--- David Hobby <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > If everyone saw them the same way, they would not > be "issues" > since there would be little contention. Please > accept that good > people can disagree with you on your black-and-white > issues, and > that like it or not, compromise is the best > solution, which happens > to be gray. > What you say is true, about you. The contentious > issues that > one sees in black-and-white are those where one is > prepared to fight > the hardest. > ---David > > It is bad. The world is usually not simply > black-or-white, and > it is simple-minded to pretend that there is no > middle ground.
The argument that everyone doesn't see things the same way doesn't make things any less black or white (in some instances). All too often let me suggest that the claim that things "aren't black or white" is a sign of moral laziness - the unwillingness to make a judgment, either because judgment itself is considered to be a bad thing, or because making the (obvious) judgment would require action. There are a few examples from very recent history. Let's ignore the obvious of 9/11. How about the genocide in Rwanda? Black and white? Clearly it was - it was black and white that this was a very bad thing. It might have been unclear whether something should have been done about it (I happen to think that we should have intervened, but many people I greatly respect feel otherwise) but I don't think it was anything but black and white that it was evil in its purest sense. Yet clearly some people (the people committing the acts, after all) disagreed. How about North Korea? It's fairly common to hear people say that the North Korean situation isn't black and white. That's bullshit. Nothing more than moral cowardice from people who don't want to face what's actually happening in that country. It _is_ black and white. The North Korean government is distilled evil in a form that approaches that of Stalin or Hitler. Good people can disagree on many issues. A cause that I've taken up on this list quite often in the last few days, and even more often in the time that I've been on it. But there are issues - present day issues - on which good people _cannot_ disagree, and if you do disagree, then you're calling into question your title to be a "good person". ===== Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Finance: Get your refund fast by filing online. http://taxes.yahoo.com/filing.html _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
