Greetings, Frank! > As I am writing this, I do hope that all of you can piece this > together in such a way that no one has any moral ground for using > force, that is, government force, to compel compliance on moral > values on the basis of an 'approved' set of moral values by one > segment of our society.
So, does this mean that government force should be (or at least "can be") used to compel compliance with moral values "approved" by many segments of our society or perhaps by a majority of our society? There was a time in Western Civilization when (like all other civilizations and societies) it was considered proper to keep other people as slaves. One segment of western society decided that this was immoral. Gradually, that segment managed to convince most of the rest of society that slavery was immoral. Is murder wrong? That's a moral judgment. Is a violation of the ZAP wrong? That's a moral judgment. Is rape wrong? A moral judgment again. Now, maybe you base your moral judgments of these wrongs on the idea that there is a victim who can object. Why should someone accept that as standard? Also, what about the male nurse who rapes a comatose woman? Is it ok if he uses a condom so she doesn't get pregnant? After all, she can't object. How can she be a victim? Isn't your condemnation of such an act a moral judgement? (I can't imagine anyone on this list who wouldn't be disgusted by such a thing and think the perpetrator deserves anything less than the full FORCE of the government coming down on him.) How do you balance competing (and often, compelling) interests against each other? I would humbly suggest that someone is conceding the argument when they begin to characterize a competing argument as "coming from one segment of our society" or "coming from a religious minority" or in some other similar disparaging terms. After all, if the "majority" is on one side of an argument, then there should be a very good reason for believing it. That reason should then be stated. If the reason cannot be stated, then sooner or later, the majority will shrink to a minority. Lowell C. Savage It's the freedom, stupid! Gun control: tyrants' tool, fools' folly. _______________________________________________ Libnw mailing list [email protected] List info and subscriber options: http://immosys.com/mailman/listinfo/libnw Archives: http://immosys.com/mailman//pipermail/libnw
