HOME | POLITICS | SPORTS | LIFE | SCI/TECH | OPEDS | HELPFUL TIPS
|
June 3, 2010 Conservatism is all the rage in America today. The tea partiers are the darlings of the right now, and ever so hot. Liberals are the bad guys. Only conservatives are honest, moral, God-fearing and patriotic. "We must take America back", and restore freedom, morality, prosperity, religious liberty and fight socialism, blah, blah, blah. But let's face it; many who call themselves conservative today in America aren't really conservative at all. They're reactionaries. Yes, I know,reactionaries are what Marxists and communists call those who oppose their long discredited views. But reactionaries do exist. There are still those in the former Soviet Union who want to return to the failed and discredited communist system which fell apart two decades ago. They're reactionaries too. Supposedly, conservatism is a political and social philosophy which aims to preserve the best things of the past. But the so-called conservatives in America actually want to undo the enormous social progress America has made in the past few decades and return to the days when homosexuals lived in fear of being exposed and losing their jobs, and were often blackmailed, and when poor pregnant women routinely went to back-alley abortionists,risking their lives and health, while women who had the means easily arranged illegal but safe ones, when those down on their luck and out of work were at the mercy of an uncertain fate, and where you could be arrested and prosecuted for buying a men's magazine,and adult films were illegal. Many right-wing politicians want public schools to deny homosexuals teaching jobs,and some loony extremists in Washington actually want to see gay people rounded up and place in re-education centers where they will be "cured" of their homosexuality. Great! Then let's round up the Jews.... "Conservatives" also want to restore prayer to public schools,and even Bible readings,even for students whose parents are Jews,Muslims,Hindus,Buddhist,atheists and agnostics. But schools are places for teaching,not preaching.As well as teaching fairy tales such as creationism as scientific fact,and even banning the teaching of evolution altogether. Supposedly,learning about this will make them wicked,immoral atheists, and only those who believe in the literal interpretation of the Bible can be virtuous. Many conservatives also want to ban any television program,film, book or magazine which they find "offensive,indecent and obscene", despite the fact that not every one agrees about what is offensive. Supposedly,doing this will improve public morality. Yeah,sure. If this happens, it won't be long before the government takes the Simpsons and the Family Guy off of television,as well as Desperate Housewives and Sex and the City, all in the name of "restoring Morality to America", and Playboy magazine won't be seen on newstands anywhere. As if these things were actually responsible for the "decline" of morality in America. The problem is that conservatives want to create an idealized America which never existed; one in which all children have heterosexual parents in stable marriages, there is no sex before or outside marriage, even for adults who have never been married, no divorce, no homosexuality, no abortion, no use of contraceptives, no pornography, even tasteful erotica, no gambling,possibly not even dancing! And an America where there is no welfare, the government never hands money out to people in need, taxes are low or non-existent and every one is self-reliant.
And an America where every one attends church on Sunday,watches G-rated films and television, reads the Bible every day, and has big, contented families and lives happily ever after.
What a pretty fairy tale! But America and the world are vastly different place now. We can't return to the past. And to attempt this would be catastrophic for this nation.
A former free lance French hornist who has performed with numerous orchestras, opera companies, concert bands and chamber music ensembles. Also a former substitute music teacher at varous public schools. Has served as music critic for student newspapers at Queens college and Hofstra university and currently involved in music appreciation programs for people with diabilities and the elderly and infirm. Has performed in Italwy, Australia, Switzerland, New Zealand, Fiji and Samoa.
Classical music blog The Horn, at blogiversity.org. Discusses all aspects of classical music, orchestral, operatic, chamber music etc, music history, theory, current events, composers, conductors, instrumentalists, singers etc, and much more.
|
||||||
|
|
|||||||
|
