They should be plastered all over the internet as a warning to kids AND parents. Parents should raise their kids better and kids should see as much gore as possible as a warning against speeding, drunk driving, and so forth. Yes, yes, I know there was supposedly no alcohol involved but the results are the same – a horrific crash.

I’m now a husband and father of two young daughters, and I believe that your work has helped me over the past 12 years to refine and further develop an ethical foundation and method of reasoning that will guide me as I teach my own children. For that I wish to express my gratitude.

With Appreciation,

Kevin Flint
San Francisco, CA
B.A
SI Newhouse School of Public Communciations
College of Arts and Sciences
Class of 2004

Firstly, I enjoy your blog posts; I have followed them on and off since I graduated in 2010. I have yet felt so compelled to leave a comment as I did upon reading your assertion that there is no correlation between freedom and responsibility. While I would agree that freedom does not facilitate or nurture responsibility, I thoroughly agree with the idea that freedom is directly interdependent with responsibility (excuse the existentialism). That is, freedom is limited (and dictated) by moral responsibility and visa versa. I think the point you made crosses into the shady area of shared responsibility in relation to individual freedom, something that is indeed a uniquely human problem. I hope my limited ability to communicate even more limited thoughts has not in any way been inappropriate. I simply felt…responsible to say something.

Best,
Jeb

Although I think you understate Tebow’s public displays of faith. Many athletes point skyward after scoring a touchdown or hitting a homerun. What ticks off the amoral cultural Marxists who wish to eradicate faith out of the public sphere is his openness about his faith and the publicity it gets when he thanks God in post-game interviews after an amazing win. While still not in-your-face, this is what they find most offensive, because Tebow inspires people who pay attention to what he is doing on the field and off.

One in four girls is sexually abused, so we’ve got to do a lot more than we’ve been doing.

This is a nice post, as so many of your posts are. It raises a lot of interesting questions and avenues for interpretation. Certainly, no reasonable person, individually, disagrees with you. Still, as you yourself have recently said, part of what makes human society puzzling is the degree to which it is self-deceptive and directed outward (as opposed towards inwardness).

Some responses and challenges:

You say that no one is harmed, but you don’t spell out the harm. There are, you ‘ll agree, different kinds of harm; and, depending on the context, there are various reasons why we would seek to block them. Alternately, we have the question of appropriateness, as a kind of socio-moral courtesy (think:manners), that may, given the right amplification, warrant more serious moral objection.

On your puzzlement about PDFs, I think that there are at least a couple explanations of the easy acceptance of chest bumps over PDFs. The most obvious being: it is a ritualistic group practice, not unlike the Mass in a Catholic religious group. Additionally, the partying that accompanies sports events and the like, are also more ritual, with the partying and celebrating, is, I think, a throwback to more “pagan” traditions that have always been, more or less, a part of mass human social ritual/celebration (think: running of the bulls, dia del los muertos, festival [in Brazil], dances in pre-modern/primitive cultures [Native Americans, various island natives], Greek ritual of the Olympics [orginal and modern], beer festivals, etc.)

On a different note, PDFs so explicitly public throw that simplicity and nobility in the face of these revellers (it shames them); and, as you point out, it shows them up for the low moral probity of their own lives and actions (not mind you a overt condemnation, but a symbolic rebuke).