Going to museums and reading older material is a reminder that each era has its own things to be strict about. In our time, we are very condemning of things that harm the body, whether it is done to us by others, or we do it to ourselves. In most eras preceding ours, it was consider far graver to do something that was harmful to the family. Likely, we believe that only the body is real now. Families and institutions are increasingly regarded as arbitrary constructions, perpetrators of hidden power relationships, and inherently temporary, to be disposed of so that others may have power instead.
Very interesting. We are now living longer less meaningful lives...
ReplyDelete"Progressives" tend to be very Conservative about things they think will change physical nature; about things that they think will change human interaction patterns, not Conservative at all.
ReplyDeleteConservatives, on the other hand, are generally much more positive about changing the physical world than the social world.
Yet at the same time, "Progressives" tend in some ways to be very Institutional people--for example, with regard to the institutions of Social Security and Public Education, they cannot conceive of the possibility that the objectives of these structures might be accomplished equally well or much better by an alternative set of institutions.