I was at a small party tonite for a young friend who’s (1) turning a year older and (2) soon going away for more schooling. The host, a bright not-so-young man (though he’s younger than me) and I enjoy each other’s company quite a lot, and our lives are intertwined in multiple ways, including that he’s my grandson’s godfather.
On some political cultural issues, we found ourselves not only agreeing on the substance, but mutually marveling, after he brought it up, at how widespread is the virtual ban on uttering our opinions aloud. In some of the more or less conservative circles we travel in (we did not discuss all these; some were his list, some mine):
- You can’t talk about caring for God’s good creation without being thought a left-wing environmentalist (especially if you call it “the environment,” which I try not to).
- You can’t say that capitalism has its limits.
- You can’t say that “creative destruction” is profoundly un-conservative in a very important sense.
- You can’t question “American Exceptionalism” or you’ll be accused of something like “moral equivalence.”
- You can’t suggest that America isn’t omnipotent and can’t do any stupid thing it chooses with impunity.
- You can’t suggest that we’re not going to grow our way out of this malaise – or that if we do, there nevertheless will come some day, probably soon, a malaise we cannot outgrow, and that our mountains of debt have a lot to do with that.
- You can’t say that our economic system is not fundamentally different than the state capitalism David Brooks was trying to distinguish from our system a few days ago.
- You can’t suggest that we’re running out of oil and that the days of the automobile as so central a feature of life are numbered.
- I’m not even sure you can safely say “the sexual revolution was at best a mixed blessing, and I think it was a net setback for humanity.” Not even in “conservative” circles as “conservative” mags like National Review now have writers who are shacking up without (or at least before) wedlock. (Wanna know why same-sex marriage has valence? Look at what heteros have done to marriage.)
To his observation, and after running down a quick mental list of my own, I found myself saying “I’m almost 62 years old and I’m going to say what I believe — if only so I can say ‘I told you so’ some day.”
I’m wondering if that should be the new subheading on the blog instead of my beloved Latin maxim. That’s kind of what I’ve been doing in this blog. But I am pretty eclectic, and it’s not all negative or adulatory. Some of it’s just my sense of intrigue on a topic that I want to share.
Anyway, all those things you can’t say? I just said ’em. And I’m stickin’ to it.
Tipsy Teetotaler ن 
You can’t talk about appropriate corporate stewardship without people assuming that you’re advocating socialism.
You can’t talk about rampant consumerism or you’re denying the American dream.
You can’t talk about injustice without people assuming that you’re Marxist.
I agree with most of that. And, even my most significant disagreement – the sexual revolution – has more to do with my memory that I would have disagreed rabidly before I was married.
Intellectually, I guess I think we have a history of treating sex in what strikes me as a weird way, and I think it has led to subjugation of women in a lot of different ways. But I can’t pretend I’ve given any serious thought to this issue.