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EmptyVesselPoliticiansandPoliticalCowardice 4 - 07 Mar 2012 - Main.KatherineMackey
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| | During today’s class discussion I thought of an article (linked below) that I read yesterday. The piece effectively captures the idea that politicians are empty vessels covered by blank wrapping which typically conceals hollow rhetoric and a lack of conviction. The Republican presidential candidates’ respective reactions to Rush Limbaugh’s vile attack on Sandra Fluke illustrates the concept of ‘empty vessel’ politician perfectly.
These candidates have spent months on the campaign trail, making speech after speech pontificating about their “courage”, their “leadership”. Yet their actual responses to Limbaugh’s venomous attack illustrate just the opposite. | | | -- JacquelineRios - 06 Mar 2012 | |
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< | It's strange to me that we're even discussing support for contraception as a stand that requires courage. 99% of women use non-natural family planning at some point in their lives. This means that the vast majority of men who have sex with women also benefit from it. The voice of the 99%, in this case, should be loud enough to drown out the voice of the 1%. Contraceptives availability should also be supported by fiscal conservatives. If you scroll down to the bottom of this page, you can see statistics about the public cost of unintended pregnancies. I'm not denying that Sandra Fluke was brave to speak out on an apparently controversial issue and that she has handled herself remarkably gracefully amidst all this controversy. I guess I am just wondering why this is controversial at all. | >
> | It's strange to me that we're even discussing support for contraception as a stand that requires courage. 99% of women use non-natural family planning at some point in their lives. This means that the vast majority of men who have sex with women also benefit from it. The voice of the vast majority, in this case, should be loud enough to drown out the minority. Contraceptive availability should also be supported by fiscal conservatives. If you scroll down to the bottom of this page, you can see statistics about the public cost of unintended pregnancies. I'm not denying that Sandra Fluke was brave to speak out on an apparently controversial issue and that she has handled herself remarkably gracefully amidst all this controversy. I guess I am just wondering why this is controversial at all. | | | I think Thurman Arnold's discussion of the thinking man and creeds is somewhat helpful in understanding what is going on. The thinking man is someone who prides himself on his rational appraisal of economic and social issues and his ability to discern right from wrong. His belief in his own rationality and free will is an illusion, however. What guides the thinking man in his decisions about what is right and wrong are the creeds of the organizations he belongs to, and though the thinking man thinks that he chooses these creeds, he does not. Men "become bound by loyalties and enthusiasms to existing organizations. If they successful in obtaining prestige and security from these organizations, they come to regard them as the ultimate in spiritual and moral perfection." This suggests that contraception is controversial not because there is actually any legitimate debate about whether it is good social policy but because the opposition to contraception comes from some organization (possibly political or religious, in this case) that has bound its members by providing them with prestige or security. I'm not sure what organization this would be, exactly, because Limbaugh's words go beyond what is espoused by the Republican party and most, though not all, mainstream religious groups. |
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