The Culture of Life Top Ten

[atommom]

In the wake of the Terri Schiavo case, we've been hearing a lot about the so-called "culture of life." Christian conservatives use the term to refer to God's wish that we preserve all human lives, especially those more vulnerable than our own. In practice, however, it applies to a surprisingly stingy range of concerns: abortion, euthanasia, and stem cell research.

Conservatives have been very effective in past years in coming up with emotionally-laden phrases that are at best disingenuous and at worst outright lies. Witness "weapons of mass destruction," "partial birth abortion," "ownership society," and "freedom on the march." But their newest buzzphrase is perhaps the most galling.

Consider the opposite: who in their right minds would be on record supporting a "culture of death"? Well, the Nazis, that's who, say culture-of-lifers, and if you disagree with them on their key issues, you might as well sign up for the Hitler Youth. Just as incredible is their invocation of the 14th Amendment. Initially passed to support the rights of freed slaves after the Civil War, culture-of-lifers have expanded its protection of "life, liberty, property" outwards to fetuses and women in persistent vegetative states. Don't agree? Well, then perhaps you should start shopping around for a plantation and some cotton fields as well.

The problem with the "culture of life" argument is that, like any of these phrases, its vagueness allows you to define it however you want. Is it any coincidence that its application happens to gel with the core issues of those who created it? Rather than dismiss the argument, however, progressives should hold culture-of-lifers to their word.

http://www.alternet.org/story/21660/

[Mist]

1. As I posted on another thread, I think we should turn their phrase

back on them: let's call it "the culture of SOME lives."

[atommom]

2. Some lives are more equal than others!

[Deep13]

3. Culture of life is nonsense

First of all, the late pope did not speak of a culture of life, but rather condemned the culture of death of the 20th century. That included the NAZIs and the communists which he saw first hand. It also included opposition to abortion and, even more unfortunately, opposition to birth control. The culture of life is a creation of the Bush propaganda machine and nothing else.

There cannot be a culture of life because life and death are so intimately related that one is simply not possible without the other. This is not a value judgment, but a simple fact. All live feeds on death, even vegetarians. (Where farms now are, Indians and wildlife once were.) Death and even violence generally are simply facts of life in the world. The real issue is to minimize deliberate cruelty and to do what is possible to alleviate human suffering. Despite some religions that seem to live in denial, all people must die eventually. That Shiavo case was an impossible battle for the proponents of the culture of life simply because it contradicted physical reality. All law enforcement or authority of any kind is based on an implicit threat of violence for noncompliance. I arresting someone and sending him or her to prison is not violent, what is? If a mortgage foreclosure that renders someone homeless is not violent, what is? I submit that the late pope's opposition to birth control was violent since it required populations to expand among dwindling resources only to face starvation and poverty generally.

I agree that deliberate cruely like the Iraq war, the bombing of Afghan civilians and all the proxy fights of the Cold War are morally wrong. Was Kucinich's concept for a Dept. of Peace really that bizzarre? Is it any stranger than a department devoted to the wholesale killing of people? On the other hand, the culture of life would logically have precluded us from stopping the Nazis and their allies, preserving the Union or even seeking independance from Britian. Are we really willing to accept that logic?

Is it not cruel to deprive our citizens, adults and children, universal health care coverage? There is no reason not to do so except for the greed of the health insurance industry. Does it not promote cruelty to convince teenagers not to have an early abortion and and rather have her produce an unwanted child that she probably cannot afford to raise? Does it not promote unnecessary suffering to stand in the way of medical research because it involves embryonic tissue or because it requires experiments on animals? How can we continue to ignore the degradation of the Earth on whom we all depend? What kind of world are we leaving the next generation? Will today's children be the last generation of people? The damage is so bad I cannot think about it without becoming depressed. Politicians and industrialists are fools and their grandchildren will suffer for it.

Seems to me that criticisms of the death penalty and private ownership of firearms are easy to make, but have limited practical significance. I don't support the death penalty, but the fact is that it effects so few people that compared to these other matters it is a small issue. Same with private gun ownership. Firstly, I suspect the figure of 80 gun deaths per day is an exagerration. Second, even if true it false well behind automobiles, tobacco and booze as causes of death in this country. If we are serious about reducing preventable fatalities, we should get these big cars off the road and enforce reasonable speed limits. We would also stop funding tobbacco planters and shielding tobacco merchants from the natural cost of their products. That and bans on public smoking and on exporting death would go a long way to saving many of the half million tobbacco-related disease victims who die every year just in this country. Restrictions on alcohol would likewise reduce liver disease, domestic violence and auto accidents. While I support reasonable gun regulation, focusing on that when there are so many other pressing causes of preventable death seems a bit myopic.

[atommom]

4. Jon Stewart's "Culture of strife," or jefferson_dem's "Vulture of life"

are a lot closer to the mark!

[derby378]

5. I've got a Culture of "Life" sticker for you to check out

Here's the link!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3969238247