BEYOND THE TWILIGHT OF REASON
403
John Silber:
I should hesitate to close this session without allowing for at
least two or three questions.
Audience:
Professor Himmelfarb, when you stated that a resurgence of
morality in America was what was called for right now, I wanted to
know if you meant something more than just simple respect for others. If
so, I don't understand what we could base that on. To base it on religion
would lead to exclusion of other religious groups. To base it on eco–
nomic policies or racial ideals would still exclude segments of the
population. I don't understand in what way morality can become a more
inclusive thing without rejecting people.
Gertrude HimmeHarb:
You say you have a problem with my notion of
morality. Do you have a problem with my notion, or with most people's
notion, of immorality - that is, the whole complex of what we now call
the "social pathology" of our time: crime, welfare dependency, illegiti–
macy, functional illiteracy, drug addition, alcoholism, and so on? These
are surely social evils that in the old days would have been called "vices"
or symptoms of immorality. It's that kind of immorality that I would very
much like to rectify. That is what I mean when I speak of the de–
moralization of our society. It is a correction of that that I would like to
see by way of a re-moralization of society. It is often said that one can't
legislate morality. Well, we have legislated morality in fact . Civil rights
laws did just that; they not only made discrimination unlawful, they also
made it morally impermissible, illegitimate. That was a very important
instance of the legislating of morality. In recent years we have seen a lot
of legislating of immorality. A great many of our social policies have led
to very unfortunate moral consequences for this society. It's the undoing
of a good deal of those policies and that kind of legislation that I think
would be the starting point for something like a remoralization of society.
Dr.
Silber:
Next question?
Audience:
I'm not sure if I would agree with you on your concept of
morality, but when you list illegitimacy as a social evil or something that's
immoral, you're going to raise a generation that thinks of themselves as
bastards, since there is a large number of illegitimate children. That atti–
tude is very pervasive; it is going to attack their sense of self-esteem and
make them not want to be successful. It's going to lower their self-worth.
So I'd be careful.
