TOWARD A RHETORIC OF REACTION

Another fellow who appears to see his function as agreeably adjusting to the will and designs of women around him is Dr. Joseph Knippenberg of Ashland University, the moderator of the blog No Left Turns. I have had occasion of late to offer an assessment of the manners and moral reasoning of his distaff blogger. Neither she nor her defenders mounted much of a response. Dr. Knippenberg's response was to ban me. Easy come, easy go.

Nevertheless, I shall offer several assertions:

1. It is often said that correllation does not establish causality. It is also true that spatial or temporal juxtapostion do not establish it either.

2. When a man has lost three fingers in an industrial accident, it is sickly bad form to appear in the emergency room and berate him for failing to shower and shave that morning.

3. A municipal government which refuses to inquire into (much less punish) wrongdoing by its officers cannot legitimately complain the aggrieved seek to have the truth laid bare in discovery proceedings.

4. People are educated in correct conduct incrementally in the course of their daily interactions; principles of correct conduct may be fairly stable and discernable through reflection; enforcement of correct conduct may be mitigated in degree but seldom will compreshensive dispensations be offered; an assessment of performance in the realm of correct conduct is properly undertaken with reference to the education the subject has had up to this point; the severity of sanctions are properly proportionate to performance; education in good conduct begins at the point of departure of what the student has learned thus far; education may incorporate rebukes, but it does not commence with them.

5. The essence of a person can be understood as a gemstone: its attributes are what emerges from the acts and dispositions undertaken or entertained throughout each moment of a person's life. Each facet is an act, and whether it be (for all time) transparent or opaque is indicative of the state of grace (or its absence). Because we live in time and those we observe live in time (and living in time means always changing), a person's essence is necessarily obscure. We seldom if ever need allude to it.

Discuss.