The idea is that the government reflects the values of it’s people. Unfortunately, over the last 50 years, the people have been silent about there morals or they have traded some traditional model for a “new” morality that puts justice and fairness in the same category. This new morality is not a constant, rather it is malleable to any given situation.

I do agree that at this time the push is coming to the top but I would still argue that this is only a reflection of what was being pushed from the bottom. One thing to remember is that our government is about 6-10 years behind the will of the people and probably further behind in what moral standard is being propagated.

Anyhow thanks so much for your comment, I love it when someone actually make me think about the theory and it’s applicability in the real world. Kudos to you!!

My slight disagreement with you is when you put forth: Indeed it is not the place of the Government to set or enforce a specific moral code but rather the responsibility of those who wish to employ self governance, to adhere and promote a moral life despite the government.

My disagreement doesnt come from the theory, but rather from practice. Although you should be right, it should be up to the citizens and not the government to promogulate their system of morality, we often see that this is not the case. When we start relaxing the discipline on people through concepts like “situational ethics”, which you rightly noted, what invariably happens? People slip into barbarism.

To put it another way, I would posit that when the elites of society have embraced the noxious standard of the day, in ours its this leftwing antigod (read antipurpose) prodeath culture, the policy of the nation changes, and this change, I would posit, poisons the nation. Again, to try to be clear, I think it comes from the Top Down.

I freely admit I may be wrong, but I dont think I am. In my own country of Canada, we have an example of this. When Trudeau was elected, he divorced the country from its history of Judeo Christian morality, using government policy as his instrument of war. The support of Trudeau, by elites of my country, who believed in Trudeaus vision long before their was a Trudeau (which probably enabled him to even seek office) was essential. Far more essential then the support of non nobles like me.

And with the Rome analogy, I do understand that I am somewhat comparing apples and oranges (a Republic to a military dictatorship) but I think the top down example of how manners where (are?) spread is illustrative.

Im thinking it over, just now, and I guess your right in the sense that it should be up to the people who make up the elites and government to have a moral standard independent of government
(ie a knowledge of right and wrong). But again, we often see those with a corrupt standard use the government as a vehicle to debase the nation.

Not to get to crazy with it, I know this post should end, but an example of this is abortion. If we were to be perfectly honest, we would acknowledge in the case of an unwanted pregnancy the healthiest choice for the woman involved and the nation itself would be adoption, not the murder of the child. We have seen the government go out of its way (and in my country it is far far worse) to enable people to kill their child. And the results on the fabric of society, I think, are obvious. The government essentially gave a moral sanction to the barbarous practice. I think the government ok preceeds the rise of the abortion bubble, not the abortion bubble coming before the sanction. Again, top down.

Political correctness, revisionist history and the deconstruction of our words and their meanings are all tools being marshalled against us in the left’s effort to destroy our country. See Orwell.

Make no mistake. This is the key battleground in the war for the survival of our republic!

You are to be commended for pointing this out once again AG!

She has a bit of a point; as a society, what can be done to minimize crime and the causes of crime?

But she misses the cause of incarceration of teenagers in almost all cases. In virtually every case, the real reason that a teenager is incarcerated is that that particular teenager chose to commit a crime. Individuals ARE responsible for their actions.

Probably the biggest thing society can do to reduce crime and incarceration is to teach individual responsibility and right vs wrong instead of nuanced morality.

Very nicely done. It seems that a lot of quality gets lost these days.

Thanks again

Great diary.