Sex Equals Power (Re: School Sponsored "Sex, Power, God" Orgy at Brown University)

http://media.www.browndailyherald.com/media/paper472/news/2005/11/11/Columns/Aaron.Cutler.08.Sex.Equals.Power-1054850.shtml?sourcedomain=www.browndailyherald.com&MIIHost=media.collegepublisher.com ^ | 11/15/05 | Aaron Cutler '08

[steve-b]

If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism. I think conservatism is really a misnomer just as liberalism is a misnomer for the liberals–if we were back in the days of the Revolution, so-called conservatives today would be the Liberals and the liberals would be the Tories. The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is.

Now, I can’t say that I will agree with all the things that the present group who call themselves Libertarians in the sense of a party say, because I think that like in any political movement there are shades, and there are libertarians who are almost over at the point of wanting no government at all or anarchy. I believe there are legitimate government functions. There is a legitimate need in an orderly society for some government to maintain freedom or we will have tyranny by individuals. The strongest man on the block will run the neighborhood. We have government to insure that we don’t each one of us have to carry a club to defend ourselves. But again, I stand on my statement that I think that libertarianism and conservatism are travelling the same path.

[little jeremiah]

Note the comments above, madprof's. I agree in toto. Your points are true, but I don't think they go far enough. Money can whitewash much; but it cannot stem the rot of the soul. The orgy partakers may grow up and look like regular upper class people - they won't go shopping at KMart in their house slippers, they won't sport missing teeth, uncombed hair, or drive in junk cars.

But their exploitative mentality will ruin everything they touch.

The east coast Republicans are the bane of the party.

[madprof98]

The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is.

You may not have noticed that this was not a thread about what "government" should or should not do. It is a thread commenting on an activity at a private college which many of us (and sane people generally, I hope) consider ominous not just for the students involved but for a society which tolerates such behavior. The "freedom" you defend is too often nothing more than socially irresponsible hedonism. Putting Ronald Reagan's picture on it doesn't make it prettier.

[DBeers]

The libertarian faction (not a small group on this forum) will, of course, claim that you are overstating the case as members of the Taliban Wing of the GOP always do. Their argument breaks down in the same place it always breaks down--when we consider the impact of our changed social mores on our children. The students who revel in orgies like this probably don't want to become parents at all. Certainly they are not becoming the kind of people who will take responsibility for any children they do bring into the world. And our society will slide farther and farther down the slope.

It is my belief that libertarians either do not know yet that they are not libertarians or they revel in the fact that they are -some choose to be morally vacant and yet for some reason wish to avoid being labeled immoral?

From: Moral Politics - A Morality-Based Political Test

Moral Politics

As one can plainly see the 'conservative' capitalist libertarians are the immoral extremists out of all groups... EVERYONE including even dummies are to the right of the morally vacant libertarians when it comes to moral order...

[Liberal Classic]

As one can plainly see the 'conservative' capitalist libertarians are the immoral extremists out of all groups... EVERYONE including even dummies are to the right of the morally vacant libertarians when it comes to moral order...

The sooner these libertarian nutcases are banned, the better!

[Physicist]

This is why B.O.Riley gets some credit for prefacing his commentary with a sensible distinction between what people do on their own time and their own dime (on the one hand) and what people do when somebody else is paying the bills and cleaning up the mess (on the other).

I see. No moral pretenses for him: he was simply making sure that the impecunious parents of Brown University students were getting their money's worth.

Ever the populist, that Bill O'Reilly! :-)

[Aquinasfan]

The orgy partakers may grow up and look like regular upper class people - they won't go shopping at KMart in their house slippers, they won't sport missing teeth, uncombed hair, or drive in junk cars. But their exploitative mentality will ruin everything they touch. The east coast Republicans are the bane of the party.

Hear, hear!

[DirtyHarryY2K]

Libertarians are to morality what terrorist are to civility.

[Nowhere Man]

Interesting test. Here's my chart and ratings:

[DBeers]

Did the results confirm what you thought or shock you?

[gman992]

The real big questions are: are the girl's hot? and can townies come? (no pun intended)

[gman992]

I'm a 3.5...but doesn't that objectify me?

[Nowhere Man]

Pretty close to what I thought. I consider myself very conservative, a "Red Stater," when it comes to social, moral, military and most other matters, but I tend to be more of an economic moderate, maybe a mix of Red and Blue to where I would be purple or perhaps maroon. I guess if you take a Freeper average, I might lean a little left economically on that scale. I tend to call myself a "right-wing populist or nationalist" so I think the test is pretty accurate. Of course, not all tests are perfect since they tend to pigeonhole people but at least this test is one of the ones that goes beyond the "Red" and Blue" labels we hear a lot about.

[khnyny]

A lack of moral values affects different "classes" in different ways. In the ghetto it tends to lead to drugs, guns, theft, robbery, violent crime, or any combination thereof. Ignorance, stupidity and lack of education add to the mix. The "upper" classes exhibit their moral bankruptcy in that nice euphemism "white collar crime". Hmm, theft, robbery, stealing, lying under oath (Clinton), corruption, treason (Sandy Burgler). Fortunately, I believe the numbers are relatively small in both subsets.

You say: "It's all sin, of course, but socio-economically speaking, in a welfare state, orgies at the bottom are much more damaging than orgies at the top."

I do beg to differ. Orgies at the top indicate that the people involved are equally morally flawed, which leads to other morally flawed life choices and decisions. The ramifications of a lot of "white collar crime" from educated, upper class people can have far more wide reaching ripple effects. UN Oil for Food scandal? Enron? Tyco? Worldcom? Our military technology being sold to the highest bidder, namely, the Chinese? The more power you have, if it is corrupted, the more damage ensues i.e Hitler, Sadamm, Osama Bin Laden, etc. Morally bankrupt people at the top of the food chain are experts at CYA and most don't even get prosecuted or do jail time. For an example who is ultimately more dangerous, a suicide bomber or the people who fund it?

The title given to the school sanctioned orgy was "Sex, Power, God". I'm sure the participants are very enamored with the first two words in the title, but probably have a problem with the third. Oh wait, no, they think they ARE the third.

[DirtyHarryY2K]

What a suprise! Not..LOL

Your scored 3 on the Moral Order axis and -2 on the Moral Rules axis.
Matches
The following items best match your score:
System: Conservatism
Variation: Moderate Conservatism
Ideologies: Capital Republicanism
US Parties: Republican Party
Presidents: George H. Bush (90.12%)
2004 Election Candidates: George W. Bush (84.07%), John Kerry (73.48%), Ralph Nader (58.07%) Statistics
Of the 130671 people who took the test:
0.3% had the same score as you.
52.5% were above you on the chart.
31.9% were below you on the chart.
10.8% were to your right on the chart.
85.9% were to your left on the chart.

[Jean S]

LOL!
I love the grammar and spelling.

[Hemingway's Ghost]

Hemingway's Ghost well all that you said made no sense.I guess you are gonna stay home after college even if you are in one let alone an Ivy League school.I don't understand why dumbasses abound.Fool and rethink.

Tell the truth: how many beers did you gun before posting this?