By DONALD DeMARCO
A bouquet of flowers is more presentable than a bouquet of blunders. Nonetheless, looking over the contemporary moral landscape, it is the blunders that are flourishing and not the flowers. A blunder is a big mistake or, if you will, a gross mismanagement. It differs from a mere mistake in that it contains a high degree of foolishness and usually causes a great deal of harm.
The blunder has an interesting association with the blunderbuss, a gun used in earlier times that had a wide muzzle and was designed to shoot short distances without exact aim. Also, a person who blunders habitually is called a blunderbuss.
My dozen blunders, outlined below, help to explain the moral confusion that prevails in present-day society.
First, love is an emotion. Love, properly understood, is the will to promote the good of the other. The beloved is a necessary concomitant to the lover. The lover may or may not feel emotion when he loves, but it is the will to serve the good of the other that is primary. The emotion is secondary. Whereas the emotion may be delightful, love is often difficult. We have a duty to love, but not to enjoy the emotion. Love is both realistic as well as altruistic.
Second, sex is an amusement. According to the nature of things, sex is ordinated to life. Contraception, sterilization, and abortion sever the intrinsic connection that naturally exists between sex and procreation. Sex is fundamentally pro-creational rather than recreational. Like love, sex is related to the other. Amusement is related to the self. Sex is also naturally ordinated to love and marriage. To reduce sex to amusement is to trivialize a profound and meaningful gift.
Third, marriage is a convention. If marriage were merely a convention any arrangement between people could be called a marriage. Therefore, marriage would become meaningless. History has shown, however, that the marriage between a man and a woman bound together in a committed and unselfish love has been not only a great blessing to society, but has served as its fundamental basis. No other arrangement is so naturally suited to inspire love and responsibility toward children.
Fourth, religion is an invention. Religion must be relatable to God. Therefore, it cannot be subjective. The more people try to make religion their own, the less they make it a religion. The two primary purposes for religion are to worship God and to become more Godlike by adopting the virtues of faith, hope, and charity. Religion makes moral demands on us. In this sense religion afflicts the comfortable in addition to comforting the afflicted.
Fifth, the natural law is a construct. Nature is stubbornly objective. It precedes society or any social construct. In this sense it is original. It is also universal. Scientists who study nature understand this and therefore can work together as a fraternity. Nature is also a principle of growth. Human nature applies to all human beings. Because it is a principle of growth, it gives us a sense of where we are going and what we must do in order to fulfill ourselves. This is not something that anyone has invented.
Sixth, abortion is a choice. Abortion is more than a choice since it produces a train of consequences. Many of these consequences, affecting the aborting woman, marriage, the family, and society in general, are deleterious and would not be chosen if they were known. To make a choice while being blind to its consequences is more like a guess than an enlightened choice. Moreover, the so-called choice is at variance with the developing child in the womb that, according to its natural impulses, is persistently choosing life.
Seventh, euthanasia is death with dignity. Dignity is an intrinsic quality that is irremovable. Human beings have an inalienable dignity that cannot be lost. To say that a person can be put to death with dignity is to suggest that he would forfeit dignity if he were to remain alive. If there is no dignity in a particular person who is alive, it is difficult to understand how that person could gain dignity by being put to death.
Eighth, a human being is an autonomous individual. All human beings are finite, mortal, and defectible. They are subject to chance, violence, aging, and death. It is the height of ignorance to claim that anyone can be or achieve autonomy. In addition, human beings need other human beings. They live by love and thrive through cooperation. Autonomy is a myth that lacks all plausibility.
Ninth, education is adaptation to the times. The most important feature of education is to teach a person how to be a more complete human being. Personal excellence is the fundamental objective of education. As a secondary feature, it prepares a person for his role in society. But a person is ill-suited for that role if he has not been prepared as an authentic, moral human being.
Tenth, the meaning of life is subjective. Human beings belong to a society, a commonwealth in which each individual has a contribution to make so that that society can prosper and flourish. Each person has his own subjectivity in the sense that he is unique. Nonetheless, the ultimate value of that uniqueness is realized in how a person is able to bring his uniqueness to bear for the common good.
Eleventh, gender is fluid. All societies throughout human history have recognized the binary quality of persons as male or female. As it is in the case of animals, this binary quality is essential for reproduction. Maleness or femaleness is marked in our genes. Its basis is natural and biological. The current fashion to invent a superfluity of genders has no realistic basis.
Twelfth, God is a fiction. The current trend toward atheism fails to come to terms with the designs of nature as well as the designs of the cosmos. The world could not have emerged from nothingness and no finite being could have created the sun, the moon, and the stars. Also, there must be a God to account for our belief in love, our thirst for justice, and our desire for eternal life.
A common denominator for these twelve blunders is a rejection of God and a retreat into the solitary self.
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