From: Platt Holden (pholden@sc.rr.com)
Date: Sun Nov 06 2005 - 15:07:43 GMT
Case:
> [Platt]
> I love you man but you need to find a new quote.
>
> The culture that ignores or smothers biological value will die. The culture
> that exalts the individual over the common good is likewise doomed. There
> is no virtue, no quality in this quote the way you wave it. The goal of
> culture is to strike a balance between social and biological needs between
> individuals and collectives. It is always about balance. It is always about
> making way for the next generation.
No need to find a new quote. This one will do just fine until something
better comes along. All you're doing with your appeal to "balance" is
repeating the whining of losers, "Can't we all just get along?"
> The conviction that the powerful have the right to inflict their beliefs on
> the less powerful is held by many in western culture. Its fruit is slavery
> and genocide; both in the past and in the present. There is no Quality in
> this. There is no justification for it. We chose it at the peril of us all.
If the powerful inflict their belief in freedom on the less powerful, the
less powerful have an opportunity to become powerful. Unfortunately, many
of them blame their lack of power on anything and everything other than
themselves. They have learned that defining themselves as victims arouses
politicians to shower them with unearned benefits extorted from the
productive members of society. Inevitably, as we see in France today, such
redistribution of wealth in an effort to achieve balance is disastrously
naive.
Platt
> Platt points out to Case a passage from Lila:
>
> "A culture that supports the dominance of social values over biological
> values is an absolutely superior culture to one that does not, and a
> culture that supports the dominance of intellectual values over social
> values is absolutely superior to one that does not. It is immoral to speak
> against a people because of the color of their skin, or any other genetic
> characteristic because these are not changeable and don't matter anyway.
> But it is not immoral to speak against a person because of his cultural
> characteristics if those cultural characteristics are-immoral. These are
> changeable and they do matter." (Lila, 24)
>
> So much for social science and the notion that all cultures are moral
> equals. David got it right.
Platt
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