No sooner had I put the finishing touches on my piece for this week than the Supreme Court rendered decisions that seemed more immediately pressing. And yet the gist of my original column — redeeming the time — seems even more relevant. That endeavor, as they say in the business, is evergreen. It’s an effort that’ll hold until a later date.
What do I mean when I repeat the phrase “redeeming the time”? First of all, it’s not a phrase of my coinage, but the minted title of a posthumously published work by Russell Kirk. Those interested are invited to seek it out as it contains decades of not only accumulated knowledge but remarkable wisdom as well.
As well, I take the opportunity herein to recommend my longtime friend James Person’s recently published effort, “Imaginative Conservative: The Letters of Russell Kirk.” As Kirk would’ve turned 100 years old this year, it’s well past time for readers local and international to get on board with one of the previous century’s premier person-of-letters (a phrase lacking the zing of “man-of-letters,” but a wee tad more inclusive despite Kirk’s irrefutable gender identity as a man and his unassailable recognition as a masculine-noun of letters).
I could transcribe the eminently quotable Kirk at length but the powers that be at this fishwrap limit my word count. Instead, I’ll skip to my take on the matter in light of recent events. One aspect of redeeming our times has to do with virtue, a characteristic that has gone AWOL with amazing frequency these past few decades.
But there are glimmers of hope. For example, it’s encouraging to witness the universal opprobrium heaped upon moral cretins Harvey Weinstein, Larry Nassar and, it’s only assumed thus far pending appeal, Bill Cosby. Likewise, regardless your political leanings, it’s times-up for racist and misogynist statements by funny people — even female funny people such as Roseanne Barr and Samantha Bee. And even unfunny female people such as Kathy Griffin. To misquote Paddy Chayefsky’s famous lines from the film “Network,” we’re offended as hell, and we’re not gonna take this anymore.
It’s not a freedom of speech or politically correct surrender moment to call out sexual crimes at worst and, at best, discourteous statements. In short, it’s a good thing we’re witnessing at present when we reexamine the fallout of the sexual revolution wherein women are considered complicit playthings seeking to get ahead or even dehumanized to the status of “Playmates” for hedonistic criminals. Yes, I’m well aware that women abuse the power structure as well.
Furthermore, I don’t lose much sleep over comedians caviling that they can’t get easy laughs from politically incorrect monologues because society’s Grundys deem them inappropriate. Anyone who’s viewed five minutes of a Daniel Tosh routine knows that assertion’s baloney.
It’s refreshing to witness the rolling back of once-ceded ground. It’s been a while since moral dissolution was given free rein, and we’ll never fully put that genie back in its rightful bottle. But many current attempts are heartening, in part because they rightfully arise from the zeitgeist rather than from bullies who’d use government as their cudgel.
This brings me back to SCOTUS’ less-than perfect Masterpiece Cakeshop 7-2 decision this week. Let’s face it; the plaintiffs were passively-aggressively exploiting their minority status to depict themselves as victims of oppression. What they were in fact attempting, however, was bullying a devout Christian into designing a cake expressing what to him was religiously objectionable; namely, the countenance of same-sex marriage rather than sexual preference.
Simply put, they were denied one specific service on legitimate — and now legally codified — religious grounds. It’s a shame SCOTUS’ decision can’t be more broadly applied to similar cases, however.
Bruce Edward Walker (walker.editorial@gmail.com) is a Morning Sun columnist, contributor to The Federalist, creative-writing instructor, freelance writer, and host of the Acton Institute’s “Upstream” contemporary-culture podcast.