M-L-M Mayhem!

Recently, I have been reflecting on the claim that communism means the death of the family .  Before I became a parent I accepted this claim without much reflection, simply as a good theoretical point, because I wasn't involved in developing my own family (in the sense implied by the aphorism) and so it did not apply to me personally.  Obviously I could understand, having been brought up in a family and socialized according to particular familial values, why this "death of a family" made sense––but once some of us are independent adults, as I have been for some time, it is easy to pretend that we are outside of the family and, socialized into unconsciously  thinking of ourselves as individuals even though we consciously  know this is a lie, have already murdered its influence. Having a child with your partner, though, regardless of how traditional or untraditional your relationship with this partner may be, does bring the family directly and consciously back into your p

As expected, my recent post on the problems with "sex positivist" feminism caused some controversy.  And though most of this controversy was anticipated, and the complaints about my position most often generated the predictable poverty of thinking (and intentional misunderstanding), there were some criticisms that were more interesting and salient.  To be fair, I think that the post in question was not especially good: it was unfocused, it lacked a clear structure, and was generally a rant derived from a few related frustrations that just happened, at the time the post was written, to coincide.  Even still, at least one of the complaints that made it unto my comments string (keep in mind I am ignoring all of the bullshit complaints and "critiques" that were levelled on other sites where it was reposted) was interesting enough, regardless of how it was phrased, to inspire this specific post.  The comment in question was arguing that all of my articles and discussion

On the bus to work last week I encountered a transit advertisement, paid for by some vague religious group, that read "There is no absolute truth… absolutely?"   Being an advertisement aimed at university students who are presumably indoctrinated by what is taken to be an intrinsic secular doctrine of moral relativism––supposedly prevalent in post-secondary education––it was designed to demonstrate the inherent logical contradiction of this position.  By pointing out the cognitive dissonance that results from this position, I would assume that the people behind this advertisement were hoping to win university students to some religious doctrine of moral absolutism. The subway advertisement in question.  And despite the appropriation Hebrew, In Search of Shalom  is a fundamentalist Christian campaign. The problem, however, is that both the advertisement's worry and its slogan demonstrate a general ignorance about the supposed prevalence and contradictory nature of m