Rethinking moral values
Whether or not the issue of moral values was the deciding factor in this election, it certainly has reared its head and angered many many people. At first it angered me as well. Bush certainly had the edge on Kerry on many issues. So there were countless other reasons to vote for Bush instead of Kerry. How can people vote on moral values? How can people vote to force their stinking moral values on me? I see anti-gay marriage legislation passing in 11 states and that is just angering. Why do people care if gays are getting married? And how in the world do these laws pass so strongly, as high as 80%? All this really boggles my mind.
Democrats, of course, are up in arms about this. They have morals. What makes republican moral values better than a democrat's sense of morality? Gays have the right to live and get married if they want to. How can people vote away the rights of a group of people?
Last night, however, an event occured that has made me rethink this issue of moral values. I attended a death metal concert, and I was wearing a nice blasphemous shirt with the band 'God Dethroned' emblazened in spikey evil letters. After the concert, which was at the upscale casino Mandalay Bay, we stopped by one of the cafes in there to grab a bite to eat. Well, we are a rather vulgar group, and foul obscenities often pour from our mouths. After awhile two women were seated at a table near us and immediately I noticed the older woman looking at my shirt often. I never really saw a look of disgust, but she was looking at it. I began to think about how much we must have been bothering them with our vulgar language and more or less rude behavior. They come to Mandalay Bay, a highly respectable casino, and they are forced to hear foul language from some hooligan looking young adults.
That really started to make me think of the other side of the moral values issue. Are we forcing our moral values onto them? Just because I think it's fine and dandy to swear up a storm doesn't mean that they think its ok. Don't these people have a right to sit in an upper class cafe in peace and not be forced to listen to obscenities? They never actually confronted us, but it made me wonder what if they had? Now, we are a polite enough bunch that we would have toned it down, but many many many other people would have said something to the effect of "Fuck you, its freedom of speech."
What if I were walking down the streets of San Francisco. Do I want to be confronted by a gang of gay men wearing nothing but thongs? No, I don't. And if it happened and I said to them "Go away, I don't want to see that," they would most likely respond with "I'm gay and proud of it, you can't make us go away." Who in this situation is forcing their moral values on who? Am I forcing my conservative values on them because I don't want to see homosexual men prancing almost naked in the streets? Or are they forcing their values on me by trying to make me accept that what they are doing should be regarded as normal human behavior?
Can we really argue without hypocrisy that these conservatives that voted so strongly on moral issues are forcing their beliefs onto us when there is more sex and foul language on TV then ever. Parents can't turn on the radio without hearing Howard Stern tell a woman how many men they've had sex with. Even worse, whenever conservatives try to stem the onslaught of liberal values they get labeled prudish and old fashioned. Liberals are just as guilty as conservatives of forcing their moral values onto others.
Voting on moral issues was the voice of conservatives telling the liberals that they reject the morals of Hollywood. The left controls the media. All the television shows, movies, advertising, and music are mainly dominated by liberal values. Can anyone really blame conservatives for putting their foot down and saying "Enough of this, we don't want to see this." Banning gay marriage was not the voice of people saying they reject gay people, but a more overarching rejection of the liberal values being forced onto them through the media.
Pat Buchanan has spoken of a culture war. George Bush lead the charge of the religious right and John Kerry waved the Hollywood war banner. Were the 2004 elections the first major battle in an upcoming gruesome war?
If so, this decade could prove to be very interesting...
UPDATE: Who in this scenario is shoving harder?
Democrats, of course, are up in arms about this. They have morals. What makes republican moral values better than a democrat's sense of morality? Gays have the right to live and get married if they want to. How can people vote away the rights of a group of people?
Last night, however, an event occured that has made me rethink this issue of moral values. I attended a death metal concert, and I was wearing a nice blasphemous shirt with the band 'God Dethroned' emblazened in spikey evil letters. After the concert, which was at the upscale casino Mandalay Bay, we stopped by one of the cafes in there to grab a bite to eat. Well, we are a rather vulgar group, and foul obscenities often pour from our mouths. After awhile two women were seated at a table near us and immediately I noticed the older woman looking at my shirt often. I never really saw a look of disgust, but she was looking at it. I began to think about how much we must have been bothering them with our vulgar language and more or less rude behavior. They come to Mandalay Bay, a highly respectable casino, and they are forced to hear foul language from some hooligan looking young adults.
That really started to make me think of the other side of the moral values issue. Are we forcing our moral values onto them? Just because I think it's fine and dandy to swear up a storm doesn't mean that they think its ok. Don't these people have a right to sit in an upper class cafe in peace and not be forced to listen to obscenities? They never actually confronted us, but it made me wonder what if they had? Now, we are a polite enough bunch that we would have toned it down, but many many many other people would have said something to the effect of "Fuck you, its freedom of speech."
What if I were walking down the streets of San Francisco. Do I want to be confronted by a gang of gay men wearing nothing but thongs? No, I don't. And if it happened and I said to them "Go away, I don't want to see that," they would most likely respond with "I'm gay and proud of it, you can't make us go away." Who in this situation is forcing their moral values on who? Am I forcing my conservative values on them because I don't want to see homosexual men prancing almost naked in the streets? Or are they forcing their values on me by trying to make me accept that what they are doing should be regarded as normal human behavior?
Can we really argue without hypocrisy that these conservatives that voted so strongly on moral issues are forcing their beliefs onto us when there is more sex and foul language on TV then ever. Parents can't turn on the radio without hearing Howard Stern tell a woman how many men they've had sex with. Even worse, whenever conservatives try to stem the onslaught of liberal values they get labeled prudish and old fashioned. Liberals are just as guilty as conservatives of forcing their moral values onto others.
Voting on moral issues was the voice of conservatives telling the liberals that they reject the morals of Hollywood. The left controls the media. All the television shows, movies, advertising, and music are mainly dominated by liberal values. Can anyone really blame conservatives for putting their foot down and saying "Enough of this, we don't want to see this." Banning gay marriage was not the voice of people saying they reject gay people, but a more overarching rejection of the liberal values being forced onto them through the media.
Pat Buchanan has spoken of a culture war. George Bush lead the charge of the religious right and John Kerry waved the Hollywood war banner. Were the 2004 elections the first major battle in an upcoming gruesome war?
If so, this decade could prove to be very interesting...
UPDATE: Who in this scenario is shoving harder?
posted by Brian at 8:17 PM
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