[lit-ideas] Re: SoS-Chapter 2, Moral Frameworks

  • From: "Phil Enns" <phil.enns@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Wed, 7 Jun 2006 11:10:25 -0400

Omar Kusturica wrote:

"In places where social conditions, regimes, ideologies, borders, even
states change more frequently, it is much more difficult to locate that
stable framework within which you were formed and within which you
happily take stances on things. (Not to mention that Taylor' terms sound
very academic; most people define themselves through subjective
preferences, i.e. what I like and what I don't like, rather than "what
is good, what I endorse and what I oppose" and so on) The things are
further complicated if you have changed several geographical locations."


My experience has been quite the opposite.  What I have seen is that
when people experience massive upheaval, the first things to go are
'what I like and don't like' and what endures are exactly the sorts of
things Taylor talks about.  What I saw was people holding on dearly to
tribal/national/familial/religious 'frameworks' as ways of helping
orient themselves in chaotic times.  What about in the former
Yugoslavia?  What would be more important, being Croat or Serb, or
Orthodox or Muslim, or liking coffee or tea?  Ultimately Taylor comes up
short, but with the point that people rely on accounts of the good, he
is spot on.


Sincerely,

Phil Enns
Toronto, ON

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