The Dutch coalition Government is on the verge of collapse. The comprising parties' irreconcilable principles can withstand the strain no longer: it should never have been in the first place. It consists of Labour, the Christian Democrats (CDA), and a small but sturdy Bible-based Calvinist party with a pendent for 'compassionate politics.' In theory it should have worked. We'll shortly see why on philosophical grounds, it was a non-starter from inception.
Recently in "Christian Ethics: Of Muzzles and Jackboots" we analyzed the basic amorality of the Christian Democrats (CDA). In fact, identity crisis is its permanent state of being. They sport an assertive Leftist strain, but in recent years supported a number of Libertarian free-market policies on the Pragmatist basis of 'best practice'. Having just ruled a number of years with the Libertarians, the collectivism of the Leftist Hegelians is at present the dominant faction.
Both perspectives within the party are at principle mutually exclusive. Don't ask how their leaders manage to make breathtaking U-turns without experiencing massive pangs of conscience! It leaves no other conclusion, that at some point in their history they must have dispensed with the field of ethics.
What's going on? It would seem that a Labour Secretary of State has given fertility treatment clinics the go-ahead this week to select embryos on genetic markers for breast cancer. Selection already takes place with respect to other genetic disorders deemed unacceptable to postmodern society. This selection, based on deontology (Kant's good-intent-bad-result-never-mind ethics) takes place on 'compassionate' grounds. The Calvinist contingent aren't having any! They've said they will withdraw their support of the Government if the fiat stands. Good for them!
Hurling abuse at 'God's people', the finer points are - as usual - lost on a very, very confused nation. They lose themselves in articles and discussions on just how serious and certain the chances of a genetic disorder should be to warrant selection (liberals and Libertarians); others take a more principled stand, reserving the right to trash embryos and flush zygotes, period (the Left, liberals); others hold that a tiny minority has no right to foist their retarded morality on society at large.
Just where the CDA stand in this debate is not exactly clear at this point, but Elsevier registers CDA's 'surprise.'
Amidst the cacophony of party-political opinion - Bible-based or otherwise - we could do with a reality check: for example an exercise in Aristotelian philosophy. Alas, it is not to be ...
Protestants don't 'do' philosophy for theological reasons - but that was after their scions Kant and Hegel turned it into an unusable speculative parlour game for collectivist intellectuals with a view to obliterate reason - the basis of liberty, limited government, individualism, and free trade, otherwise known as Capitalism.
Hegel's war on existence brought forth the Young Hegelians, Messrs Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels c.s., the forerunners of today's Left. So no joy there either ...
Roman Catholics regrettably have forgotten their golden days of Scholasticism and St Thomas, who single-handedly revived Aristotelian philosophy, laying the basis for Renaissance and Enlightenment.
At the core, the matter here literally is life and death. Since it is plain that half alive or a little dead does not exist, it follows that half-wash compromises are no option. There's nothing for it, but to muster moral courage and take a stance in this matter of 'extreme ethics.'
I don't know about the reader's personal experience with breast cancer or any other hereditary disorder deemed unacceptable to postmodern society, but my sister was told today by the proponents of Selection, on 'compassionate' grounds, that - as far as they are concerned - she should never have been born. My best friend's family and children were informed today by the Selectors that, on 'compassionate' grounds, her life has not been worth living.
On the basis of American figures one in three cases in woman is diagnosed as breast cancer. Since ideas have consequences, and in consideration of such staggering numbers, what would the effect of above message be on society at large?
Not waking up yet ... to the postmodern eugenics?
This chilling spawn of the serpent Gaia is the product of the war on existence, of those who think that the pursuit of human life - as a value - must be rejected. Watch it closely, it's the future ...
The War on Existence continues.
N.B. to Dutch readers: JPB as the country's 'leader' might have pointed out that the meaning of value, is something that is worth pursuing. It presupposes an answer to the questions, to whom and to what. Value suggests a standard, a purpose and the necessity of action in the face of an alternative. No alternative, no value, no ethics. Btw, 'value' has no relation whatsoever with vegetables, brussels' sprouts or any other horticultural product.
Update:
Is it any surprise that while we are exercising our 'human right' of a decease-free life, there are over 50,000 suicides in Europe each year? EUX has it that Europe will explain this week to the subjects what it means by ethical globalization ... postmoderns cannot even spell the word! Since Kant, the philosophical field of ethics has become synonymous with fulfillment of duty: the mentality that any horror is acceptable as long as the beneficiary is the collective, for then it is considered an act of altruism: don't pass on your faulty genes!
Update II:
The abominable coalition Government has been saved by the joint decision to impose a commission of ethics experts who will decide on a case by case basis if Selection is warranted - the issue is not worth creating an 'embryo crisis' over (if that is the case, nothing is). The entire history is a classical example of Dutch style politics.
- Filed on Articles in "The Dystopia of Paradise" - (the entry is followed by another example of 'extreme ethics')
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