the wisdom of repugnance

revulsion is not an argument... in crucial cases, however, repugnance is the emotional expression of deep wisdom, beyond reason’s power fully to articulate it... shallow are the souls that have forgotten how to shudder. 
-  leon kass (2000, writing about human cloning)

there is a place, then, for a tiny garret tucked under the eaves of my house within which reposes the forgotten spinning wheel with its inconvenient needle. it is good that voices that are popular acceptable and established may sometimes come up against an awkward unremembered qualm. i hope then that i will shudder, and question.