Katherine Kersten, in her Star Tribune column, on August 28, 2011, lamented that something is very wrong in the West and in England in particular. She and her sources blame the outburst by riotous looters as emblematic of 50 years of moral abandonment of the Western tradition of self-restraint. I agree.
Traditional Judeo-Christian morality has been supplanted by materialism (I agree) and radical individualism (I disagree strongly here. The superficial individualism exhibited by an assembled mob of lawless youths arises rather from their sacrifice of the self to collective thuggery.)
We cannot solely return to our classical moral and religious heritage. Of course, all children must be raised by a mom and a dad, with a conscience instilled, within the value system of self-development accompanied by ethical self-restraint.
Morality springs from faith, be it Christian or non-Christian. The internal desires and passions that drive each youth must be controlled by that well-brought youth, as she never allows her peers to direct her choices or behavior.
Morality and religion are largely discernible even if not objectively knowable. Their probable certainty is certain enough and universal enough to apply to all members of society without bias or unfairness.
Kersten insists that to remoralize society and re-religionize society are the ways to avoid the ethics of lawless, subjective hedonsim. She calls it right: Out of faith grows morality. Out of morality grows the virtuous citizen that makes democratic system possible, while maintaining civil order.
Like I believe, I think she believes in original sin. Unlike I believe, she is a conservative altruist, whereas I am a conservative egoist.
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