Opus 2022-007: Eroding Rights, part 1 of 2

We live in troubling times.  We face a nation that is wilting under all the Marxist attacks.  Liberties and security that we once assumed are being stripped away.  The Biden Administration has been doing everything it can to destroy the economy through inflation, promote scarcity in food, limit our mobility and destroy the first and second amendment rights that are ours.  In spite of all this, if I had to pick out one extreme danger it would be philosophical more than physical.  

I think the biggest threat we face is identity politics.  Charles Murray gives a definition.

“At the heart of identity politics is the truth that ‘who we are’ as individuals is importantly shaped by our race and sex.” Murray, page 4

He starts his background by repeating what I had read before about the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  There was a lot of concern that it would lead to quotas and reverse discrimination.  The idea was that two wrongs would not make a right.

“But in the floor debates and in the press, these provisions were described as one-time exceptions justified by the unique injustice done to African Americans.  It’s not as if the act would seriously infringe on traditional American freedoms.” Murray, page 3

It took less than a year for the behemoth of discrimination to emerge from the corner it was hiding in and begin to undermine the rule of law and the American system of individual rights.  Affirmative action went from making it illegal to discriminate to demanding that we discriminate.  The only change was the blind arrogance of the proposals and the change of victims.  

The deep sliver of destruction was on the philosophical level.  

“...a philosophical wedge had been driven between those who wanted strict adherence to the ideal of treating people as individuals, equal before the law, and those who advocated group-based policies as a way to achieve social justice.”  Murray, pages 3-4

We were being forced to think differently about the law, justice and human rights.  No longer were you held responsible for your actions but for the actions of a group.  No longer were you given a reward for your earned individual accomplishments but now you were gifted because of a physical characteristic.  Law was being pushed aside for fiat.  

To be concluded...

Murray, Charles.  Facing Reality.  New York:  Encounter Books, 2021.

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