I first read Mere Christianity in 1976, just out of college. It was bracing, and I was immersed in it quickly. I had taken enough psychology and anthropology to know that the accepted view among intellectuals was that morally "it's all relative." Trying to retain some crumbs of foundational morality was considered a fool's errand. All of that had been overturned decades ago - by someone, somewhere. This was reinforced powerfully but indirectly in the theater, where we rejoiced in offending the bourgeoisie. I considered myself a rearguard defender of Some Things Being Right, though in retrospect I had given nearly the entire game away and was a milk-and water Christian.
Lewis quickly exploded this, noting that people would deny a universal morality but in the next moment complain at you for violating "something that every decent person knows." This radio program(me) is different from the book chapter, but the same in its essentials.
2 comments:
I think the position that morality is all relative has been reduced to a shibboleth, for the most part. In the US, at least, both Left and Right are very clear (if incompatible) and very vocal about what's right and what's wrong.
A good rule of thumb is that any duties that might burden me are subjective fictions that unreasonably constrain my liberty, but any duty owed to me is inviolable and would be ignored only by someone who forfeits the right to be treated as a human being at all.
Post a Comment