Dear visionaries,
Steven, thanks for the interaction. I don’t have any problem agreeing with you that in looking for the motive forces for the colonialism of the British Empire, and now the emerging American Empire, one of the central things we should do is follow the money. My point was not that (for example) the British Empire was motivated by kindness. My point was that in such racist societies, individuals who are kind people can share those widespread racist assumptions. The attempt to demonize every member of such a society, making them all into orcs and Klingons, is misguided in the extreme, and tends to trivialize the rhetoric of the whole thing, which was my initial point.
Speaking of rhetoric, Sally is really good at it. She has a real flair for words, which I (really) appreciate and enjoy. And when she employs her gift in the advancement of moral indignation, her gift really shines. Unfortunately, without the traction of moral absolutes, her tires can go really fast, and we never seem to get anywhere.
Is sophistry bad? Bigotry? Outright lies? Gee whiz. I thought that we as a people had grown past this kind of stale absolutist fundamentalism. No one died and left Sally the Sunday School schoolmarm. Now, mind you, as a confessing Christian, I think all the nasty things Sally identified are in fact sinful. Really sinful. I believe that God will eternally judge sophists, bigots, and liars on the Last Day. But what does Sally think the difference between a Georgia cracker (old style Ole Miss racial preferences) and a wine and cheese liberal (new style University of Michigan racial preferences) will be one hundred and fifty years from now? What difference does it make? What kind of people will we be forever?
Simple question. Is it absolutely morally wrong to be a racial bigot? I believe so. What do you all think?
Cordially, your fellow Southerner,
Douglas
Apologetics in the Void” are repostings from an on-going electronic discussion and debate I had some time ago with members of our local community, whose names I have changed. The list serve is called Vision 20/20, and hence the name “visionaries.” Reading just these posts probably feels like listening to one half of a phone conversation, but I don’t feel at liberty to publish what others have written. But I have been editing these posts (lightly) with intelligibility in mind.