Monday, April 17, 2006
New Direction
In the year since Terri Schiavo was sentenced to death, what have we learned? Are we any more effective in confronting the Culture of Death? Are we fighting a rear-guard action against an inevitable Brave New World, or is there hope to turn back the tide in this country?
The more practical question to ask perhaps is do we understand what we are up against and are our tactics appropriate?
I've taken a little unplanned sabbatical from blogging, partly due to a heavy work schedule. I've also struggled with the events of the past year. The death of Terri Schiavo and my subsequent investigation into the the Culture of Death that caused it has been difficult to process. It's taken this long to formulate a response that wasn't merely personal. This doesn't exclude personal and emotional factors, in fact the only commentators who were able to understand what was happening in the struggle surrounding Terri Schiavo were those who were able to connect emotionally and empathetically with her. But my own efforts need a more positive proactive direction before I can air my emotions in this matter.
What I have tried to do is understand the nature of the Culture of Death, its origins, its goals, and hopefully its weaknesses as well.
Among the inhabitants of this netherworld I encountered medical serial killers, philosophers who muse about killing infants and bestiality, and acclaimed scientists turned conman. I sent a fair amount of time identifying some who I considered real villains, but perhaps even more dangerous is a larger group of activists among the right-to-die movement. I think I can fairly use the description of Comrade Lenin, who accurately if unkindly characterized them as "useful idiots". For a variety of reasons, these are people who genuinely believe their cause is the best for everyone involved without spending any time reflecting of the possible unintended consequences of their policies. Then there is an much larger group that are not activists, but find the cleverly crafted messages of the right-to-die movement difficult to resist in their utilitarian appeal to "reason". In their passive support of the movement they are in one sense the most dangerous of all, but also the most likely to be swayed by a better alternative.
At this point in time, I think I've spent enough (and possibly too much) time analyzing what is wrong with our culture and its attitude toward life. One chronic problem I've found with the pro-life movements is that we don't consistently present a positive vision of how things should and more importantly could be. This is always the difficult part. I'll like to hear from others as I try to articulate some of the possibilities, and see if there is a common interest to present a new vision of a United States of America that values life from its leadership to its grassroots.
The more practical question to ask perhaps is do we understand what we are up against and are our tactics appropriate?
I've taken a little unplanned sabbatical from blogging, partly due to a heavy work schedule. I've also struggled with the events of the past year. The death of Terri Schiavo and my subsequent investigation into the the Culture of Death that caused it has been difficult to process. It's taken this long to formulate a response that wasn't merely personal. This doesn't exclude personal and emotional factors, in fact the only commentators who were able to understand what was happening in the struggle surrounding Terri Schiavo were those who were able to connect emotionally and empathetically with her. But my own efforts need a more positive proactive direction before I can air my emotions in this matter.
What I have tried to do is understand the nature of the Culture of Death, its origins, its goals, and hopefully its weaknesses as well.
Among the inhabitants of this netherworld I encountered medical serial killers, philosophers who muse about killing infants and bestiality, and acclaimed scientists turned conman. I sent a fair amount of time identifying some who I considered real villains, but perhaps even more dangerous is a larger group of activists among the right-to-die movement. I think I can fairly use the description of Comrade Lenin, who accurately if unkindly characterized them as "useful idiots". For a variety of reasons, these are people who genuinely believe their cause is the best for everyone involved without spending any time reflecting of the possible unintended consequences of their policies. Then there is an much larger group that are not activists, but find the cleverly crafted messages of the right-to-die movement difficult to resist in their utilitarian appeal to "reason". In their passive support of the movement they are in one sense the most dangerous of all, but also the most likely to be swayed by a better alternative.
At this point in time, I think I've spent enough (and possibly too much) time analyzing what is wrong with our culture and its attitude toward life. One chronic problem I've found with the pro-life movements is that we don't consistently present a positive vision of how things should and more importantly could be. This is always the difficult part. I'll like to hear from others as I try to articulate some of the possibilities, and see if there is a common interest to present a new vision of a United States of America that values life from its leadership to its grassroots.
papijoe 7:43 AM
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