Forums » Off-Topic

How Come This Wasn't Written Ten Years Ago?

Oct 04, 2006 Professor Chaos link
It seems Orson Scott Card has come up a couple times in threads lately. He writes a weekly column in his local newspaper and on his website, and I wish he'd written this back when I was in Junior High and High School:

Homework, Part I
Homework, Part II
Oct 04, 2006 who? me? link
but he didnt did he! haha you have to do homework!!! :P
Oct 04, 2006 Suicidal Lemming link
That's a very good read, thanks Professor Chaos for the link.
Oct 04, 2006 moldyman link
Home... work? You mean... that stuff I did in the class before while not paying attention to that teacher?
Oct 04, 2006 Professor Chaos link
Hehe, moldyman, you add one more good point against the usefulness of homework.
Oct 05, 2006 toshiro link
I disagree with the article.
Oct 05, 2006 ananzi link
Apparently because he was too busy saving the Mormon Church from Gay Martians.

http://archive.salon.com/books/feature/2000/02/03/card/
Oct 05, 2006 upper case link
you expect me to sit and read all that?

too much work.
Oct 05, 2006 Professor Chaos link
DISCLAIMER: I do not want to offend anyone with this post. If you want to throw insults at me, please feel free to tell me how horrible I am personally at rimmer_82@hotmail.com

ananzi: Interesting interview. I've never met Card myself, I just love Enders game and most of his other books, and agree with maybe 70% of his political views (conservative estimate) and agree about half the time with his movie reviews.

As far as the woman who interviewed him, at she's honest about that bias she expresses in the article:

"When he says provocative things I agree with, he's my brother."

and:

"I prefer to get my digs in when I write the piece up, like this. It's a way of fighting back without ever having to face my tormentor head-on."

Being gay herself, she took personally everything he said. I don't have time to find the links now, but Card has summarized his opinions on homosexuality in his column, and they are not only views I agree with but the official position of the LDS Church (of which, if you haven't guessed, I'm a member). I'll summarize them in my own words:

I have no problem with gay people. I have known, worked with, and been friends with several. All people are God's children (even the ones who don't believe in God), and He loves all of them equally, and expects us to do so as well. "If you have done it unto the least of these my children, you have done it unto me [paraphrase]". This doesn't excuse behavior, however, and I believe that homosexual acts are as wrong as any sexual act outside of marriage (the gay marriage debate is a different issue). This belief does not make me or Card or anyone a homophobe. A homophobe actively discriminates against and even may act violently against gay people, and that also is wrong.

When Card mentions homosexuals "withdrawing from biological life" he means that a man cannot make another man pregnant, nor can a woman make a woman pregnant. Also, I don't care what gay people do in private, it's not my business what anyone does in private. As for rights, gay people have all the rights any American has, that's why campaigning for gay "rights" doesn't make sense. The biggest issue there I can see has to do with taxes, and how marital status and family status affects taxes. The solution is to abolish all taxes to replace them with an income tax, as suggested here, which I also recommend as an excellent read (the book, I mean).

If anyone reading this is a homosexual, please do not take this personally. Your sexual orientation, and your reasons for it, are none of my business, and I'm not going to ask. If you tell me you're homosexual, I will not act any differently toward you than I would otherwise, because it honestly doesn't matter to me. The point of this post is to defend Card.

Just for the record, while I agree that the USSR was really just State Monopoly Capitalism, I disagree with Card that capitalism is bad or that communism would ever work except on paper. Whenever it's tried, State Monopoly Capitalism is what it becomes. So there, I don't just blindly agree with Card, there's a big issue where we disagree. :)