Thursday, June 14, 2007

The Problem of Modernism

One of my former colleagues has an interesting definition for "tradition." He called them "solutions to problems we have forgotten." One of the great problems with Modernism is that it is a philosophical system which deliberately has no memory. Unfortunately, Liberalism in its current incarnation is a strong adherent to this particular philosophy.

Recently, this flaw has been trotted out for all to see in the legal debate over the 2nd Amendment. Many scholars for and against private gun ownership have realized that the collective rights interpretation of the 2nd Amendment is has no clothes. Firearms ownership ought to be an individual right under the 2nd. Which, as people like Benjamin Wittes point out, is why we need to get rid of the 2nd Amendment entirely.

Kim du Toit responds to Wittes with his usual vitriol. Along with his invective, Kim points out that the whole purpose of the 2nd was to defend citizens against the tyranny of their own government. Perhaps if Bush actually were the tyrant the left accuses him of being, they might remember the growing affection they were developing for the 2nd amendment in Bush's first term.

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