Althouse: A new student organization based on modesty, chastity, marriage and charity.

October 21, 2011

A new student organization based on modesty, chastity, marriage and charity.

The Anscombe Society.

ADDED: The Anscombe Society is new at the University of Texas, but it's been around a while, and, in fact, I've blogged about it before — here.

39 comments:

Sal said...: The UT Anscombe Society, which consists of roughly 12 students...

Roughly 100 I can understand, but roughly 12?

Maybe they have 40 members but are being modest, per their charter.; 10/21/11, 10:12 PM
traditionalguy said...: The Traditionalists are back. Hooah!

The group will all be Tim Tebows of college life.; 10/21/11, 10:14 PM
edutcher said...: There a lot of studies that say marriage is in trouble, although Kay Hymowitz shoots down some of it.

I think this is another indication that the smart people are still getting married.; 10/21/11, 10:17 PM
KLDAVIS said...: All they need is to invent a flavorless mush called rootmarm and they can found Springfield.; 10/21/11, 10:20 PM
Quaestor said...: KLDAVIS wrote:
All they need is to invent a flavorless mush called rootmarm and they can found Springfield.

Looks like you've already got the patent, KLD.

I applaud the roughly 12 at UT. We need at least some modest yet accomplished people to balance out the plethora of foolish chest-thumpers, truculent arm-folders, and shameless self-promoters who have dominated the national conversation for far too long.; 10/21/11, 10:31 PM
Anonymous said...: The guys are there to meet women.

You think I'm kidding don't you.; 10/21/11, 10:36 PM
Quaestor said...: edwardroyce wrote:
You think I'm kidding don't you[?]

That's not what thought about your comment.; 10/21/11, 10:39 PM
Andy said...: This is too dumb to make fun of.; 10/21/11, 10:55 PM
Quaestor said...: Andy R. wrote:
This is too dumb to make fun of.

Being charitable, Andy? Perhaps you have more in common with the Anscombes than you realize.; 10/21/11, 11:06 PM
YoungHegelian said...: @Andy

It seems every time you drop by here you post an empty insult.

Tell me, Mary, has an idea of any sort ever crossed through your pretty little head?

Judging from your postings here, the answer would be no.

Shit, even J can make a logical argument now and then.; 10/21/11, 11:07 PM
YoungHegelian said...: It's interesting that they picked Anscombe. She came out of a philosophical tradition (the British & Austrian Analytic) that one would think would not be friendly to a conservative/religious sense of morality, but rather would lean towards a more relativistic moral outlook.

Well, you'd be wrong. She squared the circle in her own inimitable fashion.

Here's a good article by her on moral philosophy. It's a worthwhile if not easy read.

http://www.philosophy.uncc.edu/mleldrid/cmt/mmp.html; 10/21/11, 11:22 PM
TML said...: I believe it was Old Winnie Churchill who stated that the three great benefits of marriage we chastity, loyalty and friendship. Hard to argue with that.; 10/21/11, 11:27 PM
Quaestor said...: YoungHegelian's link fixed.; 10/21/11, 11:34 PM
Andy said...: Perhaps you have more in common with the Anscombes than you realize.

I don't know what this means.

It seems every time you drop by here you post an empty insult.

Ok, if the folks at Texas are anything like the group at Princeton then they are a bunch of bigoted homophobes, and it strikes me as stupid for a group in 2011 to stake a claim as advocating in favor of bigoted homophobia among college students.

[I can't actually find a link to the Texas Anscombe Society page, but I'll look it over if anyone can link to it.]; 10/21/11, 11:35 PM
Quaestor said...: Andy R. wrote:
I don't know what this means.

This doesn't surprise me.; 10/21/11, 11:40 PM
YoungHegelian said...: @Quaestor:

Mucho Grats for the link.

@Andy

Calling someone a bigot doesn't count as a rational argument either. You may feel (and the operative word is "feel") that you've got the catbird seat on the morality angles of human sexuality, but the social, philosophical, and religious reality of it all is that you don't.

You might learn more from your fellow humans if you accepted this basic fact.; 10/21/11, 11:41 PM
Palladian said...: I wonder if they allow douchebags with crooked hats at their meetings?; 10/21/11, 11:45 PM
Quaestor said...: Andy R. wrote:
... bigoted homophobia...

Assuming homophobia is real, are you implying there is a non-bigoted form of homophobia?

Don't bother replying, Andy. You've already dug a deep enough hole. If homophobia exists (And it doesn't, the term was coined to make people who may have beef with the "lifestyle" appear to be afflicted with a psycho-neurotic disorder. Homophobia is a weasel word designed to corrupt honest debate. If there was such a diagnosis it wouldn't be called "homophobia" which ought to mean roughly from its Greek particles "fear of that which is the same," i.e. nonsense) then those who as so afflicted can't be judged on a moral basis. That's like assigning moral significance to a head cold.; 10/21/11, 11:51 PM
Andy said...: Unsurprisingly, they are also anti-feminist:
The group has also promoted family values and separate spheres for men and women, inviting speakers to campus who advocate a return to traditional gender roles.

There are people I am happy to have an intellectual argument with, but a group that says that gays should avoid having sex their entire lives and that we should undo the gains of feminism are not those people.; 10/21/11, 11:54 PM
Andy said...: Assuming homophobia is real, are you implying there is a non-bigoted form of homophobia?

Yes, I think there are less bigoted, and probably non-bigoted, forms of homophobia.; 10/21/11, 11:59 PM
Quaestor said...: Andy R. wrote:
Yes, I think there are less bigoted, and probably non-bigoted, forms of homophobia.

And you're not guilty of bigotry? You're comments about the Anscombes read like a paradigm case of same.; 10/22/11, 12:04 AM
Andy said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 10/22/11, 12:07 AM
Quaestor said...: Maybe you're an ancombephobe, Andy. You seem to resent people who disagree with you. Do you think the Anscombes personal morals are a rebuke to your Weltanschauung?; 10/22/11, 12:07 AM
Andy said...: And you're not guilty of bigotry?

Yes, I'm bigoted against homophobes and anti-feminists.

I think you're smart enough to figure out the difference between being bigoted against women and queers and being bigoted toward people who are bigoted against women and queers.; 10/22/11, 12:08 AM
Quaestor said...: I think you're smart enough to figure out the difference between bigoted against women and queers and being bigoted toward people who are bigoted against women and queers.

Yes, I too think I'm smart enough to know the difference. The differenceis very slight and serves to nourish the egos of persons who like to strike a pose of moral superiority in a midst of a friendly crowd.; 10/22/11, 12:11 AM
Quaestor said...: I need a new keyboard. The space bar works only sporadically.; 10/22/11, 12:13 AM
Quaestor said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 10/22/11, 12:20 AM
Quaestor said...: Personally I don't know whether I would agree with the Anscombes. I haven't read the article at the link provided by YoungHegelian, nor have I read anything other than Ann's link and the Princeton chapter's mission statement provided by Andy R. However, I surmise that their opinions are unfashionable, which makes them courageous persons on campus if nothing else.

(edited for clarity); 10/22/11, 12:22 AM
Quaestor said...: Goodnight, everyone.; 10/22/11, 12:23 AM
john marzan said...: they should call their organization the "Whit Stillman society"; 10/22/11, 3:42 AM
edutcher said...: Andy R. said...

It seems every time you drop by here you post an empty insult.

Ok, if the folks at Texas are anything like the group at Princeton then they are a bunch of bigoted homophobes, and it strikes me as stupid for a group in 2011 to stake a claim as advocating in favor of bigoted homophobia among college students.

So glad Hatman dropped by to make a fool of him/herself.

As I've said, when a homosexual runs as a Republican, we'll see the same treatment the Lefties gave Clarence Thomas and Sarah Palin. Insta gives us a case in point.

Unsurprisingly, they are also anti-feminist:

Considering the feminists have shown themselves to be a pack of Lefty hypocrites functioning as nothing more than the Demos' Ladies' Auxiliary, sounds like these are people with a lot of good sense.

PS What Quaestor said about the etymology of the term, "homophobia".; 10/22/11, 4:20 AM
lonetown said...: Kind of reminded me of Anscombe's quartet.; 10/22/11, 4:55 AM
Pastafarian said...: Before reading these comments, I was going to post, half-joking:

From what I've seen of this generation of young people, they might as well add humility, hard work, and the rejection of covetousness to their list of virtues, while they're at it. They'll attract literally dozens of members.

And then I read the comments and saw that they actually have just one dozen members. And that Crooked Hat Douchebag was here representing the young, dumb, and full of sloth, avarice, and self-righteousness generation better than I could ever insult them.; 10/22/11, 7:04 AM
Robert Cook said...: "...truculent arm-folders...."

OMG

Amidst our other tribulations, now we're plagued with swarms of truculent armfolders!!; 10/22/11, 7:28 AM
Paco Wové said...: I guess I'm just not an organization kind of guy, but it seems to me that the best way to advance modesty, chastity, charity, etc., is to be modest, chaste, and charitable. I'm not sure what the group provides in all this. Be the change!; 10/22/11, 9:21 AM
somefeller said...: Where is Ogre when you need him?; 10/22/11, 9:33 AM
Freeman Hunt said...: Joining this society now is like tuning in and dropping out in the sixties. It's radical, man!

I like it.

All of the culture in college is about sex and looking sexy. I like the presentation of an alternative.; 10/22/11, 10:27 AM
Freeman Hunt said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 10/22/11, 10:30 AM
Fr Martin Fox said...: Chastity is the great threat against us! It must be destroyed wherever it raises its head!; 10/22/11, 11:46 AM