Discover Tony D. Senatore’s provocative new dialogue on free speech and moral courage.
Book Ad
NEW BOOK: Where Free Speech Turns Fractious
If you're having trouble falling asleep, DO NOT READ this book… it turns the tables on every assumption and keeps you wide awake.
— Walter Block, Ph.D.
Excerpt from the book:
"Are you suggesting Nazi Germany could not be judged simply because it had its own standards and values? When it comes to justice and human rights, humanity cries out in judgment—and each of us has a duty to speak."
Tony D. Senatore is a musician and journalist who graduated from Columbia University in 2017 at age 55. Tony has released the world's first commercially available instructional DVD dealing with all aspects of the 12-string bass guitar with his 12-String Bass X-Ploration DVD, which was released in 2007. Tony was the house bassist at The Barber Shop Studios under the direction of the late Jason Corsaro since 1993, and released a highly acclaimed solo album titled Holyland in 2005. Tony periodically writes from Merion West and maintains a blog at The Times of Israel.
Excerpt from An Apology from Trump's America
About the Book: This book is neither an apology from individuals who voted for President Trump nor a defense of his presidency's virtues. The main argument is that although free speech is the cornerstone of a free society, sometimes too much freedom has a corrosive effect on society, especially when those we elect to govern fail us and media outlets obfuscate truth by dividing people. An open dialogue with the people we disagree with most is Socrates' best wisdom. As we learned from him over two thousand years ago, we must realize that we don't have all the answers, and we need to learn how to ask all the right questions, and to have the courage to act upon what we hear, even when it conflicts with long-standing beliefs.
[Professor] I disagree that a universal form of justice and morality is knowable with absolute certainty, as are rectangle, square, or triangle forms. One culture is not better than another; it is merely different. Every society, from primitive to advanced, is unique, and no outside, universal standard can be used to evaluate them. Cultures evolved in their own ways and their own regions and periods. Moreover, concepts of morality and justice vary, depending on the culture and the individual, and the idea of absolute ethics is impossible.
I find it surprising that someone who refers to herself as a feminist and a supporter of the LGBT community and BLM could make such a claim and support countries and regimes that go against all you hold sacred while disparaging a nation and a system that best reflects the type of world you aspire towards. Tolerance and fence-sitting are in vogue today and might benefit your career at Columbia, but I think you're doing a disservice to your education by holding such views. The apparent drawback to your moral and ethical relativism is exposed "writ large," as Plato would say, with the rise of Nazi Germany and the work and extermination camps in which millions of Jews were tortured and murdered. Are you suggesting that Nazi Germany could not be judged because it was unique and evolved in its own way with its standards and values? The record of history is crystal clear that humanity cried out in the judgment of the Nazis. Of course, moral and ethical relativists get around my point by minimizing the Holocaust, or worse, asserting that it ever happened. Nevertheless, when it comes to justice and human rights, human beings share universal human standards, and individuals have a moral responsibility to judge and speak out when these rights are violated or denied.
