Prager On Values

I was putting gas in my truck this morning, listening to the wise Prager for a few minutes.  He was responding to the Ferguson, Missouri rioting. He said what is needed for these young blacks, and all young people, is moral renewal. He noted that the Left has taught them to assert their rights, but what is needed and more important is for them to be taught their obligations. Right on, Mr. Prager.

It really comes down to which came first, the chicken or the egg. I have some minor but significant ethical differences with Dennis. While his emphasis on fulfilling one's moral obligations is paramount, when one's rights are violated, obstructed or denied, one should and must speak out, sue, litigate (rarely riot or take up arms), protest, go to the media, and lobby Congress, to have those rights free up or restored.

To be freed up from societal dictates, social shackles, expectations, and excessive laws imposed is the natural and constitutional right of the individual to employ her power and freedom to meet her obligation to God to find her calling and spend her lifetime actualizing her potential.

Out of this divine command grows all other  rights and obligations.

Prager is a traditional conservative moralist that defines leading a good life as leading a life of service as an altruistic, mature, responsible adult. This adult is one who disciplines and sacrifices what the self wants instinctively. This person subordinates pursuit of personal pleasure and urges for the sake of family, community and nation.

I am a modern conservative moralist that believes that both rights and obligations  need to be addressed and met, with the primary emphasis being to do one duty first, while asserting one's rights. Doing one's duty is best met by engaging in living life to the fullest, guided by motive of enlightened self-interest, that divine obligation imposed by God that every adult first and foremost self-realize.

One day most adults will individuate and that sea change will result in altruistic needs being well met, as a side effect.