Friday, July 19, 2013

The Snob Factor among Conservatives

The self-love that dare not speak its name.

Very interesting:
Intellect is then mobilized to justify the backsliding tendencies of the will, as if in a rerun of the historical debate between two great Medieval theologians, St. Thomas Aquinas and Duns Scotus. Aquinas argued that intellect determines truth and the will carries out the appropriate actions. Scotus held otherwise; the will bloweth where it listeth, and the intellect assembles the arguments to support its appetitive pursuits.
My impression of the zeitgeist is that the left means to grab you by your balls, a la Nixonian reference.  That is, after such a grab, your heart and mind will surely follow. ( Chuck Colson, if memory serves.)  Conservatives should point out that the will must remain free, otherwise, the will definitely can be persuaded to go where the body takes it.  To quote something I read once about torture:  "You'll say anything if a blowtorch is stuck up your ass."

As long as the will is free, the "appropriate actions" can be based upon truth, upon which justice can be based.  There can be no justice if there's no truth.  Justice without truth is like a day without sunshine.

(sorry couldn't help the turn of phrase )

h/t Instapundit


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