Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Secular Blasphemy + Quote of the Day

Read the whole thing.

Quote of the Day, by University of Exeter philosopher Edward Skidelsky:
"the extension of the 'denier' tag to group after group is a development that should alarm all liberal-minded people."
Well, DUH. Of course, a whole swathe of self-proclaimed liberal-minded people are busy demonizing with the most reductive terms possible everybody whom they don't like and marginalizing them as morons. Under the idea of "actions speak louder than words," I submit that such folks are not at all classic liberals in the slightest.

As for blasphemy, didn't I just post about how political zealotry itself is a kind of secular religion? Maybe I should eventually post about the impulse to worship mingled with the impulse to persecute. And all excused under the idea of moral superiority.

2 comments:

lumpy said...

New vocab (for me, anyway) from recent research:

ersatzreligion

Basically, "substitute religion." Yep, the etymology is German.

Still, nifty new words notwithstanding, just calling it 'religion' adds an edge I like, while 'ersatzreligion' could be a fizzy soda drink.

Related, Klavan on the Culture's 'Shut Up' video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWHgUE9AD4s&feature=fvst

Mad Minerva said...

"'ersatzreligion' could be a fizzy soda drink."

Hilarious! Motto perhaps: "Doing good never tasted so good."