Doghouse

Like Clockwork

"I fear that liberal indoctrination may lead to a similar phenomenon among conservative students. The negative reinforcement experienced by the students, whether in the form of peer alienation, negative criticism from teachers, or even academic penalties, could potentially lead them to withdraw, becoming passive sheep who will accept leftism with the consent of silence, for fear of retribution should they dare to break the rigidity. While liberals claim to be about individuality, they enforce a system of conformity so rigid that it is almost cult-like in both its reverence for its basic tenets and its vitriol toward opposition. If situations like those detailed abaove are allowed to become the rule instead of the exception, the resulting apathy could very well mean the end of America's monopoly on socioeconomic freedom."

~Kenny Hitt from http://www.tennapel.com

We need to get something straight. Liberals do not enforce a "system of conformity". That is a projection. As a Liberal I can, and often do, break ranks with other Liberals on many issues.

There are no repurcussions.

I was speaking with a friend of mine this week about the ordination of homosexuals. We differ on this issue in that he is sure and I am unsure and still have questions. He noted how he has been vilified by Conservatives. I noted that I still had questions but I saw no need at any point to do anything but follow by own conscience and be open.

It's an ongoing and respectful discussion.

That's how Liberalism in a Christian context works. We can differ, disagree, listen to other points of view and also know (and note) that we have often been mistaken and have to modify our position on any given issue.

Here is another example. Dougy T (and I admit, his hyperbole makes him almost emblematic) and a few of his more rabid followers, wish the world to be strictly dichotomous with them as the "we" and the rest of us as the "they". This makes them (the "we") feel safe and secure from the evils us ("the they").

But as free people we do not shake out that way in time and space. I may very easily take a Conservative position on a given issue as a Liberal. I may vote for a Republican (and sometimes do). But can a rabid Conservative do the same?

I dunno. I suppose it is possible, I have just yet to see it.

Are some Liberals ideologues just as myopic as Conservatives?

Certainly. They are basically the same animal in different fur...or as Benjamin Franklin said, "like foxes with their tails tied together." Both are a nasty bunch.

The Progressive agenda is far more open. It's open to discussion on each issue that faces a free people regardless of the past. To cite an example, I happen to oppose abortion in many cases, perhaps most. I also strongly support advocacy for women who are faced with such a choice. So in this one issue I actually, to some degree, agree with Dougy T and some of his folk. Their desire to protect unborn children seems good to me (how they go about it may not be so).

That is what a true Liberal can do because we are not passive sheep, as Kenny Hitt suggests. We have the option...daily, of being open to new ideas, information and to being persuaded by an argument.

When I was writing for Dougy T's Blog and on the Forum there (before I was banned) it was Kenny who brought out a whole new way of seeing the reality of death in Genesis. If I was the characature of the "Liberal" that Kenny and Doug envision I would have stayed my ground. But I didn't. His point was superb and well-reasoned. So, I now view otherwise based solely on that.

And it doesn't even matter to me that Kenny is an ass. It was just a good argument that I had not seen or heard before.

I realize this is not everyone's experience. One of the other writers at Dougy T's Blog is a college Prof. I believe him when he says he gets hammered by Liberal Profs. But they are Modernists and the day has turned on them. Modernism was/is a failed experiment both for the Left and the Right.

We have yet to see what will replace it, but it may well be more open and exploratory than anything we have yet seen.

I don't have "vitriol against opposition". I think sometimes those who want the "we-they" wish it so. I am just trying to enjoy that I live in a relatively free country (I feel certain your phones are tapped) where I can express my views and have them enjoyed and challenged by others.

That is one, among many, benefits of being an American.

The other is to openly question our leadership. Dougy T and his more rabid followers denounce this. They give George Bush carte blanche simply on an ideological basis. Performance is ignored. Any legitimate criticism is seen as "hatred" for a person rather than the free disagreement with policies that effect the entire world, and policies which we have some ownership of as voting members of a free society.

So they shame and blame and pretend that they are victims.

They are not victims.

They are simply rhetorical.

posted by Obi-Mac BakDon @ 4:07 AM