Monday, July 03, 2006

I Have A New (Old) Hero

Orson Scott Card has written the best non-religious defense of traditional marriage I've ever read. It's long, but it is very, very good. A few highlights:

Since the politically correct are loudly unwilling to fight or die for their version of America, and they are actively trying to destroy the version of America that traditional Americans are willing to fight or die to defend, just how long will "America" last, once they've driven out the traditional culture?

Oh, it will still be called America.

But out of the old American mantras of "democracy" and "freedom" and "home" and "family," of "motherhood" and "apple pie," only the pie will be left.

And even if few people care enough to defend the old family values against the screaming hate speech of the Left -- which is what they're counting on, of course -- the end will be the same. Because with marriage finally killed, America will no longer be able to raise up children with any trust in or loyalty to or willingness to sacrifice for that society.

So either civilized people will succeed in establishing a government that protects the family; or civilized people will withdraw their allegiance from the government that won't protect it; or the politically correct barbarians will have complete victory over the family -- and, lacking the strong family structure on which civilization depends, our civilization will collapse or fade away.

Read the whole thing. Please.

6 comments:

Benneducci said...

Well, I read this over and did my best to understand what he was trying to say.

Points I agree with:
*Letting courts run the country is a dang stupid idea.
*The institution of marriage is under attack and has been for a long time.
*Homosexual marriage is not genetically viable.
*Nobody has the right to tell anyone else how to feel or think.
*Withholding support of a system is the best way to kill a bad one, at least without violence.
*Education has been terminally screwed up.

Points I do NOT agree with:
*Marriage is about having and raising children.
*Denying some people the right to make legally-binding partnerships on the basis of who they want to marry is fair and ethical and makes the partnerships more meaningful.

All in all, I'd call it a well-written argument that I just don't agree with. I didn't read the "response" mentioned at the end of the article, but I'm sure it's the same old kneejerk 'intolerance' bullhonkey. Buzzwords don't defeat arguments. Discussion defeats arguments. If anyone wants to talk about what exactly I believe and why, I'm not that hard to find.

Thom said...

Eh...no thanks. I can tell when you're itching for a fight, and I don't feel like giving you one.

Benneducci said...

There is some truth in that. Had a similar conversation with Dad on the topic last week, and the only argument he could come up with was God. I can understand not being convinced by the opposing arguments, but using deities as an excuse doesn't cut it with me.

Benneducci said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Thom said...

And there you go again. Calling God an "excuse" is only valid if you can prove either a) God does not exist, or b) God doesn't really care what we do, or c) God didn't really say the things He supposedly said. If you've got proof of any of those I'd like to hear it.

So far the only argument I've ever heard from you seems to be "I don't want to believe in God because he doesn't do things the way I think He should."

There, you wanted a fight, you got one. I'm tired of pussy-footing around you all the time.

Benneducci said...

I wrote up a lengthy and detailed response earlier, but as usually happens in such cases when I don't copy and paste it got lost somewhere between here and there. So, I'm going to rewrite it on my weblog. I picked this fight, after all, so it's time for me to put up or shut up.