Read Time 2:37

What follows is a series of questions and statements I thought about in response to the library board and members of the public.

“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

– Everyone here would believe themselves to be moral, but this begs the question, what is a moral person?

– In the last meeting, I pointed out the futility of subjective truth, colloquially known as “my truth.” This state of being assumes that all truth is individualized and compartmentalized by necessity. Because to state otherwise is to step on others’ belief in their demi-godhood. When I say demi-godhood, I mean to point to our human nature that demands that the world conforms to our belief of how it should work. Subjective truth is the fruition of centuries of struggle with lofty figures such as Freud, Kant, Russell, Sartre, and Nietzsche, who famously stated:

God is dead! God remains dead! And we have killed him! How shall we console ourselves, the most murderous of all murderers? The holiest and the mightiest that the world has hitherto possessed has bled to death under our knives, who will wipe the blood from us? With what water could we clean ourselves? What festivals, what sacred games shall we have to devise? Is not the magnitude of this deed too great for us? Shall we not ourselves have to become Gods, merely to seem worthy of it?[1]

We find ourselves 138 years past Nietzsche’s quote, with his work nearly complete. God and Objective truth is dead, replaced with the trite “My Truth” and our ascension to demi-godhood.

– What is a moral person in light of the death of objective truth? That is the question before this board. In a subjective world, all things are permissible; therefore, to say something is wrong or pornographic is to state a moral imperative. How can a demi-god make a moral proclamation outside their kingdom if everyone is a demi-god within their domain? It is on the same level as declaring right and wrong. There is no standard of what pornography is. It is all in the mind of the beholder.

– Maybe you are standing up for libertarian free will and the ability of all to come and partake of the infinite riches of a building stored with the accumulated wealth and knowledge of eons of ideas. Might I take a minute to point out you stand on the backs of giants?

– Universal literacy, the university system, modern science, and human rights are all the products of Christianity. Libertarian free will is grounded in the idea that all are created equal and free to choose as they see fit. Freedom and equality found their fullest flower in the Christian west. Nowhere else did a handful of men with passion and dedication bend the will of an empire, and ~750,000 men die, freeing a group of people based on the objective moral imperative that all men are created equal before a holy creator. The Aztecs were busy building walls of skulls. The Islamic world was happy to continue selling all who did bend to the will of Allah. The untouchables roamed the streets begging for even the recognition of being human.

– This begs the question, why do you who support libertarian free will borrow from those you actively campaign against? Should you not build your cultural and societal revolution based on a new paradigm? A paradigm free from the shackles of Christian values? Be careful what you wish for. You might get it. 

[1] Friedrich Nietzsche, “The Gay Science,” Nietzsche Love of Fate Series,  Translated by Thomas Common, Edited by Bill Chapko, (Version 4.67, March 1, 2010), 80,81