HI Arlo, You make good sense. Yes, the civil government should "protect" us. However when such protection is used as political coercion that it should be stopped. All this talk of racism recently is one such case. The intent is to pit one class against another, which is a standard revolutionary tool. I am not sure we need a revolution.
Tyranny of the minority can be seen in many ways, like the abolition of prayer in schools. I would prefer tyranny by the majority if I had a choice. You speak of intellectual principles, but what of the nonintellectual principles, do they have a place? Case in point, the mosque in NY. Sure intellectual principles dictate that such a thing is appropriate, however, nonintellectual principles which are in the majority are against it. If one places too much emphasis on so called intellectual principles we would all be governed by university professors. Oh wait, we already are, how did that happen? If by intolerance you are invoking political correctness, then I have to say that you are part of a cult. This cultish notion is used for the purposes of control, nothing else. This is not hard to see if one just observes its insipid use. My common sense tells me that the government is overly intrusive which was not the intention of this country. It seems that any excuse will do. Let's not place too much emphasis on the intellectual when it comes to sociology, we do not have a clue in that soft science. My common sense also tells me that what you say is appropriate in moderation. We are far from such moderation. No, I do not want to start another discussion on political correctness, the last one lasted way too long. Ha Ha, I post things that I do not want you to respond to, pretty clever of me, huh? Cheers, Mark <arl On Fri, Oct 22, 2010 at 10:41 AM, Arlo Bensinger <[email protected]> wrote: > [Mark] > In the building of a mosque it is up to the community to decide, not the > government, and certainly not some interpretation which will change. > > [Arlo] > This sounds like a good path to the tyranny of the majority. Civil > government protects us from this. Even if there are only two Jewish families > in a particular community that is otherwise Christian, those families have > the right to build a Synagogue and practice their religion. This is not an > imposition on the "freedom" of the Christian community, this is a > strengthening of the "freedom" for all, lest one day those same Christians > find themselves on the shallow end of the majority pool, and find their > ability to build churches denied. > > I understand the impetus for local governance, and I think the trend is a > good thing. But there are intellectual principles that supercede the "right" > of a community to coerce or restrict its minority populations. > > It is not an "intrusion" for the government to recognize the consensual > marriages of adults that enter in unions that displease you. It is not > "coercion" on the part of the government to demand interracial marriages be > recognized by all public and civil authorities. It is an act that encourages > freedom, that strengthen freedom, as its says that NO ONE, not someone else > today or potential YOU tomorrow, can be denied civil benefits on the basis > of who you choose to enter in such a contract with. > > By ensuring communities do not have the "right" to practice intolerance, > everyone's freedom increases tenfold. Even yours. > > And if you accept Platt's inanity that "intolerance of intolerance is > intolerance", it is not, "intolerance of intolerance is tolerance", but it > is certainly true that "tolerance of intolerance is intolerance". > > A slave-owner is not made "less free" with the elimination of slavery. He > is made more free, because this removes any possibility that he himself > could ever become a slave. > > > 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/md/archives.html > 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/md/archives.html
