Comments for Children Astray in the American Regime at http://www.thecatholicthing.org , comment 1 to 8 out of 8 comments http://www.thecatholicthing.org Thu, 23 May 2013 23:57:42 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/children-astray-in-the-american-regime.html#comment-6579 Again, a wonderful piece, but do you think, Professor Arkes, that your two pieces on the children of the American regime might neglect the similiarities between the modernities of Machiavelli and Locke? What we seem to be witnessing in our time, after all, is the decline of a fundamentally Biblical culture in this country, one that has paradoxically both underwritten and concealed a basically Lockean political arrangement. I would think a yet deeper concern about the Bill of Rights would come not from those who argue about the prudence of those amendments, but from those who doubt that "rights" capture anything like the natural goodness of the created universe in its ordering toward God. - Bill McCormick Sun, 17 Apr 2011 03:04:41 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/children-astray-in-the-american-regime.html#comment-6543 I fell, inadvertently, back into the screen for my piece and the comments, and it may be useful to offer a mild explanation to Patrick, if he has come in late in these columns. The point of connection here is with natural law. The piece is concerned with the moral ground of the law and the polity in natural right, in the things that make it wrong to rule human beings in the way humans are compelled to rule horses and cows. We touch, with these concerns, the matter of objective moral truths and the concern for certain rights, grounded in nature; rights that will remain the same in all places where that nature remains the same. The Church has been the prime sanctuary for natural law and the claim of moral truths in our own day. In that respect, it has been standing against the currents of relativism that seem to be engulfing almost all other institutions around us. This concern with the moral ground of the law is one of those portfolios I can modestly handle within this band of brothers and sisters who came together to form The Catholic Thing. - Hadley Arkes Wed, 13 Apr 2011 19:15:53 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/children-astray-in-the-american-regime.html#comment-6536 Interesting enough, although I don't see how it relates to Catholicism. - Patrick Tue, 12 Apr 2011 18:01:15 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/children-astray-in-the-american-regime.html#comment-6535 For my correspondents who wrote in today, as they've been kind enough to write in the past: thanks so much--and I wish I could take you with me wherever I go. - Hadley Arkes Tue, 12 Apr 2011 17:55:46 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/children-astray-in-the-american-regime.html#comment-6534 Thank you, Prof. Arkes. You remind us of the larger stakes of the current battles with the teachers unions. The budgetary crisis arising from the control of these unions is the smallest of the difficulties. The larger question is, among others, whether we continue on as a nation, meaning whether we continue to learn, memorize, and believe in the words of the Declaration of Independence and the Gettysburg Address. You remind us, too, why we should battle not only the public school teachers' unions, but also the control of the universities by professors whose political views range from Marxist or post-Nietzschean to merely liberal. It is unclear to me why state governors have not challenged that monopoly in defense of true liberal education (and of the nation). - Levy Tue, 12 Apr 2011 11:52:35 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/children-astray-in-the-american-regime.html#comment-6533 A thought-provoking article, indeed. Yet, I keep hearing that the age of the nation-state is over, so we'd better get used to it. Which makes me wonder: is it now the age of the United Nations or of conglomerate corporate/financial interests? - Billy Bean Tue, 12 Apr 2011 07:21:43 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/children-astray-in-the-american-regime.html#comment-6532 Outstanding!!! - Liz Tue, 12 Apr 2011 05:50:24 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/children-astray-in-the-american-regime.html#comment-6531 Magnificent as always Professor Arkes! - Jacob R Tue, 12 Apr 2011 05:22:55 +0100