Lincoln and More with Harry Jaffa (part 2)

In a previous Uncommon Knowledge interview, Jaffa discussed his classic Crisis of the House Divided. In this interview, Jaffa returns to discuss the sequel, A New Birth of Freedom. He begins by making a critical point: whereas the Founders had expected slavery simply to wither away, by the middle of the nineteenth century the peculiar institution had done no such thing. The Civil War, Jaffa insists, was a necessary war—an unavoidable war -- not a war of choice. When the war broke out, anyone who had engaged in a cool calculation of the odds would have put his money on the Confederacy, not the Union. Commenting on contemporary America, Jaffa points out the distinction between the immutable principles of private morality that President Washington spoke of and the fundamental American values that President Obama speaks of today. Values are moral choices, which have no object or basis, Jaffa asserts. The value is a subjective desire, not an objective truth. A hundred years ago, nobody would have spoken about our principles as being values.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• HooverInstitutionUK
• Lincoln
• Civil War
• slavery
• values
• freedom
• house divided

[FilmCriticOne]

Jaffa is is honest enough to avoid the plethora of myths that abound about the period leading up to the Civil War. While almost every myth has the South at a daunting disadvantage -- in reality, the South almost every advantage at first. If the South had simply not got macho about Fort Sumter, LIncoln would have no choice but to let the slave rapers and child selling lunatics rip the country in two - and much worse -- spread slavery throughout the rest of the US by violence.

[soopermexican]

@dannidandannikins saying Jaffa should read Randy Ayn is like telling Shakespeare he needs to read the Twilight novels to see what real drama is...

[hubbell627]

@dannidandannikins: Harry Jaffa is a genius. I think you need to rethink your assessment on him. Read his books and his essays and you'll find a man who grasps Lincoln's priniciples better then others.

[dannidandannikins]

someone ought to sit that man down with a copy of atlas shrugged. god is the author of nature, forsooth. I subbed this channel because you had interviews with intelligent thinkers; this interview, however, is a waste of time.