> On Fri, 22 May 1998, Alun Severn wrote:
>
> > Agreed! I'm often surprised at how moralistic the tone of New Democracy,
> > communitarian -- and indeed, New Labour -- debates. Moral judgement is a
> > prerequisite of establishing values, I suppose, but how often it seems to
> > boil down to saying: If only there were more nice middle class people, we'd
> > have fewer problems.
>
> This sounds a lot like attributing motives to those you disagree with
> rather than listening to the debate. Is it really middle class people that
> are the greater believers in moral judgement, or family values? I would
> have thought that a non-judgemental attitude on moral issues relating to
> the family and relationships was itself very much a fashionable middle
> class attitude.
I have exactly the same perception from here; social liberalism is
primarily a phenomenon amongst the liberal middle class, who seem to see
it as an acceptable excuse for government toleration of social breakdown.
The traditional, and / or aspirational, working class, are a good deal
less "tolerant". Of course if there were more nice middle class people we
*would* have fewer problems, but also if there were more nice working
class people, or more nice people in general. That's hardly the point.
Government is by its nature a moral judgement; it is wrong to pay less
than *.** an hour; it is wrong to own a handgun; it is wrong to kill
people, and so on.
jdcxxx
John Courouble, Room 4012, Keble jdc@feeble.ml.org
President, Oxford Uni. Fabian Society
Messages only : 01865 272727 The best way to predict
http://users.ox.ac.uk/~kebl0613 the future is to make it.
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