I’ve been following the back and forth regarding Maureen Dowd’s most recent anti-Catholic screed in the New York Times. In it, Dowd drags out the usual accusations against the Church – that it became a “haven” for pedophiles, that the ban on gay marriage is hypocritical, etc. Elizabeth Scalia answers Dowd very well, but it was a comment by a reader which struck home with me on a larger issue:
The First Commandment of the gay movement, and popular culture in America, is Obey Your Desires. If you have a desire (especially a sexual desire), and you can act on it without “hurting anyone else”, then our culture doesn’t just say You can obey your desire, but You Must Obey Your Desire–it’s a moral imperative. There is a generally-unspoken sense that we break/repress ourselves if we don’t obey, if we exercise self-control. Much of their folly stems from this one overriding assumption about human life. The gay community, where everyone has defined him/herself by his/her desires, is one of the most profound living examples of what happens when one’s Desire is treated as the first deity to be obeyed.
Over at the Las Vegas Examiner I wrote a bit about this event we have upcoming called the Electric Daisy Carnival. What is that, you ask? Well, here ya go:
…this event is an extravaganza which is designed to lure young people in to a place where they will dance all night long – over a three ngiht period – to loud, bizarre music, fueled by various drugs and other stimulants…
80,000 are expected. Over the years, there have been many injuries, many drug and alcohol related problems and several deaths. Naturally, the Powers That Be in Las Vegas figured this would be a swell thing to have. But think about what we are really doing – we are setting a stage where 80,000 young, inexperienced people will be shoved together with a gigantic amount of overt sexuality and readily available, mind-altering substances. This is a recipe for disaster, even if (as we hope) no one is actually killed. How many of these young people will end up making a horrible mistake over the three days? How many of them will have their lives thrown off course – perhaps in to complete disaster – because someone said, “let’s do this” and no one answered, “are you kidding?”.
But, as the comment above says, we must do what comes to mind. If we have a desire to do something, we must do it. If we don’t, then we’re repressed and some how or another living a lie. We’ve built a bizarre world where the least immoral desire has been elevated to an imperative – if we can conceive it, it must be done. No one is allowed to judge the action. No one is allowed to offer contrary advice (imagine what sort of a square you would be accounted if, when this was under discussion, you had objected to it on the grounds that it will lead kids to immoral behavior…). We have this immoral wrench which is continually twisted towards ever more depravity…and we must keep allowing it because the slightest slowing down of the screw is the most horrible oppression imaginable.
In a very real sense, we have become a society which insists upon immorality. Dowd (and many, many others) have their solution to the problem of sex scandals in the Church – don’t try to reform and call people to virtue; allow them to wallow in filth and call it being “true to one’s self”. Similarly the solution to homosexuality is not to even discuss what a homosexual should do; we are to positively encourage anyone who has the smallest attraction to members of the same sex to let fly and indulge fully their least fancy.
A society cannot live like this. And I mean that in the most crucial sense: if we go on like this, we will die. A society which does not enshrine high standards and continually call people to achieve them (even while knowing all will fall short) is a society which will grow so depraved that it won’t be able to continue itself. So many people will become so insistent that the smallest whim is a matter of vital importance that the real work of society won’t get done – the marriage of men and women; the raising of children; the creation of the goods and services we need to live. Look around you and see how far the rot has already gone – we are just barely hanging on to a morally sane majority right now; just a few more steps down this path and we’re done for, as a people.
Somebody has to start saying “no”. The next time someone suggests doing something stupid, there simply has to be someone who will say, “are you kidding?”. We need that finger in the dyke, that one call to stand firm on some ground, some where. If we don’t find it, then we’re doomed.
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