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The Clinton's Cultural Revolution
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11174 |
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Section : |
EDITORIAL
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| Issue
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10 / 1993 |
624 Words |
| Author
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Morton A. Kaplan
Editor and Publisher |
During the election, candidate Clinton repeatedly said, "It's the economy, stupid." In electoral terms, he was surely correct. In an instrumental sense, he was also correct, for if the economy fails, our social and cultural undertakings may fail also.
However, our special feature in Current Issues this month--"Clinton's Cultural Revolution"--addresses a topic of much greater importance. It also transcends issues of conservatism or liberalism.
We live in an age in which we are extending rights to previously excluded groups and attempting to mitigate injury and sorrow. These are noble sentiments, but they can be dangerously misleading when carried to excess.
Why should one take pride in being an American? Because we are the richest and most powerful nation in the world? Or because, for instance, we rescued Europe from two wars that could have destroyed human freedom and one major political challenge that could have had the same consequence?
But, then, why should we take pride in having rescued Europe? Did we preserve freedom? If so, what kind of freedom? The freedom to engage in public sex or masochistic sex, or the freedom to live as autonomous beings with a sense of enduring worth?
It may well be that some undesirable freedoms are part of the price of desirable freedoms. I do not wish to oversimplify the issue. But neither should we fail to understand that some freedoms, if unlimited, could undermine desirable freedoms.
It is the kind of humans and society we create, stupid. If we fail to understand this, then we will fail in the only endeavor that ultimately is worthwhile: to create a world fit for humans who deserve autonomy.
It is possible, even likely, that I or some of our other authors are mistaken in particular judgments. Our concern, however, is not mistaken.
Nor is our concept of relationships, if not each delineation of them, mistaken. Not all life-styles are equally appropriate for good societies. Freedoms compete with each other, and some are better than others, even if prudent people acknowledge levels of uncertainty before reaching judgment. Each attempt to reduce injury itself causes injury. The best crafted and most considerate tax law, for
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