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Good rejoinder...I declined arguing because there was no clear disagreement, and I am tired of being uncertain what the argument is about. I said that I thought that society was pretty resilient, and merely invoked a concern with a cavalier attitude toward tradition. I did not say that all change was bad, or even avoidable, just that there is reason to worry over maintaining a certain degree of social balance. If people do not assimilate norms or respect institutions, they tend to be asocial, and whether they become criminals or yuppies may have more to do with fastidiousness or timidity than conscience. The next thing you know, we have people who care for nothing except their own pathetic, transient selves, with no deep attachments to all of those things which transcend the self: one's country, one's church, art, literature, the entire sweep of human striving..... |
