Wednesday, September 09, 2009
Introspection on abortion
Usually when I'm debating with a pro-choicer at some forum or blog, when things get to the boiling point and I'm driving my point home, when things get a tad too personal the opposition will throw the pejorative "self-righteous" in my face which they like to say characterizes the social right. OK I'm speaking only for myself here, can't speak for Sarah Palin, for the Rev. James Dobson, Randall Terry, Jeb Bush, just little old me. In my day to day I consider myself so far from the holy, for the bulk of my life I've never even remotely felt myself approaching sainthood and yet at the same time I've reached the conclusion that many pro-abortion folks are utterly heartless but it's not self-righteousness that spawns this evaluation as I've none of it to begin with. I think many pro-choicers are dark people and while I consider myself to be your rank-and-file sinner, I fully expect a lengthy stay in Purgatory at the least I don't want to take that final step over to the dark side (I hear BB cogitating a response) and the reader will note I was careful to use the word "many" here, didn't say "majority", "most" or "all" but candor compels me to admit for instance that many characters in the Terri Schiavo saga were downright creepy, I know a few liberals who feel the same way and again this is only a conclusion drawn from a sinner who is so far from the mark but draws the line at killing. As dear old Anonymous once noted "morality consists in drawing the line somewhere", you don't have to twist my arm if Beyonce and Britney, Eva Mendes and Jessica Alba are playing nude volleyball on the beach but I don't like to see dead fetuses in garbage pails. I guess the latter makes you a right-wing extremist, a fringe guy or gal these days at least according to polemical rules as defined by liberals who seem to feel that flexibility in one or more areas should guarantee your pro-choicedom. The other pejorative they'll frequently throw in my face is "Mr. Religious Fanatic" which for me is, as Mike Tyson would put it ludikwis since I've never gone out on a theological limb in any discussion or forum or blog with my latest calculations of who's in Hades these days, quite the opposite. Just an autobiographical note here SO GET IT STRAIGHT!!!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Your self-evaluation is too harsh from what I know about you my friend, but your honesty is always refreshing.
ReplyDeleteI myself always like the pro-aborts who tell me its none of my business to tell a woman what to do with her body, to which I say there is another BODY (and soul for that matter) that I am concerned with and heck if suspected criminals are allowed to have legal representation then by golly I think the unborn deserve someone out here trying to speak on their behalf!
But in general I think that people resort to turning the argument away from the REAL topic of killing babies and try to focus the debate on YOU being righteous, it is because then they don't have to try to answer your questions about when Life begins and such.
Beth, when you make your pro-life arguments are you doing so out of a sense of your own personal sainthood, your own moral superiority or are you just making the best arguments you can because you feel pro-life is good for the country? In our case I suspect it's the latter.
ReplyDeleteI've blogged about this before in a deliberately spiritual blog on pro-life, trying to develop this philosophy, this moral philosophy of Beauty and called it Moral Aesthetics, something to go up against and compete with Rand's Objectivism in the marketplace of ideas and so basically it's very simple. If you subscribe to Beauty being the most important thing along with Love and all the rest then a garbage pail full of dead fetuses has no place in a world of Beauty. Pro-choicers, well some anyway have of late acknowledged the inherent ugliness of abortion but seem to be making the case of the necessity of such ugliness at times. With my philosophical school of thought I'm developing right now there's no way you can defend any form of ugliness and that goes for poverty, homelessness and all the rest.
ReplyDeleteYour philosophy is a good one except for the fact that humans are imperfect, and therefore ugliness, as you call it, is going to happen (whether on purpose or not), however we should strive for the Beauty recognizing that perfection can never come. Whereas Objectivism (I am not totally sure of this) acknowledges that humans have limitations but calls each of us to strive for our own personal best, and be able to enjoy the fruits of our own labor. It doesn't recognize charity, so that is why I am not 100% sold on Objectivism, but perhaps a synthesis of your philosophy and Rand's is the best idea yet!
ReplyDelete"ugliness is going to happen"
ReplyDeleteBut Idealism says it shouldn't. If I had to define Idealism without the technical Webster jargon it would be this. We may be imperfect, the world may be imperfect, Life may be imperfect but that doesn't mean the philosophy is wrong. I've been an idealist my whole life. I've no illusions but if we have nothing to aim for then it's just pragmatics.
Getting back to abortion I wanted to say this. I know of too many stories where the woman is pregnant and the people around her push for abortion, sometimes relentlessly so but who gets blamed time and again for imposing their views on others? I'll give you 3 guesses.
ReplyDeleteSome people also think that communism is ideal, but see I recognize its limitations because of human nature, that's all I meant. I happen to like your philosophy, and I wish it could be so, I'm just throwing my reality dose into it, sorry.
ReplyDeleteYour point is taken. It's like my Mom is fond of saying "it ain't a perfect world" but I'm just saying we shouldn't just accept reality for what it is but try to change it at least what we can. If everybody just said "oh that's reality, that's life" we'd have no societal progress, no civil rights and all the other good things. MLK Jr. didn't accept reality the way it was back then but even sacrificed his life to change it. You should never cease trying to make the world more beautiful.
ReplyDeleteI really like your optimism! You are very right.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a fan of Reality. Reality is to a large degree changeable if enough people have that mindset. In short we ARE reality. I know I'm getting all Matrix-y here but frankly I'm tired of hearing that's Life when it doesn't have to be. For instance if and when they find a cure for cancer the current depressing reality will be history. Buddhism teaches that change is the principle of the universe, nothing ever stays the same. I way I see it the pragmatic realists are copping out is what I think.
ReplyDeleteReality TV has made me not a fan of Reality either!
ReplyDeleteSeriously, you bring up some excellent points. Like self-fufilling prophesies, we only make them so by making them so, right?
Think about it, why does Life so often suck at least for many? That's because others make it so, the boss that works you to death for instance. Everybody acts like Reality is what it is, can't be changed but that's only because others make it so. We create our own reality good or bad.
ReplyDelete"Seriously, you bring up some excellent points. Like self-fufilling prophesies, we only make them so by making them so, right?"
ReplyDelete..and as you noted on your site earlier, they can be positive and proactive:
..make a nice day!
The self-fulfilling prophecy I hate the most is the one that says third-party candidates don't have a chance so vote for either the Dem or the Repub. It's only a self-fulfilling prophecy because everyone thinks it's useless and that's how we wound up with McCain.
ReplyDeleteBB, why didn't you answer my question about whether you listen to Glenn Beck?
ReplyDelete