It’s terrifying how many people refuse to confront the implications of their premises.
I have a lot of respect for my Gentle Readers. They’re a bright bunch, and as well-meaning as anyone alive. So please take what follows as an illustration rather than a condemnation. Quite some time ago, one Gentle Reader was disturbed by something I’d written about racial matters and what must be done to improve them. I’d prescribed the separation of the black race from the White, on the grounds that it’s the sole guaranteed remedy for the plague of black violence against us. His reply was essentially that we mustn’t do that, that there must be another way.
A reaction against the suggestion that the races should be resegregated is understandable. White Americans have been heavily propagandized about the evils of segregation. We’ve been steeped in the official lore to the point that it’s next to impossible to set it aside. Even in the face of the black crime plague – and the statistics are absolutely unequivocal on this point – the typical White American is reflexively appalled by the notion that segregation is the answer. There must be another way!
But what’s the implication? That no matter the consequences of not resegregating, we must endure them and continue to search for an alternative approach? The Civil Rights Era is now six decades behind us. Over the years since then, we’ve poured time and treasure into attempts to raise black Americans nearer to White standards. What has resulted?
All the problems attendant upon the mingling of the races have grown worse. Black violence against Whites has never been worse. Black crimes against property have swelled monstrously. Black disruptions of the peace have become so common that they’re no longer newsworthy. Black illegitimacies have mushroomed; today more than 70% of all black infants are born to single mothers. Other black pathologies have exploded as well.
At what point does it become licit to say “We’ve tried long enough and hard enough; let’s go with what we know would work.” For there may not be another way. Sixty years of efforts, more than a trillion dollars of public expenditure, and ceaseless, relentless programming of young Whites’ assumptions and suppositions now lie behind us. A veritable river of blood and broken lives are all we have to show.
But the many continue to trumpet the premise that “There must be another way.” By implication, we must reject what we know would work ab initio. Regardless of the costs and consequences, we must keep trying other approaches, from here to eternity.
More recently, I crossed swords with a crusader: a woman violently opposed to the practice of the circumcision of male infants. Now, I have no opinion on the matter. I don’t claim special knowledge of the costs or benefits of the practice. I know what I’ve been told, but I don’t know how much of that is supposition as opposed to hard facts. So I start from there: I need to know more before I take a position on it.
This woman, whom I’ll call Jane, presented the following argument:
God created every mammal with a prepuce, and I doubt he wants you to mutilate your child to please him.
WHOA! God created all of us with unpierced ears, too. He created us with hair growing from our faces and our groins. He created us with teeth that decay and organs that sometimes fail us. If Jane’s premise is that we must not modify what God gave us, what of all those other things? Hey, what about boob and butt lifts?
Given Jane’s premise, I can’t find a limiting principle. Can you?
Needless to say, Jane reacted badly to my observations. Most people are annoyed by having the implications of their premises illuminated. But then, most people don’t really think. They speak far more, at any rate.
If I had a wish for my legacy, it would be that more people would think more. In particular, that more people would exercise care in their selection of premises, especially those premises from which they argue for changes in other people’s choices and actions. Surely there’s no more appropriate time for clear and cautious thinking and speaking.
Nobody likes to lose an argument. Yet it happens. Quoth C. S. Lewis yet again:
“I suppose there are two views about everything,” said Mark.
“Eh? Two views? There are a dozen views about everything until you know the answer. Then there’s never more than one.”
Proposing Deus vult as your premise is seldom the right place to start.
Have a nice day.
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