In a message dated 4/19/2005 10:24:40 PM Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> So, the Holocaust would have been ethical if Germany had won? > > It was ethical to the Nazis at the time it was taking place. Just as it > was ethical for slavery to be practiced, here and elsewhere, for a long > time, just as it was ethical for the original tribe of Israel to, > occasionally, utterly murder rivaling peoples, even to the point that a > psalm was written singing of the joys of dashing out the brains of > enemies' children against stones. > > From my point of view today, and I suspect from yours and most others', > those actions are all reprehensible. But to no small degree I suspect > that's because we're living in a world and a time that affords us the > luxury of extending the epithet "human" to *all* people, even those we > oppose or who oppose us. > > That is, since we're not (on the whole) caught up in an urgent need -- > a constant, driving need -- to (1) fend off starvation and (2) guard > against enemies literally at the door at all hours of the day and > night, we're able to be considerably more magnanimous to others than > our forebears were. We're not in "survival mode" -- and I think that > the only way for broad-based inclusive idealism to flourish is in an > environment that is reasonably stable, secure and affluent. > > The change in what we consider ethical has evolved over human history but the basic notion; that one should be honest and fair with all of your own kind; that you not kill or mame them; that you not cheat them and the expectation that they will behave in the same way; is not changed. What has changed is the definition of the group to which you extend these "rights and obligations". Initilally it was just ones own tribe. But as societies have grown larger and more complex these rights have been extended as well. This how human society evolves. We use metaphor. Our tribe becomes are city becomes our country becomes all humans. The ability to kill in mass numbers is a result of same technologic advance that allows us to interact with members of other cultures,. to share ideas. This process makes it harder to think of others as unworthy of our ethical concerns. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
