Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Liberal Morality: Like Whatever

Stan makes an important point here: it can't hardly be a coincidence that our civilisational collapse has coincided with the hollowing out of public morality.

True, there may be no a priori reason why a society has to be based on Christian morality, but nothing so far has come close to replacing it, least of all the kind of slippery, situational ethics currently dominant. Consider, for example, the Cameroonatics' position: they support traditional values, except for the values they don't support. Who couldn't sign up to that ? Who would ever be inspired by such an obviously tactical position ?

Still, there's more to it than just the vacuums at the centre of our society. Law is supposed to be the codification of public morality, but our political elite has instead adopted the culturally Marxist position that the law is merely the means by which those with power impose their views on those without.

Once you accept the Marxist view of law, then all bets are off. Government is free to do whatever it wants. Consider this case. No one disputes that this money was obtained by deception, but they don't think they should pay the money back anyway. Apparently, fraud is OK, providing your pay cheque comes from Her Majesty.

Ditto, this case. Incidentally, in so far as senior officers can qualify for bonuses by reducing the crime figures, this surely would be fraud in almost any other context.

The trouble is that if the law is simply the means by which those in power impose their agenda on those without it, then absent that power the law has no force. Or, as Sir Robert Peel put it: 'Police must secure the willing co-operation of the public in voluntary observation of the law to be able to secure and maintain the respect of the public.'

Of course, Peel assumed that the role of the law was to uphold the values of society, not to change them. Marxists seek to totally remake society and so the power they require must be total too. The law must be used a tool to impose the new order and if that pesky morality gets in the way, it'll just have to go.

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