7

There are three ideas floating around that ought to be looked at a little more carefully than they usually are. One is a current TV commercial slogan, another is a premise taken for granted by many, and a third is an assumption widespread in our culture.

The first is the TV exhortation in insurance commercials that we “buy only what we need.” Obviously sensible but the only insurance we will ever need is what we have when we make a claim. Any other we won’t need. 

Second, the idea, usually related to birth control, that a woman has the right to do what she wants with her own body. Sounds good until we think of suicide.

The third is the common view that there are no moral absolutes, that in the end we may decide for ourselves what is right or wrong so long as we are sincere, “true to ourselves” whatever that means. Hitler was sincere. A serial killer is sincere. A rapist is sincere. And on and on.