Conor Friedersdorf, fortunately declares that children do not belong to the ‘community’ or ‘society’. Actually, they don’t really belong to their parents anyway; they belong to God, and their parents are temporary stewards of them. While we cannot say it quite that way in the political sphere, I have pointed out in a previous post that the political meaning of the word ‘God’ in our culture is Not Society. I think I should expand it now to ‘Not Society and Not the Autonomous Individual’. The late Lady Thatcher was not quite right when she declared “there is no such thing as society,” but society does not ordain our morals, our governments, or our family structure – it only ordains, in my view, our manners, customs, and languages. These really are relative.
Culture
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