Tapsearch Com EditorThe Common Good can't be branded (LINK)
February 29th 2008 17:55
I still must defer my study of the common good. We live in an age of branding and imagery. It is like a painting with no central theme. Everything is splattered over our canvas of life. We then put a label on these splatterings and it is supposed to mean something.
We are in a war on "terrorism". We label it. This way we do not have to identify the causes and effects of what we are doing and can include anything we want under the term. We do not have to identify any nation in the process or define much of anything. All we know is that we are the good guys who are killing the bad guys.
We add things to it however - like the "surge" this blinds the historical facts about wars in the Middle East. As a matter of fact we can ignore the historical boundaries of warfare itself. We can rush tanks on the highway to Baghad shooting at anything along the way - be it innocent civilians or whatever. And if the enemy doesn't talk because we have labled it a War on Terror we can practice somethings outside the conventions of other wars. Conservatives this way can be very liberal in their efforts against the bad guys.
In other places we can also condemn a whole social program as Socialists in places like South America and Central America. Conservatives do this without any tests of values- they are very liberal in their efforts.
On the other hand, the left labels good things that have been practiced for centuries as being part of the religious right. The label "liberal" is on the throne of all branding. It attracts the heart in the things we do. It raises the thoughts of liberty and freedom. It has taken on a image of a nice person concerned with those around them. It denotes compassion except when the right to life interferes with free choice.
Few who use the term liberal can define it. They are liberal in their definition of what it means. They know it is something that is opposite of other bad labels as Fascism and try to do the same thing against the label Conservative. They forget that the origin of Fascism, Communism and Socialism were all based liberal thought processes that destroyed old static thought processes. Liberals identify with democracy and shy away from any connection with the other "isms". After all they have been set free to splatter their canvas of life with most anything they want. They have been freed from even old fashion philosophy, history and traditions that divided people. Yet. they do more dividing of people than anyone. The individual is king.
They set up the state over the church even though they know the state is a poor agent in creating standards for ethics and morality. They subsitute the phrasing - that's just the way it is rather than dig into the matter more thoroughly. Their concept of separation of church and state demonstrates this splattering on the canvas of life. In the end they just know the church has screwed up freedom.
Liberalism is an enemy of the common good and dismisses it as something not relative to our times.
For they believe in the absolute sovereignty of the individual in its entire dependence of God and God's authority although in transactions they readily use money with the phrase "In God we trust". Money transactions even in a liberal environment has to have some standard in a society where greed rules.
Liberalism cites the absolute sovereignty of society in its entire independence of everything that proceeds from itself. - another splattering on our canvas of life.
Liberalism cites the absolute civil sovereignty in the implied rights of a people to make their own laws in entire independence and utter disregard of any other criteria than the popular will expressed at the polls and in majority voting. They forget that Hitler was freely elected the first time. Instead they assume there is a good ruling all this freedom somehow.
Liberalism proclaims the absolute freedom of thought in politics, morals and religion and the unrestrained liberty in communication. The word "f***" somehow has earned its place through common use although it is something very crude to say the least.
Of course Liberals would deny most of the above and they can because they are liberal being liberal is a good thing.
This is why I have to stall my study of the common good. Right now, I do not know how to plugged it in especially when someone on the other side like President Bush says Jesus was his favorite philsopher. I will have to view the splatterings on the canvas of life in our times more deeply .
(Primary resource is Modern Heresy notes from Father McQuade's college class viewed through my life's experiences. )
More articles and sites by Ray Tapajna, Editor and Artist at Tapart News and Art that Talks
We are in a war on "terrorism". We label it. This way we do not have to identify the causes and effects of what we are doing and can include anything we want under the term. We do not have to identify any nation in the process or define much of anything. All we know is that we are the good guys who are killing the bad guys.
We add things to it however - like the "surge" this blinds the historical facts about wars in the Middle East. As a matter of fact we can ignore the historical boundaries of warfare itself. We can rush tanks on the highway to Baghad shooting at anything along the way - be it innocent civilians or whatever. And if the enemy doesn't talk because we have labled it a War on Terror we can practice somethings outside the conventions of other wars. Conservatives this way can be very liberal in their efforts against the bad guys.
In other places we can also condemn a whole social program as Socialists in places like South America and Central America. Conservatives do this without any tests of values- they are very liberal in their efforts.
On the other hand, the left labels good things that have been practiced for centuries as being part of the religious right. The label "liberal" is on the throne of all branding. It attracts the heart in the things we do. It raises the thoughts of liberty and freedom. It has taken on a image of a nice person concerned with those around them. It denotes compassion except when the right to life interferes with free choice.
Few who use the term liberal can define it. They are liberal in their definition of what it means. They know it is something that is opposite of other bad labels as Fascism and try to do the same thing against the label Conservative. They forget that the origin of Fascism, Communism and Socialism were all based liberal thought processes that destroyed old static thought processes. Liberals identify with democracy and shy away from any connection with the other "isms". After all they have been set free to splatter their canvas of life with most anything they want. They have been freed from even old fashion philosophy, history and traditions that divided people. Yet. they do more dividing of people than anyone. The individual is king.
They set up the state over the church even though they know the state is a poor agent in creating standards for ethics and morality. They subsitute the phrasing - that's just the way it is rather than dig into the matter more thoroughly. Their concept of separation of church and state demonstrates this splattering on the canvas of life. In the end they just know the church has screwed up freedom.
Liberalism is an enemy of the common good and dismisses it as something not relative to our times.
For they believe in the absolute sovereignty of the individual in its entire dependence of God and God's authority although in transactions they readily use money with the phrase "In God we trust". Money transactions even in a liberal environment has to have some standard in a society where greed rules.
Liberalism cites the absolute sovereignty of society in its entire independence of everything that proceeds from itself. - another splattering on our canvas of life.
Liberalism cites the absolute civil sovereignty in the implied rights of a people to make their own laws in entire independence and utter disregard of any other criteria than the popular will expressed at the polls and in majority voting. They forget that Hitler was freely elected the first time. Instead they assume there is a good ruling all this freedom somehow.
Liberalism proclaims the absolute freedom of thought in politics, morals and religion and the unrestrained liberty in communication. The word "f***" somehow has earned its place through common use although it is something very crude to say the least.
Of course Liberals would deny most of the above and they can because they are liberal being liberal is a good thing.
This is why I have to stall my study of the common good. Right now, I do not know how to plugged it in especially when someone on the other side like President Bush says Jesus was his favorite philsopher. I will have to view the splatterings on the canvas of life in our times more deeply .
(Primary resource is Modern Heresy notes from Father McQuade's college class viewed through my life's experiences. )
More articles and sites by Ray Tapajna, Editor and Artist at Tapart News and Art that Talks
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Comment by RubySoho
Music Zone
Thought Zone
As for ethics and morality, what Church or religion has a decent sense of either?
Comment by Anonymous
Ethics and morality have to have a starting point somewhere. Nothing starts by itself. We are all flawed finite beings. We search for what is not finite. We search for truth and perfect Love outside of ourselves. We grow accordingly in ethics and morality with the basic biblical principle of doing unto others as you would have them do to you.