Posted on 02/09/2016 8:03:23 AM PST by Kaslin
That Donald Trump, in his quest to lead us back to national greatness, feels free to brag, distort, lampoon, defame and empty his personal trash on every political doorstep is one sign -- but hardly the only one -- of a few changes in America's moral makeup over the past half century.
There's also the current dust-up in Dallas, Texas, over the city's alleged inability to block a "sex expo" in the local convention center. The mayor wants to bar the door to "Exxxotica," as the convention calls itself. Various local groups second the motion. "Can't do it," wail officials of the convention center. "That would be to Restrict Free Speech in Defiance of Our Precious First Amendment! And get us sued in the process."
See what I mean? We're engaged, all around, in prying from our windpipes the dead hands of the Founding Fathers. Get those guys out of here! They're dead!
I expect Trump, from the rear of his medicine show wagon, would voice hearty approval of that viewpoint. These days we say what we want to -- never mind the forgotten obligations of citizenship, civility and morality.
The Dallas dust-up is evidence of what happens when civic ideals collapse. Anything goes, like a porn exhibition in a convention center.
The idea that society can't police itself -- can't enforce standards regarded as both right and useful -- is nonsensical, a cover for weakness, a balm for the economic itch. A Dallas city councilman, noting the city's efforts to keep the convention hall full, suggests, "If we're going to compete with Vegas, we have to be prepared to get a little Vegas on us." Wow! Wouldn't the author of The Federalist Papers like to hear that one? Very, very Trumpian.
Can't ban a porn expo from the convention center? What's the meaning of that logical and moral absurdity? Not long ago, no such expo would have come a-knocking at the convention center door. The First Amendment to the Constitution and its guarantee of free speech acknowledged limits to the right to degrade.
In Roth vs. United States, handed down in 1957, in the mistily remembered days of Ike Eisenhower and Betty Furness, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that "implicit in the history of the First Amendment is the rejection of obscenity as utterly without redeeming social importance." "We hold," said the justices, "that obscenity is not within the area of constitutionally protected speech or press."
After 15 years or so, the cultural upheavals of the 1960s changed the Court's mind -- and the minds of many ordinary Americans who welcomed official permission to burn U.S. flags, divest clothing in public and do other things formerly forbidden in Uptight America, all in the name of free speech.
The meaning of civilized discourse, as contemplated by the Founding Fathers, disappeared from view. Public argumentation wasn't about persuasion, for heaven's sake. It was about the making of personal statements in any manner one might contrive. What that came down to, of course, was the idea (if you could call it an idea and not an unseemly itch) of coercing agreement through intimidation and embarrassment.
Persuasion, you see, took so long! Minds needed changing, in the interest of Progress. Don't spend valuable time on minds. Spend it on others' fears and emotions. Raise hell! Scare, shock, scandalize, outrage!
So what if the founders hadn't contemplated intimidation as an instrument for the cultivation of virtue? Bunch of guys in powdered wigs -- what did they know? As for you, sublimely alive, sublimely right as to instincts and purposes, why shouldn't the courts let you show those old fuddies what was what? Those sorts of fuddies fail to see civic purpose in a porno show, and they fear lawsuits and court costs and embarrassment -- precisely as contemplated by the engineers of the cultural revolution intended from the start to get moralists out of the way.
Enter Donald John Trump, metaphorical middle finger extended.
“Well since they won’t be voting for Trump that’s a good thing.”
I guess if you want Trump to lose in the general that would be a good thing...
Trump speaks with the vocabulary and grammar of a Jr. High student with the grace of a teamster union boss. His coarseness is not a reaction against political correctness, but a disregard for the worth of others and a lack of deference for humanity. His aggression and the aggression of his fans is unfitting for the cultivation of virtue. It seems to me that the Trump camp cares little for virtue, and has rather embraced destruction of opponents as their highest aim.
Trump supporters seem to troll every news story, blog and forum with toxic vitriol and insults. Ideas are shouted down as all who do not bow the knee to their candidate are verbally assaulted with a blitzkrieg of ad homniem ad nasuseam.
The culture has been corrupted by profanity and obscenity. Whatever offends the builders of Western Civilization, the Christan patriarchal patriotic dominion takers, is trendy and celebrated. Virtue is downplayed for vice and ideals are mocked. Language is one of the most effective fronts on the war against virtue. Language represents both the communication and the formation of higher thinking and ideals of virtue.
Language is where both the rational and the creative soul exhibits a transcendence above mere survival. History will record that when America cast off the Logos (Christ's rule)for humanism, the humanism soon failed because "every man did what was right in his own eyes" and that did not include the ascent of the mind to truth beauty and justice. Instead we foster anger, bitterness and defiance. In art we have degraded ourselves, in music we are becoming more primitive and less embracing of beauty and higher aspirations, politics has become the contest of the viscous.
Trump is to political liberty what rap is to melodic beauty.
"Progress should mean that we are always changing the world to fit the vision, instead we are always changing the vision." - G.K. Chesterton
Great post and so true. Also a lot of them are noobies
Well there we have it.
Operate with decency and respect and you get called a name. Gotcha.
Question: What is your preferred form to be addressed as from these "manly men"?
B word?
H word?
P word?
C word?
That is simply superlative. I am making it into a hot liknk that I shall use in the future with a big h/t to you.
You point us to the very bedrock on which our culture was passed down to us and of its ongoing destruction by attacks upon the foundation.
Best post I have seen here in a long, long time.
Country in need of enema. There’s an image for you.
The people supporting the Trump campaign are the previously well-mannered, polite, civilized, law-abiding citizens of the USA. They have been pushed to the brink of war by the genocidal maniacs of the leftist RINOs and Democrats, and the intensity of the language simply reflects their understanding of this reality.
perfectly fits MY frustration, anyway ... thanx
PING
I have found that when I am at my angriest is when I need to be most careful with my words.
Did Victorian decorum save the British empire? Did Rome fall because the Caesars were rude and used bad words in public? Those cultures fell, as ours will too, because they couldn’t defend themselves; because they lacked the will to confront serious problems; because they became effete and over socialized. This is one of the dumbest articles I read in a while, and that’s saying something. It’s thinking like this, exalting political correctness over results, that endangers us and our culture. Our generals are no longer warriors, but social engineers steeped in sensitivity and diversity training. Our leaders are schooled by advisers and focus groups in how not to call a spade a spade so as to avoid offending anyone.
This is true for most civilized people, right up until they are marching into combat.
To the Keyboard War!!!
Don't know whether to laugh or cry so, it's the old reliable - smh.
Waaaa! Teacher somebody said a bad word. Waaaaaa!
Maybe you have a comfy government job; or some kind of "entitlement" income. Others don't.
Maybe you're one of the preferred minorities. Others are not.
It’s called decorum...look it up if it’s such a foreign concept to you.
FR is a FAMILY site...it would be nice to try and keep it that way.
Oh try to get a sense of humor about this stuff. LOL!
You forgot to tell everyone how you like to be addressed by the foul mouthed. I went to the trouble to make you a list.
Equating posting on the internet to marching into combat is flat out ridiculous. Wondering about my income when the topic is crude language is just strange.
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