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On 1/14/2011 10:21 AM, Jim Henderson wrote:
> On Thu, 13 Jan 2011 21:49:42 -0700, Patrick Elliott wrote:
>
>> Well, the reason both sides make the argument is that its correct. If
>> you don't enforce absolute moral codes
>
> The world is shades of grey, not just black and white.
>
> Jim
I know this, you know this, they... often make the accusations like
"moral relativism", which is *literally* the statement that, "You treat
the world as shades of gray, but in *fact* its black and white!" If you
deal with the world based on trying to comprehend why things work, you
end up with a case of moral relativism, and uncertainty, where the
answer cannot always be known, or even suspected, merely because you
find the behavior questionable, but it fails to fit neatly into some
preexisting box.
In fact, in reference to an example already included, even the ones that
do, often turn out to have negative consequences only *because of* the
conditions they where tried in. I would argue, for example, that the
consequence for some girl playing naughty with her dog today might
*maybe* be having the dog taken away, and jail time. A few hundred years
ago they had the girl and dog burned to ash, and the ashes scattered,
to, "prevent anyone even thinking of such a thing ever again". Its even
a bit iffy as to whether or not something that can rip your throat out,
if angered, can't "consent", which is the core argument for even
requiring jail time, or removal of the animal.
But that is an example that "most" people still find objectionable
enough to demand it remain illegal. There are thousands of others, from
showing ankles, or marrying between "races" that we reject as invalid
things to disdain now. Why? Because a) the arguments against them where
invalid to start with, and based solely on either "ick", prejudice,
tradition, or religion, and b) every single imagine consequence of them
proved to be wrong. And.. While we get different hypothesis, based on
completely different sets of imaginary threats, both from the far left
and right, I would argue that, for the more "reality based" community in
the middle, the far lefts kind of crazy is *way* less accepted than the
right's. Why? Because the right's is religious, traditional, caters to
existing prejudice, perceptions of "ick" already in place, etc., while
the other side's is often foreign, if it is traditional some place, not
common place, or flat pulled out of their asses yesterday, not out of
someone else's 1,000 years ago or more.
This is why some crazy seems crazier than others, even when both are
supported *only* by rhetoric, wild hypothesis about consequences,
appeals to authority, and denial of contrary data and evidence.
In short, what you already believe is more likely to be true *seems*
more true, even when supported by the same level of complete absence of
actual facts, and even if confronted with those that directly imply that
it is wrong, flawed, or too generalized, in some fundamental way.
--
void main () {
If Schrödingers_cat is alive or version > 98 {
if version = "Vista" {
call slow_by_half();
call DRM_everything();
}
call functional_code();
}
else
call crash_windows();
}
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