Dear Abby's Readers And Postmodernity

In today's paper (2/5/08) was an interesting Dear Abby column. Someone had written her in October and asked what she perceived to be the main problem in today's society. She responded but later she asked the readers to respond to this query. Abby exclaimed that the "roof fell in" with comments.

One, in particular, got my attention. It came from "Marilyn in the garden state".

I quote: "Society's greatest problem is intolerance. It breeds all the other problems. We're intolerant of other people's views, religions, looks, sexual orientation, languages, mode of dress, career choice, whether to parent - or not. We're in the business of NOT minding our own business".

Marilyn my dear, you are the poster-child for postmodernity. There should be pictures of you hanging all over America to remind our citizens of what has happened to our culture.

We live in a society that has no "tolerance" for transcendent truth; therefore, relativism has taken over our culture. Everyone does what is right in his own eyes with little concern for what is "right" in a transcendent sense. We have "value systems" instead of morals. We have "situational ethics" instead of virtue!

The result is a politically correct world where groups and sub-groups of people have backed into their respective corners and are demanding that everyone recognize their "rights"! This has caused our society to be more marginalized or "tribalized" than ever before. Our nation is more divided today than ever in history and the result of all of this "tribalization" is the opposite of the unity that these "tolerant" people sought to create.

All of this "tolerance" is certainly a harbinger of what is yet to come. Valuing "tolerance" would be great as long as those who espouse this view are "tolerant" of those who dissent ... such as Christians (as stated by Sir Arnold Toynbee).

If everyone does what is right in his own eyes, we will have anarchy ... not unity.