Life was simpler back when journalist Harry Stein knew his place.<\/p>\n\n
If asked to define \u201cpolitically correct,\u201d he could quickly answer: \u201cA term used by the right to smear decent people working hard for social change.\u201d The religious right? \u201cA bunch of crazed zealots out to impose their repressive, intolerant theocratic values on the rest of us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
That was the old Harry Stein, a hipper-than-thou child of the 1960s and \u201970s. Everyone he knew believed the world\u2019s problems could be solved with liberal doses of compassion, tax dollars and sex, although not always in that order.<\/p>\n\n
Then Stein got married, became a father and discovered that his wife wanted to stay home with the baby. Soon, strange words started coming out of his mouth. Today, the new Stein defines \u201cpolitically correct\u201d as a \u201cterm properly describing a \u2018progressive\u2019 worldview of litmus tests for right thinking.\u201d The religious right is \u201ca bunch of crazed zealots who pretty much kept to themselves until \u2018progressive\u2019 zealots started imposing THEIR values on them and theirs via popular culture and the schools.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Life grew more complex. Friends and family didn\u2019t know what to think, especially when Stein came out of the closet with a riotous memoir called \u201cHow I Accidentally Joined the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy (and Found Inner Peace).\u201d And to tell the truth, Stein isn\u2019t always sure what he thinks, these days.<\/p>\n\n
Take the God question. Please. Stein is a conservative and a Jew, but that doesn\u2019t mean he is a conservative Jew. He\u2019s worried that Americans are befuddled on moral issues, but he isn\u2019t sure what he thinks about \u201csin,\u201d \u201crepentance\u201d and \u201catonement.\u201d He didn\u2019t know what he would be doing during the High Holy Days, which end with Yom Kippur on Monday.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cIt would be incorrect to say that I am religious,\u201d said Stein, after a recent speech to the Independent Women\u2019s Forum. \u201cAfter all, I grew up as an agnostic and my parents were Communists. But I am more spiritual now than I used to be, it\u2019s safe to say. \u2026 And to the extent that I was totally skeptical before, I\u2019m not anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Stein said he realized that his moral and cultural views were changing while he was writing an ethics column for Esquire magazine, creating a witty persona that his editor once dubbed \u201cShecky Spinoza.\u201d By it\u2019s very nature, this assignment forced him to ask probing questions and to seek ethical standards that have stood the test of time.<\/p>\n\n
In his book, Stein concedes: \u201cSubtly, though even I was unaware of it at the time, a theme began to run through those pieces: that some of the moral precepts people like me had so casually jettisoned in the sixties as woefully antique \u2014 like, oh, the more demanding of the Ten Commandments \u2014 have served humanity pretty well, after all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Before he knew it, the questions raised by his day job and the lessons he was learning as a father pulled him into a stream of hot social issues \u2014 such as debates about day care and the so-called \u201cMommy Wars.\u201d Then his wife dropped out of \u201cWomen Against Right-Wing Scum,\u201d a support group for New York media professionals. Then stunned colleagues started calling them \u201ca traditional family.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Then, at a dinner party, Stein said he believed it\u2019s bad for children to grow up without fathers. A friend went nuclear, exclaiming: \u201cJesus Christ, when did you become a fascist?!\u201d There was no turning back after that.<\/p>\n\n
Stein also began to ask what happens when a culture loses its ability to teach that some acts are always evil, no matter what the cultural context or the circumstances. But if there are eternal rights and wrongs, where do such standards come from?<\/p>\n\n
\u201cI do believe that each of us has an innate sense of what is right and wrong,\u201d he said. \u201cBut there has to be more to this than feelings. This must be predicated on traditional moral truths. \u2026 I think we all know, deep in our hearts and our souls, that it is these bedrock truths are what make it possible for us to have happy and productive lives. To deny that is insane.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Life was simpler back when journalist Harry Stein knew his place. If asked to define \u201cpolitically correct,\u201d he could quickly answer: \u201cA term used by the right to smear decent people working hard for social change.\u201d The religious right? \u201cA bunch of crazed zealots out to impose their repressive, intolerant theocratic values on the rest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n