The High Road
My good friend, Mr. Gelernter, has been assailed for "taking the moral highground." The problem with this view is its continued lack of reflection.
If no one ever takes the high road, chances are no one else will ever look up.
The plethora of childish comments on the post below are further evidence that the majority of students today, even those at 'elite' universities, simply don't take time to think. The spirit of a liberal education is nigh dead.
It is one thing to disagree with someone who defends premarital abstinence, but any objection ought to be one based on reason and not the infantile indignation of being told not to copulate as one pleases. Further, any time one makes an assumption that their opponent's position is purely irrational, they evade a rational discussion all together.
There is indeed a rational, and strong, case to be made for premarital abstinence. Dismissal of this position fails to consider that intercourse is not simple a physical act. In fact, how ignorant it seems, upon reflection, to relegate the singular act which allows for the continuity of the human race to be simply a matter of physical enjoyment. Is the human species nothing more than a race of epicureans with language?
If there is anything sacred about man's ability to reason, to opine, to contemplate the "why," then all of his actions must assume a greater teleology than pure sensual enjoyment. Sexual intercourse falls perfectly under this hermeneutic: it is the only way that a man and a woman may truly become one, that they may, as Diotima puts it in the Symposium, "give birth in beauty."
That the ultimate end of intercourse is reproduction is undeniable. To exclude consideration of this is to turn one's back on the importance of the human race. This is not to say it is never to be enjoyed or done for the sake of enjoyment. But when that enjoyment becomes its primary concern, the sanctity of the act is destroyed. There is no longer any meaning in the creation of life, and subsequently our regard for life in general is diminished. It is no coincidence that most of those who support abortion also support a "free love" approach to sex.
If you wish to argue with Mr. Gelernter, do so intelligently. Make a case, not a cause. Use thoughts, not thuggish platitudes. Tell him to his face that the union of a man and a woman is pointless and without meaning. I dare you to come up with one good reason.
Maynard Hutchins
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Reader Comments (34)
That being cleared up I'd like to respond to the meat of your post. I'm not for having sex with anyone, much less having abortions. Sexual liberation, to me, is the apprecisation of sex and healthy practice thereof. You don't have to be married either. A simple analogy helps my arguement: we read to learn but we read to have fun, aswell. Why can't we have sex to breed, and have sex for fun (before marriage) without understanding it's importance? We can. I do.
And have you ever noticed how easily agitated people who never have sex are? How wound they are? Just a thought.
Finally, if human life is so sacred, why do we kill to "do the right thing"?
I more or less agree with everything you've said above, though out of ignorance I can't comment on Dan's comments on those you mentioned. And for the record, I'm not a big fan of capital punishment.
PS I wasn't so much refeering to capital punishment (even though it applies ) as I was to war.
And at the risk of starting a tangent, I don't think we claim (or at least shouldn't) that we kill people in war "to do the right thing." Wars aren't waged for the sake of killing people, but rather to achieve specific political/economic/or other ends. The killing is an unfortunate means, not the end in itself.
You have evoked the classic argument of someone with no real argument. To suggest that your argument has more validity simply because you are unwilling to accept another’s is just the kind of semantics and rhetoric that have kept people like you in positions of authority in this and other countries since time immemorial. The really frustrating part is that there are other people who buy it! I don’t.
You’d like some reasoned arguments against your archaic and infantile positions? Here you are.
First, you say there is, “a rational, and strong, case to be made for premarital abstinence.” Just what is that? Are you going to tell me God says so? If that’s your reasoning, I’d like to remind you that the document that most Christian and Jewish conservatives base their belief system is a collection of poorly written and contradictory stories. The Bible can’t even agree on the story of Christ’s life from one book to the next. I would think an all knowing God would be able to get the story right. So, unless you are having visitations from the Lord Almighty himself, no dice on that argument.
Perhaps you are going to tell me that children are better off in a family of a Mother, Father, and Black Lab. That may very well be true, but just what does that have to do with renting a cheap tuxedo for far too much and standing in a hot church with people sniffling behind you? It seems to me that having a loving committed relationship, married or not (a marriage ceremony is a convention of humans after all) and making good decisions about when and how you might bring a child into this world makes a lot more sense than shuffling off into a “traditional” (traditional by your definition) marriage and then squirting babies out and building an army for God.
I hate to be the one to tell you this, but to many, sex is just a physical act. Now, whether you believe that or not, just who are you to judge anyone else’s feelings about sex? You and the Pope dare, in a world of over 6 billion people with dwindling resources, to decry sex for anything but reproduction? That, little fella, is just plain reckless. If you don’t get that humans will have sex and that what we should all be doing is encouraging smart and safe ways of doing that, then get back in your time machine and go back to the dark ages where you came from.
I wouldn’t go so far back as to run into Diotima by the way. At least not until you reread The Symposium. To give "birth to beauty" is all about the reproduction of one's soul in others and gaining immortality through the conception of ideas and virtues in others. Its about openly sharing your life with others, not about sex bud.
I can't help but wonder if you actually read my piece past the second sentence or so. I'll address your response point by point:
1) I never said mine has more validity simply because I don't accept the others' arguments. What I said is that they weren't even making an argument. There's nothing there to accept or reject besides mindless slander and rambling rhetoric.
2) I stated my case, did you not read it? And religion is irrelevant in my opinion. One could make a case for the sanctity of sex on and entirely secular level.
3) I never mentioned family structure, nor did I talk about "squirting out babies for an Army of God." Furthermore, perhaps you should get clear on the history of marriage. It's not all pretty, it was taken advantage of for a long time and treated as mere convenience. But that's not to say its a triviality with no meaning outside of convention. Go read your Kierkegaard.
4) I am well aware that to many people it is just a physical act. That doesn't mean they are correct. Who am I to judge? I'm a rational being, which means I can state my opinion of anyone else's. That's what we do, we discuss and evaluate. Now if you mean judge as in be the final arbiter and law-maker, I don't recall claiming to be such. I'm trying to convince people, not force them. Finally, I explicitly said that I did not feel sex had to be just for reproduction. Try reading next time.
5) You misunderstand Plato. To say the theme of the Symposium is to "openly share your life with others" is a stretch of a post-modern interpretation. In the dialogue, giving birth in beauty refers to philosophizing and contemplation. If you can't see that I was making an analogy to that, there's no point arguing with you.
rytlove
1) I read some valid points in the responses to Mr. Gelernter boo hoo original post. I wrote one or two of them myself. Certainly not all of them had such serious, furrowed-brow, William F. Buckley-impression tone as yours but frankly, I can’t imagine getting so worked up over such a rediculous, childish thing anyway. I mean really, some kids got laid in the shower!
2) If you made your point…it was a sharp as a q-tip wraped in goose down. Your case, as I read it is that sex is for reproduction, you should be very earnest while performing the act. If you just happen to have fun while you are doing it, then lucky you. (I hope we never have sex *yawn*) In reference to religion, I was simply trying to figure out what your earth shattering defence of abstinence until marriage was. You c