> [DMB] > > I'd echo what Krimel said. It seems pretty clear to me that Bo's > attitude > > is "overtly anti-Semitic", a form of "cultural chauvinism one expects > to > > hear from Platt and Ham". > > [Platt] > "Cultures can be graded and judged morally according to their contribution > to the evolution of life." (Lila, 24) > > [Krimel] > So let's imagine that during the Cold War an especially large flock of > geese > attracted NORAD's attention and seeing them as incoming missiles we > launched > our nukes on the Russians. They launched their on us. Now all of the > first > world is smoke and ash and the only surviving humans are a cannibal tribe > in > New Guinea. > > As they will hence forth be making the only contribution to the evolution > of > life you and Pirsig would deem them morally superior? After all, we in > all > our moral uprightness not only planned how to destroy life we would have > accomplished it.
I guess your point is that we should have let the Russians develop the A- bomb so that we could now all be living under the beneficent, Christian- inspired system of communism. Or, would you have preferred the rule of imperial Japan? > Should I forward this to Arlo? He's been waiting a long time for > something > like this. > > But we don't even have to go that far. If cultures can be graded on > their > contribution to the evolution of life shouldn't they be condemned for > driving species into extinction? Doesn't the death of an entire species > reduce future options, perhaps even the possibility of the evolution of > life? Who has killed off more species than we have? If this is the > criteria > wouldn't the Muslims get a better grade on the Final Exam than us? Yes, killing those species of germs that might have killed us all was certainly a moral disaster. > Sometimes, Platt, your moral compass spins in odd directions. The pot calling the kettle. Oh well. Someday the sun will shine. Platt "The unexamined life may not be worth living, but the overexamined life is nothing to write home about either." -- Daniel Dennett Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
