ABSTRACT
In the liberal tradition a general presumption is that persons, both as individuals and as groups of individuals, should be allowed to follow their desires and their underlying values unless they are bound to harm others. Although it is commendable to try not to offend other people’s sensitivities it is ajustifiable position to claim that people should accept the fact that, especially if their personal moral or cultural approach is far from liberal, their feelings will get offended by free expression. If desires are seen as something valuable to the holder and her identity, she should be free to voice them instead of nurturing them in secret. Any rational person understands that in a pluralist society, we do have desires that seem odd or even incomprehensible to others. Our aesthetic, hedonistic, social, religious, and other values are often contrary or even contradictory. A person who first and foremost desires to indulge in hedonistic pleasures is seen with dismay by his neighbor for whom physical pleasures denote abstinence and strongest possible self-discipline. Similarly an ardent churchgoer cannot really understand her neighbor for whom baseball seems to be the holiest of the holy. Pure and simple realism should show us that either only the tiniest societies can be culturally homogeneous or only an absolute tyranny reinforced by heavy sanctions will mold people into 80an obedient lot who do not cast a hungry eye to what is not to be desired. A reasonable demand in democratic and tolerant society is to accept the unavoidable existence of conflicting desires, opinions, and convictions.
