Tenet # 2 (revised)

      No Comments on Tenet # 2 (revised)

A correspondent has written to call Your Humble Blogger on some rhetorical sloppiness in my comment on the Second Conservative Tenet. I could plead that I simply passed along Mr. Rossiter’s sloppiness, but in fact, if I don’t at least point out, and preferably correct, any sloppiness in the originals, then there isn’t much point to what I’m doing. So, thank you, Gentle Reader.

Specifically, she writes about the “precious soul and inviolable personality,” which is how Mr. Rossiter and I both described the self, that in us which truly is equal. “Doesn't the first require a certain moral (religous?) axiom?” Yes, Gentle Reader, it does. One Mr. Rossiter (or, rather, his theoretical Conservative) and I share. On the other hand, I would think it’s possible to believe in some sort of fundamental human equality of worth without a religious element, on a Rawlsian basis perhaps. In which case, the precious soul is a red herring, expressed in an exclusionary manner, and I’ll have to think of something to replace it.

As for the inviolable personality: “What is personality, anyway?” asks G.R. and on what basis can we call it inviolable? “It does not seem to be inherently stable from a biopsychological point of view.” Also fair; I took the phrase to be modeled on the “inalienable rights,” to mean that violating the personality would not break the laws of nature, but of humanity, that there is necessarily a moral cost in violating anyone’s “personality” under any circumstances. That doesn’t even mean it oughtn’t ever be done: obviously, there are circumstances where we violate the inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness (we do have prisons), but we cannot do it lightly, without making, in each case, a moral decision. I am moderately comfortable with the idea, without defining personality, but if I am to make the Tenets of Vardibidian remotely rigorous, I suppose that’s not good enough. Again, I’ll have to replace it.

So. Your Humble Blogger sidesteps the issue, and rephrases the Second Tenet: Each human is, solely by virtue of humanity, of equal inherent worth to each other human, despite the natural inequality of gifts, talents, and skills.

By the way, I suspect the phrase “inviolable personality” comes from a legal text of some kind; Googling found nothing to confirm this, but did happily provide a link to the Situationist International Online. Gotta love the Situationists; it’s their world, and we’re just growing into it.

Thank you,
-Vardibidian.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.