorse early and often. In a free country, it's free.
Thanks for the kind words, KevinK. Right back at you.
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