|
|
|
|
|
|
Resources |
|
|
|
The Pen's Sharp Sting
| Article
# : |
11105 |
|
|
Section : |
BOOK WORLD
|
| Issue
Date : |
3 / 1986 |
3,528 Words |
| Author
: |
Gregory Wolfe
Gregory Wolfe is the founder and coeditor of Image: A Journal
of the Arts and Religion, and a frequent contributor to The
World & I. |
STANLEY AND THE WOMEN
Kingsley Amis
New York, Summit Books, 1984
256pp., $14.95
THE STORIES OF MURIEL SPARK
Muriel Spark
New York, E.P. Dutton, 1985
314 pp., $18.95
According to its most trenchant critics, modern liberalism has at least one Achillies' heel. That sore spot lies in the contradiction between the emphasis liberals place on "dialogue" and toleration of different points of view, and the formal and informal censorship practiced by these proponents of the "open society." Thus liberals would allow subversive revolutionaries and pornographers the right of "free speech," but regard a moment of silence at the beginning of the school day as an intolerable intrusion of religion into the public realm. Of course, ideology and sexual exploitation are inherently intolerant: the revolutionary and the pervert are bent on imposing their will on others, whether in the form of a lust for power, or just plain lust. Religion on the other hand, which cultivates the moral virtues of love and respect, is perceived by liberals as a threat to freedom.
The worst type of intolerance often involves denying the very existence of opposition. Thus the Bloomsbury Group, that quintessentially liberal movement of English intellectuals (whose members included Virginia Woolf and Lytton Strachey), had such a domination over the organs of public opinion in its day that it could
... (1997 of 21302 Characters)
Read Full Article
|
|
