Sunday, November 28, 2004

Another old parable....

A parable about a metaphysician,

Once upon a time there was a young women who danced naked in the temple and sold graven images of herself for money. There was also a man of business who made as much money as he could. They were both in a crowd one day as a metaphysician spoke, "I tell you the truth, if any man thinks of committing adultery with a woman then it is as if he has already done it."

The young woman called out, "You seemed like a nice guy but now you're threatening my livelihood. I have to make a living. You degrade me!"

She walked away crying. The man of business turned to the metaphysician and said, "Ha! So she's a sinner and a whore." The metaphysician replied, "Go and give her all your money and support her. It is your false business dealings that have resulted in her poverty and her dancing to feed her children." The man of business said, "So you think I'm greedy? The other day, you seemed nice!" He stalked away angrily....

The metaphysician thought to himself, "They know not what they do. I wonder if they will be among those who kill me to kill the Truth I speak?"

Then he turned and saw that the man of business was helping the temple prostitute down the street and comforting her. Sometimes the revenge of the Conscience is sweet indeed.

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About the revenge of Conscience, vengeance is His. This often applies to the Herd, right in their own dead heads.

Spoiled Amenity, the nice guy....some spoiled rotten fruit will not like the meaning of true meaning? Is true meaning, meanness?

"Amenity, or complaisance, is the impulse every person has to accommodate himself to all the rest. Like every moral impulse it carries sanctions: in this case, fear of rejection and desire to belong. But as with every moral impulse, the sanctions are only training wheels, preparing us forobedience to a deeper moral principle written on the heart. A mature person accommodates himself to others not just from fearof rejection and desire to belong, but from concern for their legitimate interests. The problem, of course, is that in many of us the impulse never does mature. We continue to rely on the training wheels and never learn to ride. Unfortunately, this makes a difference. Mature amenity draws a boundary; [But the discrimination of that!] precisely because I care about the legitimate interests of others, my willingness to accommodate has a limit. At just the point where going along would not be good for all, I call a halt. Stunted amenity cannot make such distinctions. It cannot stop accommodating; it does not know how. I give Grandma lethal drugs to accommodate my relatives; to accommodate me, Grandma asks for lethal drugs. A girl has an abortion to accommodate her boyfriend; to accommodate his girlfriend, the boy goes along. We know these things are wrong, but for fear of being on the outs with others we do them anyway. In the extreme case, we accommodate each other to death. Of course people suffer remorse when they commit these terrible deeds. For present purposes, the more interesting fact is that they also tend to suffer remorse when they refuse to commit them. When they hold out, when they say no, when they resist the clamor of voices telling them what to do, they feel not only afraid, but in the wrong. This shows that, like prudence, the urge to accommodateis not simply self-regard even when it is spoiled and self-regarding. It draws strength from the very sense of obligation that it corrupts. Conscience always does the best it can; when driven from its proper course, it finds another and flows on.
Spoiled Honor....."
(The Revenge of Conscience:
Politics and the Fall of Man
By J. Budziszewski)

The New Man is a creature of Stolen Honor.

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