2015-05-07 – They like to blame it on liberals and academics. Moral relativism is what’s tearing our society apart. There’s no right and wrong anymore.

That’s what they say.

And it sounds plausible. Philosophers do debate the nature of evil and they ponder the merits of different moral systems. They try to find commonalities and differences. They apply statistics.

And society listens to that?

I don’t think so. And if someone does listen to that, it’s just to put themselves to sleep at night. Yawn.

And if anyone is a stickler for rules, it’s a liberal. Doesn’t the right tell us that liberals want to destroy the free enterprise system through over regulation? Rules. Rules. Rules.

So where is the erosion coming from?

Well, here’s a thought: corporate relativism.

This week’s example is angst over something called Deflategate. Now, I try to avoid corporate football, so I don’t know too much about this. But apparently, some quarterback named Brady is suspected of cheating by having game footballs deflated so that they would be easier for him to handle, giving him a competitive edge. This guy apparently didn’t need the edge, but corporate folk don’t take risks. (Even though they say they do, thus meriting obscene paychecks.)

An NFL report just out finds that the footballs were deflated. The only question is whether there is sufficient evidence to pin the rap on quarterback Brady.

The commentator I linked you to considers the issue to be a public relations question and thinks that Brady should keep his mouth shut, guilty or not.

What happened to right and wrong? Aren’t commentators supposed to talk about that? If Brady wants to lie and let some flunkies take the fall, I suppose, he’ll do that. But should the public discussion characterize the decision as mere public relations?

That’s this week’s example. Next week there will be another example. And so it goes.

It’s not the academics. It’s not the liberals. It’s not the atheists. It’s not the humanists. I’m betting that a sizeable majority of these groups would condemn the trend.

It’s politicians and partisans that apologize for thieves and cheaters.