29 April 2014

JP Morgan Chase to close bank accounts of pornstars.

My original impulse was to make a dry, witty observation about the irony of a bank not wanting money from people who make a living screwing other people.  But I thought about it a bit. As usual, I became confused.

It seems to me our society has lost the ability to distinguish and make distinctions.  The term to describe that capacity- "discrimination"- has become a term of opprobrium.  It used to be a compliment to tell someone they had discriminating tastes.  Now, where I work, saying that could get someone fired.

 Without the ability to make distinctions and to differentiate between degrees, we have a quandary when we try and make legislation or regulations. We cannot allow for sometimes, but not other times.  We now only have the capacity to ban or allow, to draw a line at all or a line at nothing,  with no intermediary degrees.  All, or nothing.

In cases such as this, we are stuck: either a public business must be absolutely open to all who are capable of paying for their services, or business owners have an absolute prerogative to pick and choose their customers as they see fit.  I do not see a middle ground.

There are those who, for example, support the bakers who do not wish to bake cakes for gay couples for moral reasons.  They may also agree with a bank not wanting to do business with pornstars for moral reasons (and I have to confess- it is taking all I have not to break out in gales of laughter at the thought of a bank having 'morality').  Fair enough.  But I would also say that there are those out there who find us morally offensive (at least I hope there are.  If the World is alright with us, we're doing it wrong).  By this reasoning others can deny us goods, shelter, and services because we are Catholic.  It has been done in the past, and will most likely happen to us again.  Allowing for this sort of thing will hasten the day.

It seems to me... I'm not sure what it seems to me.  I am as bad at making distinctions as the rest of my culture.  It seems important that we do not countenance what we find repugnant.  On the other hand, I'm sure it's going to sting like crazy when I'm on the receiving end.

1 comment:

Православный физик said...

I agree, there's been a loss in the ability to distinguish things. It's a huge problem.