-See all writings in this series-
The class overall started off with a bang when you consider some of the readings in Week 2. Really started to concern me that this class would not be an honest, unbiased discussion of the topic at hand but a slow… you should believe this way kind of class, pushing the liberal agenda.
Lets first go over my readings in, In Defense of the West.
An initial quote from Devine said the following:
But common-sense answers like hope, persistence, prayer, work, adjustment, self-reliance, and perseverance do not satisfy many inquiring minds, as new questions are raised constantly.
But aren’t new questions raised regardless?
Then when commenting on a Socrates writing Devine said:
Socrates used the example of the ideal of the real rose, its essence, verses the corruptible reality that we see. This comparison shows no existing rose is rose, all the ones we see show some signs of underdevelopment or corruption; only the idea of it is rose, perfect, true, essential.
Here is the thing. A deformed rose… IS STILL A ROSE! We were told to take the writings this week and compare them to our tradition and how it is either for or against our tradition. So I made the point, that the church as flawed as it is. IS STILL THE CHURCH.
Next we covered some clips from Plato’s book, The Republic. The part that was taken from this was Plato’s ideal society.
So The Republic also planned state arrangement of marriages, communal sharing of spouses, state rearing of children without parents even knowing their offspring, communal sharing of property under control of the state, rearing all children for war and sacrifice for the state, exposing deformed or sickly children to their deaths so they are not a burden to the state nor on creative individuals, allowing slavery (except not of fellow Greeks) and rule by a philosopher king rather than by the people.
I can’t imagine anybody would be happy with this.
Now I’ll cover some of the readings in Western Vision and American Values that I didn’t cover already.
A snippet that speaks for itself was from The Antichrist by Friedrich Nietzsche.
Mankind surely does not represent an evolution toward a better or stronger or higher level, as progress is now understood. This “progress” is merely a modern idea, which is to say, a false idea. The European of today, in his essential worth, falls far below the European of the Renaissance; the process of evolution does not necessarily mean elevation, enhancement, strengthening.
Now the ‘best’ writing is last.
It is by Kristine M. Baber and Colleen I. Murray, called A Postmodern Feminist Approach.
This writing is what I think is the biggest problem with modern society.
Problem number one:
Postmodern theorists take the position that all theory is socially constructed and reject the claim of modernists that only rational, abstract thought and scientific methodology can lead to valid knowledge.
You see, even solid facts… are no longer facts. As referenced by my image above. This ‘man’ was pregnant and got a lot of press. The only problem is that this ‘man’ was in fact a WOMAN! A ‘transgender’… basically a women who decided she was a man and so it was? But with the teachings from people like this, even solid fact is no longer fact. Just stuns me that we as a society have fallen this far.
Their whole thought process is that sexuality is not determined by how you are born, but how you feel. But they contradict themselves when they say:
A pluralist approach does not mean total relativism, however. We are not advocating taking a value-free position, where anything goes and where all sexual experiences and activities are acceptable. ………… For example, although we may take a position that acknowledges pluralism, we would oppose adults’ having sexual contact with children even if children “consent.”
It is either, how your feel, or it is how it is.
I’ll end with a quote that I think sums up the problems with modern society best.
A keystone of a feminist postmodern perspective is the rejection of a unitary truth or knowledge.