Page 85 - Liberating Liberals V2

Liberating Liberals
relatively representative democracy. To name a very few.
There’s one little looming caveat noted by
Bloom. Stripping tradition of its sacredness means humanity has become a “value creating” rather than
a “good discovering” creature. Given a completely freethinking population, we will create from scratch what we think are the best values for us and humanity. Bloom calls this “value relativism” and notes: “Once we plunge into the abyss, [of value relativism] there
is no assurance whatsoever that equality, democracy or socialism will be found on the other side.” Or capitalism, peace or ecology for that matter. We could wind up in a racist, autocratic, Nazi society with tens of thousands of nuclear bombs. Such is the worst case scenario of truly free freethinking. C’est la freethinking vie.
On the other hand, the same outcome could occur if we follow only tradition or religion.
On the other, other hand, that’s why the
freethinking liberal venerates tradition more than many conservatives. We’re playing for the highest possible stakes in a nuclear and ecologically challenged world. We want to carefully sample every possible social arrangement. Whereas many conservatives think God or the Market will take care of it all.
And the high stakes are another reason why nonviolence should be one of the most precious of meanings: We could destroy everything using violence.
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