--- Nick Arnett <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I hear so much self-righteous talk about giving > blame and not enough > about forgetting about blame and taking > responsibility. > > Nick
But this is absurd. I have no responsibility for the people who crashed planes into the WTC, and I have no responsibility for the ones who just beheaded one of my fellow Americans. I do have a moral responsibility because of their actions - to make sure that the people who did never, ever get the chance to do it again. But I have no responsibility _for_ their actions. They chose to do what they did. If you want self-righteous, Nick, it seems to me that the stance "I take responsibility for these things even though everyone else is too self-righteous to do so" meets that qualification pretty well. That stance allows those who hold it to demonstrate how much better they are than everyone who disagrees with them, while neatly making sure that they don't actually have to _do_ anything either. It is not self-righteous, but righteous - a different thing entirely - to recognize evil when it exists and fight it when you can. Self-righteous, it seems to me, might more accurately describe looking at evil and condemning the people who are fighting it as morally inferior to the ones who would rather do nothing about it. Michael Walzer made this point in _Dissent_ more eloquently than I, and I've posted that article on the list. But it seems to me that what you've said above is a way of separating yourself from, and looking down upon, your countrymen, not a morally valid position. Some people do, in fact, need to be killed. When those people attack you, talking about how self-righteous the people who attack them are isn't a contribution, it's vanity. ===== Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Movies - Buy advance tickets for 'Shrek 2' http://movies.yahoo.com/showtimes/movie?mid=1808405861
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