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Introduction
In my Moral Agents project, I am reading what others write about ethics and morality. While I believe most people feel that is dull, even deadening, reading, I am fascinated by it. An ideological war is going on in the United States, probably precipitated by the ascendancy of Conservativism for more than 3 decades. That ascendancy started with the "me" generation, the Boomers, but, with their retirement, it has nearly run its course. Sensing the end, books on morality are in vogue. But Liberals are not coming back. As usual in chaotic History, what is happening is something altogether different.

Introduction

In my Moral Agents project, I am reading what others write about ethics and morality. While I believe most people feel that is dull, even deadening, reading, I am fascinated by it. An ideological war is going on in the United States, probably precipitated by the ascendancy of Conservativism for more than 3 decades. That ascendancy started with the "me" generation, the Boomers, but, with their retirement, it has nearly run its course. Sensing the end, books on morality are in vogue.

But Liberals are not coming back. As usual in chaotic History, what is happening is something altogether different.

Since the 1960s, Conservatives have denounced the counter-culture, even though that social rebellion, if it ever had any reality, disappeared long ago. Hippies who desired to be free turned into dependably conforming pillars of society. We discovered that the central value of most rebels was to get whatever they wanted for themselves. They envisioned no social ideals and had no social goals. After the 1970s, the instigators of counter-culture or any culture, the older Bohemian and Beat generations, were either dead, drug crazed or wearing sack cloth and living in shacks. It was easy to ignore their warnings against lucre and "selling out." So, the "Me" generation was co-opted by free market Capitalism, which delivered faddish goods to people (now Yuppies) conditioned to accept them as tokens of fulfillment. Elvis and The Beatles were the occasions of immense fortunes and even worship at shrines. Limousine Liberalism is much easier than living as a starving artist in a hutch. Anyway, after a while, it's more comfortable to think of oneself as a Limousine Owner.

The foregoing explains why so many people came to support Conservative candidates, causes, ideas and values. It also explains why Liberals have almost disappeared, and the Democratic party is falling apart. Most people have no social goals: the idealism and passion of Communism, Socialism and Liberalism is long gone and mostly forgotten. The Democratic party became a confederation of self-seeking affinity groups, not an alliance of similarly-minded New Deal reformers. In contrast, the Crusaders of the Religious Right are filled with righteous passion. In the anti-intellectual country which is the United States, righteous zeal captures more converts than reasoned argument. That's why those most likely to succeed of this year's crop of Democratic challengers are Conservatives. Party, ideology and ideas don't matter; personal ambition and tribal loyalty are the common measure.

A few years ago, Reagan's Education Secretary William Bennett published his Book of Virtues, which is one variety of born-again Christian catechism. I think it is more properly titled "A Book of Platitudes," since there is nothing insightful or challenging about Bennett's views. Since then, there has also been a fierce attack on the public schools and the United States Constitution under the banner of "Intelligent Design." What evangelical Christians propose to do is turn the United States into a Medieval stronghold, erasing modern scientific and intellectual History beginning with the Enlightenment.

The increasingly intense Christian onslaught of the last two decades has at last provoked parts of academia into responding. The scientific community has been alarmed for some time about incursions against the teaching of Darwinian evolution, but scientific organizations have been reluctant to get involved in politics. Large numbers of scientists are Conservatives who believe in letting sleeping dogs lie, or who get funding from Conservative-approved agencies such as the Pentagon. Since the government and large corporations are the major sources of funding for scientific research, many scientists fear getting cut off the dole if they speak out. Meanwhile, many academics in the Humanities and Social Sciences have tried to oppose Conservative policies, but haven't had the economic means to be heard. Further, some parts of academia, especially the business and economic schools, have been highly visible supporters of Conservative policies. So, it is not without risk to oppose Christian attacks.

The attacks of the Bandit Administration on Stem Cell and Climate research finally cut through the defenses of those unwilling to speak out. It has become a matter of standing up and fighting, or being enslaved, or thrown to the wolves. The sense of crisis has finally permeated Biology and the Social Sciences, where traditionally Liberal-leaning views are the norm. Rushing to their aid is the new breed of philosophers, Cognitive Scientists, who want to show that human behavior is based on biology. The result is a typically academic response to the threat: a spate of books about biology, evolution, human origins and, of greatest interest here, morality. While some academics have been politically active in opposing a predominantly political threat, most of the academic community remains reticent to show itself in public. Academics believe in Reason and the power of persuasion by rational arguments; thus books, not swords. Academics are not prepared to engage in the rhetorical Third Way: "money is speech." American Conservatives are undermining intellectual freedom and Liberalism with money - paid propaganda - not ideas or swords.

In a few cases, activist scientists and intellectuals have taken to the hustings to fight the Conservative propaganda machine. They have had limited successes, most recently in beating back Creationism in Kansas. What their efforts show is that well-funded, direct political action can succeed. The winning strategy is to make the advantages and philosophy of science accessible to ordinary people. Abstruse arguments don't work in the public arena, especially after nearly 40 years of falling educational standards and levels of achievement.

Nonetheless, we are at the leading edge of a volley of books to be thrown at the public on morality. I think this is the academic response to the penetration of the State by the Religious Right, in direct violation of Constitutional prohibition. Of course, those books won't do much to change minds, even if they are absolutely correct. Dawkins highly publicized latest book, The God Delusion, may even make things worse by stiffening up Christians and other deluded folks, drawing even more Conservative money and propaganda into the marketplace. This wouldn't be a bad idea, if the intellectual community were 100% behind Dawkins, putting its money where the mouth is. Sadly, that is far from the actual state of affairs. We have some defectors who try to reconcile their religious beliefs with officially non-religious modern science. There are many others who are just quietly religious. So, Dawkins is essentially on his own. He's important enough to cause a stir for a while, but only for a while.

The United States is buried under a thick layer of ignorance, glued down by stupidity. The demolition experts are probably necessary in shaking loose that accumulated sediment. But just as clouds of muck will only settle back on the land unless blown away, there has to be an active campaign of filtering out the debris. In other words, people are not converted to different views because they read a book. The rest of their lives just leads them back to the status quo ante. It takes on-going, active guidance to lead people into a different lifestyle. In the end, morality changes when personal lifestyle changes. That is what it will take to loosen the Conservative grip on America.

Moral Limitations