Is it universal that men accuse others of their own offenses? Whatever is true in general, the failing is demanded by modern PC liberalism. If you’re a moral skeptic who defines the good as equality and inclusiveness, because in the absence of legitimate grounds for making distinctions hatred and oppression are the only possible motives for drawing lines, then you’ll judge those who do so as either ignorant or, if they resist re-education, willfully evil. The greatest tolerance thus calls for the greatest intolerance.

Something of the sort is at work in the Carroll book discussed a couple of posts ago, at least as the book was described to me. Another example is the European reaction to Le Pen. With anti-Le Pen rioters in the street and something not far short of a riot in the European Parliament, Chirac denounces Le Pen as a violent extremist, and in the name of openness and tolerance refuses to debate him.
Posted by Jim Kalb at April 24, 2002 07:28 PM | Send