Virginia Woolf once said of William Hazlett that, "Had one met Hazlett no doubt one would have liked him on his own principle that 'We can scarcely hate anyone we know.' But Hazlett has been dead now one hundred years, and it perhaps a question how far we can know him well enough to overcome those feelings of dislike, both personal and intellectual, which his writings still so sharply arouse." With this principle in mind I felt certain of liking William Bennett more, rather than less, after reading his new book, The Broken Hearth: Reversing the Moral Collapse of the American Family. Bennett =s thesis of moral decay is one of humanity's most time honored. Indeed, every generation recorded by history has been convinced that the threads of tradition were coming unraveled, that their teenagers were careening out of control, and that the prior generation was more steadfast and religious than the present.Bennett, in books such as The Moral Compass, has already laid claim to be the modern champion of this ironically perpetual belief. In The Broken Hearth he again steps forth vigorously, a Knight errant tirelessly proving his worthiness to rescue a distressed damsel, and utters the phrases which, like those of a lover, are as timeworn and repetitious as they are well received. "Compared to a generation ago, American families are far less stable, marriage is far less central...children are..less valued. Public attitudes towards marriage, sexual ethics, and child rearing have radically altered for the worse." It's irrational and ahistorical to believe that humanity has been in a perpetual moral slide for 2,800 years, but Bennett =s premise has nothing to do with either reason or history. It is founded in the core belief that people's lives should be governed by absolute moral principles, and that non accordance with those principles is a material threat to both the erring individuals and the communal well being.Bennett =s method of argumentation is fundamentally medieval. He reasons directly from first principles. These first principles range from classical quotations, opinion polls, Ahome truths@, and scripture.Medieval typology, the idea that all aspects of human enterprise were impure types related to perfect divine ante-types, is Bennett's fundamental support. A clear example may be found where he argues that married couples who don't have children aren't really married. "What raises marital love to the level of sanctity, what makes it a reflection of divine love, is the act of creation....Indeed, the detachment of human coupling from the institutions of marriage, and the family is itself, I would argue, a sign of our larger detachment from the springs of our existence on earth." Knowing Bennett, it must be admitted, does
not make one like him more. Yet Bennett himself virtuously dislikes so many
things that one ultimately feels disliking him must also be a virtue. What is
most disagreeable about Bennett, however, is his obvious desire to not simply
dislike other people's beliefs and practices, but to forcibly alter them from
above. |
