{"id":38729,"date":"2012-10-04T00:22:54","date_gmt":"2012-10-04T07:22:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/?p=38729"},"modified":"2014-12-30T12:03:44","modified_gmt":"2014-12-30T19:03:44","slug":"the-unspoken-problem-with-the-viability-argument","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2012\/10\/the-unspoken-problem-with-the-viability-argument.html","title":{"rendered":"The Unspoken Problem with the &#8220;Viability&#8221; Argument"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p>\u2026is that it is dangerous nonsense.\u00a0 It is a combination of the worship of power and the worship of the Future, which are both stupid idols, but in particular the worship of the future is stupid.<\/p>\n<p>Insisting that we have to support the \u201cviable\u201d candidate backfires because, if taken seriously, it means that, at a certain point, we are morally obliged to vote for Obama since he is leading in the polls and is therefore \u201cthe most viable\u201d candidate.<\/p>\n<p>More than this though, when you vote for something based on stupid questions like \u201cIs This Where the Future is Going?\u201d, you play right into the hands of Uncle Screwtape:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>It is here that the general Evolutionary or Historical character of modern European thought (partly our work) comes in so useful. The Enemy loves platitudes. Of a proposed course of action He wants men, so far as I can see, to ask very simple questions; is it righteous? is it prudent? is it possible? Now if we can keep men asking \u201cIs it in accordance with the general movement of our time? Is it progressive or reactionary? Is this the way that History is going?\u201d they will neglect the relevant questions. And the questions they <em>do <\/em>ask are, of course, unanswerable; for they do not know the future, and what the future will be depends very largely on just those choices which they now invoke the future to help them to make. As a result, while their minds are buzzing in this vacuum, we have the better chance to slip in and bend them to the action we have decided on.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u2026is that it is dangerous nonsense.\u00a0 It is a combination of the worship of power and the worship of the Future, which are both stupid idols, but in particular the worship of the future is stupid. Insisting that we have to support the \u201cviable\u201d candidate backfires because, if taken seriously, it means that, at a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[253],"class_list":["post-38729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-screwtapian-thinking"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Unspoken Problem with the &quot;Viability&quot; Argument<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"...is that it is dangerous nonsense.\u00a0 It is a combination of the worship of power and the worship of the Future, which are both stupid idols, but in\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2012\/10\/the-unspoken-problem-with-the-viability-argument.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Unspoken Problem with the &quot;Viability&quot; Argument\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"...is that it is dangerous nonsense.\u00a0 It is a combination of the worship of power and the worship of the Future, which are both stupid idols, but in\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2012\/10\/the-unspoken-problem-with-the-viability-argument.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Catholic and Enjoying It!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-10-04T07:22:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-12-30T19:03:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark Shea\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mark Shea\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2012\/10\/the-unspoken-problem-with-the-viability-argument.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2012\/10\/the-unspoken-problem-with-the-viability-argument.html\",\"name\":\"The Unspoken Problem with the \\\"Viability\\\" Argument\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-10-04T07:22:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-12-30T19:03:44+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/c1a9ac1e557d3c626974fd6692818ad5\"},\"description\":\"...is that it is dangerous nonsense.\u00a0 It is a combination of the worship of power and the worship of the Future, which are both stupid idols, but in\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2012\/10\/the-unspoken-problem-with-the-viability-argument.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2012\/10\/the-unspoken-problem-with-the-viability-argument.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2012\/10\/the-unspoken-problem-with-the-viability-argument.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Unspoken Problem with the &#8220;Viability&#8221; 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