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| January
1, 2003 |
| Dear
Concerned Citizen, |
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On
November 20 tothesource published an article warning you that some
people are willing to do or say almost anything in order to manufacture
a new and improved human race. Last Friday, three weeks after our
email, bad-hair-day scientist Brigitte Boisselier, director of the
Raelian cult's Clonaid project, announced to the press that they
had successfully cloned the first human baby. "Rael",
top-knotted founder of the Raelian cult, claims this will enable
humanity to attain eternal life. They named her Eve.
Unlike
you, the mainstream press was caught off-guard. In coverage that
bordered on performance art, CNN, the Los Angeles Times, and nearly
every major news organization provided round the clock coverage
of the Raelian cult. We learned that the Raelians believe humans
resulted from alien intervention 25,000 years ago, and that the
group is awaiting their return. Obviously frustrated by the lack
of continued alien intervention, the Raelians decided cloning is
bigger news. They were right! The press went nuts. Tothesource only
hopes that the serious subject of human cloning will not be considered
comedy after this ridiculous series of events.
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It's New Year's Eve, time for America's resolution industry to fire up
for one glorious orgy of woulda, coulda, shoulda. Next year we're all
going to spend more time with the kids, stop smoking, hit the gym three
days a week, tell our spouses we love them every day, save more money,
start a hobby, break a bad habit, and (it goes without saying) shed a
few pounds. We Americans are obsessed with New Year's resolutions. There
are even websites to help us track our progress in keeping them. What
is it about resolution making that is uniquely American?
In many countries New Year's is observed by customs such as wearing the
right color clothing, eating foods in a ritualized way or appeasing elders
in hopes of bringing good luck in the coming year. The hope for improvement
is expressed in wishful thinking entrusted to fate. But in America, we
resolve to make the desired improvements happen ourselves. Nowhere in
the world are the conditions more conducive to making and keeping resolutions
than in America.
But freedom becomes insignificant if it makes no difference what we choose.
The mantra "I can choose for myself." raises an inevitable question,
"What shall I choose?" It is not enough to answer; "Whatever
my inner self dictates." Even the inner self needs a compass. Since
the earliest days of Athens and Jerusalem, most of the great figures of
Western civilization have regarded the question of the content of the
good life as the central one. The American founders created a mechanism
that allows people in this country to pursue the good life with limited
government interference. Since the triumph of personal freedom in the
1960's and 1970's, the emphasis in America has been on radical freedom
of personal expression, largely to the exclusion of the question of what
that freedom is for.
When freedom itself becomes the highest value it can undermine other
cherished values such as decency, community, and virtue. In America, the
life we are given is not as important as the life we make. Our freedom
and autonomy are precious commodities and New Year's is a perfect time
to resolve to live both "the good life" and a life that is good.
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We
live complex lives. We strive to sort out priorities that sometimes
conflict or seem incompatible. A moral framework is needed to
help us understand the reality around us. Our Judeo-Christian
heritage provides a framework to help us comprehend the choices
we make and the conflicts that arise over them. It is not only
the main source of our spiritual values, but also many of the
secular values we depend on.
Tothesource is a forum for integrating thinking and action within
a moral framework that takes into account our contemporary situation.
We will report the insights of cultural experts to the specific
issues we face believing these sources will embolden people
to greater faith and action. |
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We
invite you to subscribe to our free email service
that features informed opinion on current cultural issues. |
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Dinesh
D'Souza Bio
Dinesh
D'Souza, the Rishwain Research Scholar at the Hoover Institution
at Stanford University, served as senior domestic policy analyst
in the White House in 1987-1988. He is the best-selling author
of Illiberal Education, The End of Racism, Ronald Reagan, The
Virtue of Prosperity, and What's So Great About America. He
is the tothesource designated expert on current American culture. |
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tothesource,
P.O. Box 1292, Thousand Oaks, CA 91358
Phone: (805) 241-3138 | Fax: (805) 241-3158 | info@tothesource.org |
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