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| A matter of right and also-right | A matter of right and also-right |
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| Is it easier to sell peanuts or moral relativism?Moral relativism is not an easy concept for some people to understand, says Laurie Taylor in his weekly column for the Magazine. | Is it easier to sell peanuts or moral relativism?Moral relativism is not an easy concept for some people to understand, says Laurie Taylor in his weekly column for the Magazine. |
| Last week, idly glancing through a five page document which had arrived from my accountant, I learned for the first time that the private pension I'd been assembling over the last few years had halved in value. Noughts had simply disappeared. | Last week, idly glancing through a five page document which had arrived from my accountant, I learned for the first time that the private pension I'd been assembling over the last few years had halved in value. Noughts had simply disappeared. |
| It seemed obvious that if I was still to enjoy the relaxing sun and Scotch-soaked retirement I'd always envisaged for myself, then I'd need to find some extra work. There was little hope that I could now return to higher education or any other salaried occupation. I'd need to act for myself. Become an entrepreneur. FIND OUT MORE Hear Laurie Taylor's Thinking Allowed on Radio 4 at 1600 on Wednesday 14 JanuaryOr download the podcast here | It seemed obvious that if I was still to enjoy the relaxing sun and Scotch-soaked retirement I'd always envisaged for myself, then I'd need to find some extra work. There was little hope that I could now return to higher education or any other salaried occupation. I'd need to act for myself. Become an entrepreneur. FIND OUT MORE Hear Laurie Taylor's Thinking Allowed on Radio 4 at 1600 on Wednesday 14 JanuaryOr download the podcast here |
| I wasn't without experience. Back in the early sixties at my teachers' training college in Sidcup, I'd gone heavily into peanuts with my best friend, Tom. During a heavy drinking session one night, we'd calculated that the peanuts we were eating at the bar cost nearly two pence a dozen. Surely we could buy them cheaper in bulk and market our own brand? | I wasn't without experience. Back in the early sixties at my teachers' training college in Sidcup, I'd gone heavily into peanuts with my best friend, Tom. During a heavy drinking session one night, we'd calculated that the peanuts we were eating at the bar cost nearly two pence a dozen. Surely we could buy them cheaper in bulk and market our own brand? |
| Indeed we could. When we wrote to the company name on the side of the packet we were offered five pound boxes of peanuts which, when divided into pub-sized bags and sold at half the pub price, would still give us a 200% profit. | Indeed we could. When we wrote to the company name on the side of the packet we were offered five pound boxes of peanuts which, when divided into pub-sized bags and sold at half the pub price, would still give us a 200% profit. |
| We promptly named our enterprise Fireside Foods and set off with a barrow and a paraffin-heated hotplate to Sidcup High Street. Our peanuts were not only cheaper but they were also semi-roasted. | We promptly named our enterprise Fireside Foods and set off with a barrow and a paraffin-heated hotplate to Sidcup High Street. Our peanuts were not only cheaper but they were also semi-roasted. |
| Sociology van | Sociology van |
| And that was the problem. We'd had the bad luck to set up our enterprise in one of the hottest summer months on record. As people all around us scrambled for shelter from the blinding sun, we alone stood out in the middle of the street tending to a steaming hotplate. Sales were very slow. A packet of hot nuts in that climate seemed about as desirable as a mug of Bovril. | And that was the problem. We'd had the bad luck to set up our enterprise in one of the hottest summer months on record. As people all around us scrambled for shelter from the blinding sun, we alone stood out in the middle of the street tending to a steaming hotplate. Sales were very slow. A packet of hot nuts in that climate seemed about as desirable as a mug of Bovril. |
| Rather more planning has gone into my latest entrepreneurial idea. What I'm thinking of doing is purchasing a small second-hand van and having the side inscribed with a modest name check and an invitation 'LAURIE TAYLOR. Sociologist. Your Problems Solved. £10 a solution.' Children who devised their own moral code were far more likely to adhere to it than to one which had been handed down by authoritarian figures | Rather more planning has gone into my latest entrepreneurial idea. What I'm thinking of doing is purchasing a small second-hand van and having the side inscribed with a modest name check and an invitation 'LAURIE TAYLOR. Sociologist. Your Problems Solved. £10 a solution.' Children who devised their own moral code were far more likely to adhere to it than to one which had been handed down by authoritarian figures |
| What I then intend to do is drive the van slowly along busy provincial shopping streets, wait until I am waved down, and then step out and ask the enquirer to tell me the nature of their problem. | What I then intend to do is drive the van slowly along busy provincial shopping streets, wait until I am waved down, and then step out and ask the enquirer to tell me the nature of their problem. |
| Suppose, for example, someone told me that they were worried about the manner in which their children were currently embracing moral relativism, the ways in which they seemed to make up their own ideas about what was right and wrong without any concern for the commandments and prescriptions laid down by their elders and betters. | Suppose, for example, someone told me that they were worried about the manner in which their children were currently embracing moral relativism, the ways in which they seemed to make up their own ideas about what was right and wrong without any concern for the commandments and prescriptions laid down by their elders and betters. |
| Invalid judgements | Invalid judgements |
| I'd begin with some token reassurance and then go on to discuss some of the parameters of moral relativism, the ways in which such a position derived at least in part from the anthropological insistence upon the uniqueness of separate cultures, from the alleged impossibility of being able to declare one way of living and believing as superior to any other. | I'd begin with some token reassurance and then go on to discuss some of the parameters of moral relativism, the ways in which such a position derived at least in part from the anthropological insistence upon the uniqueness of separate cultures, from the alleged impossibility of being able to declare one way of living and believing as superior to any other. |
| I'd also suggest that a thoroughgoing subscription to moral relativism meant that it was no longer valid or appropriate to pass judgement on such practises as wife beating or euthanasia. | I'd also suggest that a thoroughgoing subscription to moral relativism meant that it was no longer valid or appropriate to pass judgement on such practises as wife beating or euthanasia. |
| But in order not to be too downbeat I'd also point out to my earnest enquirer that there was small consolation to be found in their children's readiness to construct their own ideas of what was right and wrong. | But in order not to be too downbeat I'd also point out to my earnest enquirer that there was small consolation to be found in their children's readiness to construct their own ideas of what was right and wrong. |
| Children who devised their own moral code were far more likely to adhere to it than to one which had been handed down by authoritarian figures such as popes and priests and headmasters and patriarchal fathers. Then I'd say "that'll be ten pounds please", hop back in the van, drive home and count the day's takings. | Children who devised their own moral code were far more likely to adhere to it than to one which had been handed down by authoritarian figures such as popes and priests and headmasters and patriarchal fathers. Then I'd say "that'll be ten pounds please", hop back in the van, drive home and count the day's takings. |
| I've not yet been on the road. I blame my friend Dennis. He saw a sketch of a parked van I'd made and read out the inscription 'Laurie Taylor - Sociologist. Problems Solved. £10'. "That's a bit stark isn't it?" he said. "How do you mean - stark?" "Well, don't you need some sort of logo as a selling point?" "What sort of logo?" "Well, you're a sociologist. So how about 'Never knowingly understood'?". | I've not yet been on the road. I blame my friend Dennis. He saw a sketch of a parked van I'd made and read out the inscription 'Laurie Taylor - Sociologist. Problems Solved. £10'. "That's a bit stark isn't it?" he said. "How do you mean - stark?" "Well, don't you need some sort of logo as a selling point?" "What sort of logo?" "Well, you're a sociologist. So how about 'Never knowingly understood'?". |
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