our kickin' sitchyashun

[Douglas <dougwils@moscow.com>]

Morning, visionaries,

The remarkable thing about relativism is that, for all the adverstising
hype, it really isn't that elastic. It never stretches very far, and only
stretches to the left.

Ted tells John Harrell to keep his "simple minded insults against
women" to himself. John Harrell's attitude is the "real
obscenity." Really? There is such a thing as real obscenity? By what
standard? Not only is this is the case, but Ted tells John that if he
called any woman a "slut," he would get a response
commensurate, etc. Ted, if I were the owner of a restaurant, could a
commensurate response be kicking someone out?

You all are in a hopeless bind here. Standards are inescapable. Imposed
standards are inescapable. You want to pretend that this is not the case,
all the while vigorously telling us how you would impose them. The
funniest thing about this is that you cannot see (or will not admit) what
you are doing. We (conservative Christians) have a standard, we know the
basis for it, and we are willing to live by it and defend it. You have a
standard, you are willing to impose it on the rest of us, but when called
upon to defend or explain your standard (and why it is authoritative over
all of us), you surround yourselves with a cloud of cliches. But no
society can exist unless the adherents of the worldview in power
are willing to act via the law as though the adherents of various
minority views are just flat wrong. Just admit that this is what you are
currently doing to us. The rest of your day will be sunny and filled with
epistemic relief.

Cordially,

Douglas Wilson