God's favorite serial rapist, Warren Jeffs, has rested his defense and the case is now in the hands of the jury. Meanwhile, accuser "Jane Doe" has decided to reveal her identity, along with a photo of herself at the age of 14 being fitted for her "wedding" dress.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. A case like the Jeffs case reveals the real weakness in a Hayekian view of the world. The idea that social groups pursuing different values will result in the promulgation of better social institutions is fine enough so far as it goes--but that sort of social inter-group competition simply must be accompanied by, or rather, set within a framework of, certain meta-values--certain basic, shared principles. Otherwise, the "competition" will end up with situations like this, in which some groups don't recognize the right to exit or the idea of competition, and you end up breeding a better variety of oppression rather than freedom. This is the meaning of Popper's "paradox of toleration." Where do those meta-values come from? From an account of a universal, unchanging human nature which sets the baseline for telling right from wrong.
Comments policy