Liberalism and shame

Last night, unable to sleep, I was reading the terrific third chapter of Atlas Shrugged, where the emblematic disaster of the San Sebastian mines is told. Taggart Transcontinental, neglecting desperately needed maintenance on its main lines and thus greatly damaging its existing freight customers, pours all its available capital into building a doomed rail line into the Mexican desert, on the principle that the Mexican people need a fair shake. An unnamed member of the Taggart board of directors says:

“I confess to a feeling of shame when I think that we own a huge network of railways, while the Mexican people have nothing but one or two inadequate lines.” (Atlas Shrugged, p. 58.)

Synchronistically, just a couple of hours before reading that, I had come upon a comment in a 2004 VFR discussion (copied in the previous entry) in which a reader said:

“As a straight male engaged to be married in the summertime, I find myself ashamed of the institution of marriage, as I would of membership in an all-white country club.”

- end of initial entry -

Wanda S. writes:

Re your 2004 discussion with a person who found heterosexual marriage too shameful to defend:

This sort of labored fastidiousness is all the rage now. Just yesterday my Yahoo homepage flashed this story about a pair of Hollywood cupcakes who have heroically committed themselves to a life of fornication in solidarity with their oppressed homosexual comrades.

I thought of you when I read this quote by the male, emphasizing just how committed they are to each other:

Shepard, 37, told CNN that taking a stance on gay marriage is by no means a way to put off a wedding. “Do you know what this thing costs?” Shepard asked, holding up Bell’s engagement ring. “This is more commitment than getting a tattoo! Like … we own this thing!”

If you can stand it, do a web search for their names—their vapidity and complete cluelessness about what marriage is, besides a day to party, is totally pathetic. Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised to find that real homosexual activists would find the support of people like these rather embarrassing.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at August 24, 2012 11:55 AM | Send