Ethics and liberal values

"Being smart is cooler than anything in the world" said Michelle Obama to a group of London secondary school children this week.

Well, I'm sure this was a well intentioned statement, but I don't think it was a particularly smart one.

Intelligence is not something children have much control over, especially by the time they reach adolescence.

Something children have somewhat more control over, is their actions. Instead of telling kids to be smart, and therefore setting most of them up for a life of disappointment, why not just tell them to try to be good.

In an age of rising crime, corruption and corporate greed, surely one of the best things influential public figures can do is to promote traditional standards of moral behaviour, since being a decent person is something that students of all levels of academic ability are potentially capable of.

Unfortunately though, high moral standards don't seem to be considered particularly important to many of today's liberal elites.

Provided someone adheres to the prevailing ideology of tolerance and diversity then traditional values like honesty, integrity, courage and hard work aren't considered that important, or if they are, they' ve been so watered down as to be virtually meaningless.

The modern liberal definition of courage, for example, has now been widened to include any action in which someone endures something moderately unpleasant or mildly dangerous. Previously the word courage was reserved for instances in which someone risked their own life to selflessly help others.

Mark Richardson addresses the conflict between liberal ideology and traditional morality in a recent post on his Oz Conservative blog.