Time for your Latin lesson!!!
Summum crede nefas animam praeferre pudori,
Et propter vitam vivendi perdere causas...
(Loose) Translation in plain English:
Heterodoxy and Orthodoxy
by Steve Mizrach
Note: the occasion of this essay was the discovery of a wonderful newspaper calling itself "Heterodoxy, the Cultural Equivalent of a Drive-By Shooting," by the 'Center for the Study of Popular Culture.'
What does it mean to be heterodox? One definition you might find in Webster's dictionary is "to challenge prevailing assumptions, to defy orthodoxy, to resist conventional authority." Well then! To be heterodox is to be a rebel! It means to rise above the crowd, to resist the status quo, and to show that one is a free thinker. In short, to defy the powers that be. Since that open age of rebellion in the 1960s, in our society it is though to be rather heroic to be heterodox - since the "powers that be" must, by Lord Acton's maxim ("absolute power corrupts absolutely"), be worth fighting. People equate orthodoxy with religious fundamentalism, unquestioning belief, lack of critical thought, a "cultlike" mentality, and irresolute commitment of ideology. Since ours is a pragmatic age, we have no place for ideologues or absolutist thinking. So then, let us be heterodox!
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Extensive translation:
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