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The Left's Moral Absolutism
The American Thinker ^ | August 09, 2009 | Eugene Slaven

Posted on 08/09/2009 2:28:57 AM PDT by Scanian

In my high school World History class I remember reading about moral relativists who expressed moral indifference at the practice of forced female circumcision common in some African cultures. These moral relativists argued that moral principles were culture-specific and not universal. According to this theory, there is no objective standard by which to judge cultural norms.

Curiously, the moral relativists were equally reticent about immoral acts committed in the United States. They defended the violence of The Weathermen and other extremist groups, excused brutal murderers sentenced to death row, and extolled the virtues of the 60's counter-culture. The argument that morality is culture-specific was spurious, employed out of convenience, not principle. In principle, the moral-relativists refused to moralize across and within cultures.

The far left's tolerance (and in many cases open support) for the atrocities committed by communist regimes in the 20th century is well documented. The far left opposed the Truman Doctrine and Containment, arguing that America had no right to interfere in other countries. The fact that the Soviet Union was poised on global domination and had enslaved millions of people did not illicit moral outrage from committed American socialists.

It is true that many on the left became partially disaffected with the Soviet Union after Premier Khrushchev's speech condemning Stalin's atrocities was leaked to the Western press, and especially after the Soviet Union brutally suppressed Hungary's anti-communist uprising. However, aside from some stern rebukes, there was no real moral outrage and whatever tepid moral outraged did surface was always qualified by a moral-equivalence argument. That is, the Soviet Union's misconduct was no worse -- and perhaps more utilitarian -- than America's misconduct.

So what lies at the root of the far left's ethical code? What ideology compels them to excuse history's most tyrannical regimes

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: antiwestern; farleft; moralrelativism

1 posted on 08/09/2009 2:28:58 AM PDT by Scanian
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To: Scanian

The weathermen, the SDS, and other radical Soviet front groups hooked up with the NAACP and the Black Nationalists groups and most of the Black churches. They were infiltrated way back then by KGB deep cover operatives. Over the years they have penetrated all levels of Government, Academia and the Media. This three pronged approach has finally resulted in control of the White House, The Court System and both Houses of Congress.


2 posted on 08/09/2009 2:37:04 AM PDT by screaminsunshine (!!)
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To: Scanian

Too much analysis of the “far-left’s ethical code”.

THEY DON’T HAVE ONE!

They are no different than the “evils” they rant against. Only THEY know all the answers. Only THEY can protest.

Back in the 70’s, I worked next door to and attended the same parish as Delaware’s appointed seat warmer. His cheif delights were disrupting Mass and yelling at different voices to shut up.

BTW, why is Delaware stuck with a political hack as a senator for six years? Special election anyone? I believe that is the norm in every other state.


3 posted on 08/09/2009 3:14:03 AM PDT by NTHockey (Rules of engagement #1: Take no prisoners)
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To: Scanian

I would say that it’s AN ABSOLUTE RELATIVISM which lies at the roots of leftist actions,choices,...And it’s the worst kind of absolutism ,an absolutism WITHOUT PRINCIPLES or WITHOUT ETHICAL CODE but only changing emotions and no bounds to some permanent truth rooted in reallity.
Since the left has no consistant ethic rooted in reallity ,never mind contradictions while they fancy and pretend to be themselves THE GOOD(like GOD) and then that all their actions are GOOD .
No surprise then if the left is usually GODless(in various modes)since THEY ARE GOD as a whole


4 posted on 08/09/2009 3:31:05 AM PDT by Ulysse
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To: Scanian

“The Left’s Moral Absolutism”

Correction: “The Total Psychosis of The Left; Its Tyranny and Evil.

IMHO


5 posted on 08/09/2009 4:30:01 AM PDT by ripley
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To: Scanian

Good article


6 posted on 08/09/2009 5:23:54 AM PDT by fso301
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To: Scanian

Those on the left have a very selective form of moral relativism...

For instance, they’ll give passes in all the above mentioned examples. However, the founders of this country, as slave owners, were simply evil white men, and since the country was founded on slavery, even with all the changes in the country over the years, this country is still tainted.

Never mind that they’ll happily forget about current practices of slavery in some countries to this day...

Their moral relativism can simply be expressed in three words... “America is bad.”

Mark


7 posted on 08/09/2009 6:14:14 AM PDT by MarkL (Do I really look like a guy with a plan?)
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To: Scanian
The far left's tirades against "evil" corporations and Christian (but almost never Muslim) zealots are not relativistic, neither in tone nor in substance. They are unambiguously absolutist. The left moralizes about perceived injustices -- be it the effects of capitalism or the war against global jihad -- with a religious-like conviction, never uttering the word "relative" in its condemnations.

liberals: effete hypocrites...

8 posted on 08/09/2009 6:19:33 AM PDT by GOPJ (ACORN - paid protesters ...The White House has an enemies list. Are you on it? (yet?)
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To: Scanian
The aversion to Western culture and its core ideals, namely individualism, personal responsibility, and capitalism is the cornerstone of the far left’s ethical code.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The Marxists are raging against God. That is the fundamental problem here. They are breaking the First Commandment by bowing down before Karl Marx instead of worshiping God.

Western culture is built upon the foundational belief that we are children of a just and rational God. We are equal before Him. He has given us the free will to choose evil or good, and there will be just and rational consequences for choosing either good or evil.

If we are equal before a just and rational God, then the outgrowth of that belief is a demand for just and rational government, courts, laws, and police, and equal standing of all citizens before the law.

The author writes of a “cornerstone” but neglects to mention that the cornerstones of all structurally sound buildings rest upon firm foundations.

The cornerstone of “individualism, personal responsibility, and capitalism” that characterizes Western Civilization is built upon the foundation that we are equal in the sight of a rational and just God.

9 posted on 08/09/2009 7:05:15 AM PDT by wintertime (People are not stupid! Good ideas win!)
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To: Scanian
In my high school World History class I remember reading about moral relativists who expressed moral indifference at the practice of forced female circumcision common in some African cultures. These moral relativists argued that moral principles were culture-specific and not universal. According to this theory, there is no objective standard by which to judge cultural norms.
The "moral relativists" have no doubt about the evil of slavery - and its aftermath a century and a half later - when they can be blame Christians for it. They find the fact that Christians from ancient times until the 18th Century tolerated the institution of slavery convenient. The fact that Christians, and only Christians, changed their view and saw slavery as morally repugnant - and eliminated the practice, so far as it has been eliminated, worldwide is something the so-called "moral relativists" stuff down the memory hole.
William Wilberforce

Black Rednecks and White Liberals - Thomas Sowell

Epistle to Philemon

Slavery and the Civil War.

Essentially the Civil War was due to the fact that Christians in the American South were uniquely situated to be resistant to the change which swept through the rest of Christianity in the Nineteenth Century.
What is clear is that neither the pro-Westerners nor the ant-Westerners are morally relativistic.
Bingo.

10 posted on 08/09/2009 7:15:33 AM PDT by conservatism_IS_compassion (The conceit of journalistic objectivity is profoundly subversive of democratic principle.)
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To: fso301

Glad you liked the post


11 posted on 08/09/2009 7:43:38 AM PDT by Scanian
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To: Scanian

bookmark


12 posted on 08/09/2009 4:12:00 PM PDT by Free Vulcan (No prisoners. No mercy. 2010 awaits.....)
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