Comments on: Pomocon POLITICAL Realism

By: Ralph

Ralph — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 18:10:24 +0000

P.S. I don’t deny that there are good and smart people who are for same-sex marriage. But I think it’s a grave mistake, and one that shows a superficial understanding of what makes a human being and a human society “work.” An embrace of the portal of a very dark age, in my view. To discuss, no doubt. (Or can one embrace a portal…?)

By: Ralph

Ralph — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 18:08:04 +0000

The underlying problem was well diagnosed by both Tocqueville and Burke: “literary politics,” i.e., literary performance on political themes with no real assumption of responsibility for making an actual political community better or at least slowing down its deterioration. Such a performance would only be justified if one were sure that there was nothing worth preserving (that we had already descended into MacIntyre’s utterly dark age)– a very daunting judgment to make.

By: Steve Billingsley

Steve Billingsley — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 16:19:56 +0000

“For me, it’s not so much that Berry is for same-sex marriage these days. It’s that he thinks–with his characteristic self-righteousness–that anyone who disagrees with him is a bigoted jerk in the thrall of industrial capitalism.”

Bingo – Peter wins the prize. I am a believer in and defender of (such as I can be) traditional marriage. But I don’t ascribe bad motivation or poor reasoning to all supporters of same-sex marriage. Many of them are persons of profound good will have thought deeply about the issue and care greatly for the persons most affected by this debate. I would prefer to be treated the same way.

It is not ultimately Berry’s opinion on this (or any other matter) that is so off-putting. It is the way he expresses that opinion. Most people don’t like to have a straw man substituted for them.