Communitarians

[Henk Elegeert]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

Dr. Marc-Alexander Fluks wrote:

> REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl
>
>  Zag zojuist op de TV iets over 'communitarians'. Dat waarden en normen
>  gedoe van Balkenende zou daar mee samenhangen.
>
>  Ik vond op Internet 'The Communitarian Network',
>     http://www.gwu.edu/~ccps/
>
>  Daar staat: The Communitarian Network is a coalition of individuals and
>  organizations who have come together to shore up the moral, social, and
>  political environment. We are a nonsectarian, nonpartisan, transnational
>  association.

Nou ja, voor wat dat waard is.

>  Er wordt gelinkt naar,
>     http://www.gwu.edu/~icps/about.html
>  Alwaar: Communitarians believe with America’s Founding Fathers that it
>  is possible to build the good society based upon the core values of the
>  American people as defined by the Declaration of Independence, the
>  Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.
>
>  Ik begrijp er geen bal van.

De nieuwe golden rule niet?
Men wil etisch leven, en waarbij je je verantwoordelijk
voelt. Men wil leven in een gemeenschap van gemeenschappen.

Dat je weer luisterd naar het gezag.
Er werd in het verleden wat lacherig over gedaan, maar het
staat nu hoog op de agenda, aldus Balkenende.

> Het ziet er allemaal nogal eng uit. Dat wel.

Is het ook.

Hirsch (bulldog) Ballin's reactie gezien toen - op een
wollige uitspraak van - hem gevraagd werd, 'wie kan daar nu
op tegen zijn' ? Eventjes doorvragen en dan komt de ware
aard van het beestje pas echt naar boven. Erg griezelig ....

>  Is dit een Christelijke secte of zo ?

Nou, nog net niet. Ze willen het liever zo niet genoemd
hebben. Dan val je namelijk op, en dat wil men niet.
Men heeft liever invloed, en zo dat het niet opvalt.

Men zoekt het via de dialoog.
Een beetje zoals Balkenende zelf, zeg maar. Hij zegt vaak -
men moet met elkaar praten - maar kan daar uitgerekend zelf
geen invulling aan geven. Er komt geen dialoog op gang.

Maar met de grote guru Etzioni kan hij bijvoorbeeld wel
spreken, nou ja luisteren. Op stapels vragen en reacties van
anderen heeft en geeft ie geen antwoord terug.

Overigens schijnt die (secret) guru Etzioni (moralist) nog
meer volgelingen te hebben,
- Tony Blair
- Jimmy Carter
- Joska Fischer
- Rudolf Scharping
.. om er enkele te noemen.

Ho wacht even, wat zeg ik, moralist? Ughmm ehh .. "public
intellectual, although not all funny" ....

http://www.amitai-notes.com/blog/archives/000561.html
Amitai Etzioni Notes: Being a public intellectual is not all
fun and games

http://www.amitai-notes.com/blog/archives/000922.html
Amitai Etzioni Notes: Hague Presentation

linkt door naar:
http://www.gwu.edu/~ccps/hague2004.html
Conferences and Events - Communitarian Speech at the Hague

"
Text of presentation by Amitai Etzioni at September 7th
conference at the Hague titled, "Europe, A Beautiful Idea"

His Excellency Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, honored
guests, ladies and gentlemen - I am deeply honored and
privileged to participate in this important occasion.
....

Elected officials not only have a right-- but a duty-- to
initiate moral dialogues that can lead to the formation of
new shared moral understandings. As already indicated, it is
impossible to seriously consider any matters of public
policy or law without examining their moral implications.
And if shared moral foundations for such policies and laws
are missing, either these will be based on the values of a
governing minority or will have no moral justification at
all. Hence the best way to initiate significant changes in
policy and law-- is to start by initiating moral dialogues
on the issues involved, and nurturing these dialogues until
they mature, until they lead to new, shared moral
understandings. Thus, if a government contemplates greatly
cutting back the welfare state, reducing unemployment
benefits, and the scope of health care insurance, or opening
the doors to many more immigrants from different parts of
the world, or legalizing hereto controlled substances (or
"drugs")-that government best first initiate moral dialogues
within the public at large whether such changes are morally
legitimate. And if such legitimacy cannot be established--
the government best reconsider its course.

Finally, elected officials serve as moral role models. When
a divorced head of state, who is estranged from his
children-- extols family values, he is not very compelling.
And when one who rarely has seen the inside of a place of
worship, or observes the tenets of his faith, goes on and on
about the role of religion in his life, he is not much of a
model. All public leaders better do-- what they say we ought
to do.

At the same time we should not expect perfection from our
public leaders, from our institutions, or for that matter
from--anybody else. It is part of human nature that even if
people come from whatever are considered "good" families,
are well educated, and live in communities that foster moral
conduct-that they still will stray. We should expect them to
admit to their failings--and that of their policies--rather
than add insult to injury by covering up wrongdoings. We
should ask of them, and of ourselves, to labor to come
closer to our shared moral ideals we lose our footing and
come back to climb to a higher level of adherence to our values.

Some may feel that these are sentiments long expressed by
preachers of various religions; this is indeed true but this
fact does not render these observations less valid, even if
examined by the standards of modern social science. The fact
that we are each other's keeper, that we have the potential
to encourage one another to be better than we would be
otherwise, does not make us less so because it is so written
in the bible, even if some prefer to take such truths from
great social scientists such as Emil Durkheim or Ferdinand
Tönnies. Either way, there is no denying that we have the
potential to live a morally good life, but that we are not
going to realize this potential unless we are prodded to
aspire to live by higher moral standards by our leaders, and
above all, by one another.
"

Henk Elegeert

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