Have you ever had an argument with your friend or spouse that you thought was about one thing
-->(why didn't you call me before coming home today so you could have stopped at the store to pick up milk)<--
but actually is about something else, not necessarily unrelated, but much bigger:
-->(I am sick and tired of you not remembering when I tell you something, and never seem to consult me when you go shopping, and are generally selfish and thoughtless and you do it all the time)? <--
Your observations are extremely apposite and I think support my sense that the pro-life position is sort of like an iceberg. The visible part above water is a sincere and passionate take on the morality of abortion. That alone is justification enough for serious contention about what is right and just.
But I submit there is more, a LOT more, below the surface-- a deep, almost preconscious intuition that pretty much anything having to do with health care, sex, and reproduction is an extremely dangerous threat to everyone and everything decent people hold near and dear. And on top of that -- resentment that somehow all those other people having abortions are also welfare cheats living the high life at my expense, corrupting my children into becoming gay, cutting in line ahead of me for jobs and advancement, and worst of all despising me and my kind as stupid, vulgar boobs. [Oh, and they are also {black}.]
So when you/we start up with lists of advisable measures to reduce unwanted pregnancies, while you think we are starting a discussion of pros and cons, that's just talk about the tip of the iceberg. The real mountain of disagreement is not even visible.
I think that often, in addition to what shows above the surface, below is a huge mass of resentments: liberals trying to give away free stuff to lazy people whose problems are due to not working hard enough and who need abortions because they are too lazy and selfish to control themselves. And not just abortions.
Below the surface, "we all know" who is on food stamps through no fault of their own and who is gaming the system.. and the reason all those people need all that help is they aren't taking responsibility for themselves the way upstanding real [white] Americans want to do, but can't, because liberals have broken down the culture so no one gets rewarded for working hard and standing up for traditional values. Those who do work hard and hold to traditional values get shafted. Shafted, and worse: called stupid, called bigoted, called hypocritical. Treated with contempt and looked at as if they were animals without dignity because the things they believe in are called worthless.
So while what you and I think we want is to work on options for reducing a particular social problem, what much of the pro-life iceberg actually wants is to stop and prevent, not just abortion, but all the other changes those who are pro-choice also want to perpetrate.
Have you ever had an argument with your friend or spouse that you thought was about one thing
-->(why didn't you call me before coming home today so you could have stopped at the store to pick up milk)<--
but actually is about something else, not necessarily unrelated, but much bigger:
-->(I am sick and tired of you not remembering when I tell you something, and never seem to consult me when you go shopping, and are generally selfish and thoughtless and you do it all the time)? <--
Your observations are extremely apposite and I think support my sense that the pro-life position is sort of like an iceberg. The visible part above water is a sincere and passionate take on the morality of abortion. That alone is justification enough for serious contention about what is right and just.
But I submit there is more, a LOT more, below the surface-- a deep, almost preconscious intuition that pretty much anything having to do with health care, sex, and reproduction is an extremely dangerous threat to everyone and everything decent people hold near and dear. And on top of that -- resentment that somehow all those other people having abortions are also welfare cheats living the high life at my expense, corrupting my children into becoming gay, cutting in line ahead of me for jobs and advancement, and worst of all despising me and my kind as stupid, vulgar boobs. [Oh, and they are also {black}.]
So when you/we start up with lists of advisable measures to reduce unwanted pregnancies, while you think we are starting a discussion of pros and cons, that's just talk about the tip of the iceberg. The real mountain of disagreement is not even visible.
I think that often, in addition to what shows above the surface, below is a huge mass of resentments: liberals trying to give away free stuff to lazy people whose problems are due to not working hard enough and who need abortions because they are too lazy and selfish to control themselves. And not just abortions.
Below the surface, "we all know" who is on food stamps through no fault of their own and who is gaming the system.. and the reason all those people need all that help is they aren't taking responsibility for themselves the way upstanding real [white] Americans want to do, but can't, because liberals have broken down the culture so no one gets rewarded for working hard and standing up for traditional values. Those who do work hard and hold to traditional values get shafted. Shafted, and worse: called stupid, called bigoted, called hypocritical. Treated with contempt and looked at as if they were animals without dignity because the things they believe in are called worthless.
So while what you and I think we want is to work on options for reducing a particular social problem, what much of the pro-life iceberg actually wants is to stop and prevent, not just abortion, but all the other changes those who are pro-choice also want to perpetrate.