Hi, Platt
> Shall I presume that you would not risk your life in a fight
> against those
> who would enslave you?
Risking one's life is different from 'giving' one's life, which I believe is
the original language that launched this thread. The fact is that I risk my
life every day and for things far less important than avoiding slavery. I
climb mountains, I ride a motorcycle. So risking one's life is not so much
the issue: rather, it is what we do with our lives. 'Giving" my life for
anything will never be high on my list of choices. Rather, I prefer to live
and win.
> It appears you would be willing to let others
> fight and die in a war against a totalitarian oppressor while you sat on
> the sidelines. Am I correct in my interpretation?
No. For several reasons: first, I doubt I could stop people fighting and
dying against oppression, even should I wish to do so, so in no way am I
'letting' anybody do so. People choose to do such things. Second, in fact
we all _do_ sit around while others _do_ die fighting oppression. I quick
look at today's newspaper headlines will give you several instances where
people are fighting against oppressive governments and dying. Do we condone
the oppression? No, but we do watch it happen and do little if anything to
stop it. Do you not do so, too?
I choose my battles, and sometimes they involve active opposition to
oppression, and sometimes more subtle problems. In all cases I pay
considerable attention to my strategies, and throwing my life away
heroically if futilely is never a favored strategy.
> Pirsig says according
> to an evolutionary morality that a society has a right to murder
> people to
> prevent its own destruction. What do you think? Is any war moral?
I suppose individuals also have the right to declare war on a society that
is oppressive. I'm not sure that a system, such as a society, automatically
has a 'right' to kill any of its components. Of course, any system might
fight for its life, but that hardly means that the system is of such
intrinsic value that it automatically deserves to win.
Is any war moral? I'm not sure what standard you are referring to with
regard to this morality. I do believe that war can become necessary, and I
doubt that war is the most immoral thing I can think of, so I think I would
lean in favor of saying that I can conceive of scenarios in which I would
judge a specific war moral, or at least moral-enough to support it, but I
need to know more about the standards that lie behind your use of the term
before I could much more of an opinion. For example, international law
specifies a number of conditions under which war is permissible, but does
this mean that wars initiated and conducted under these rules are
automatically moral? We would probably agree that they may not be, legal
standing not withstanding. So how do you define 'moral'?
Lawrence
>
> Platt
>
> > Thanks, Platt. May I push the question a bit further?
> >
> > I think I would prefer to cede _all_ my private property rather than my
> > life. And I am pretty sure I would prefer my life to ensuring any other
> > individual's own property. And the same is probably true of freedom of
> > speech and limited government.
> >
> > This does not mean that in choosing my own life I would accept
> the results
> > of those losses of freedom; I would surely launch a campaign to
> regain the
> > right and avenge its loss, but it would be campaign designed to
> not involve
> > the loss of my life.
> >
> > This still, of course, does not get me to a dollar value for
> these rights.
> > Rather, I am proposing a calculus of relative benefits and strategic
> > opportunity.
> >
> > Lawrence
>
>
>
> MOQ.ORG - http://www.moq.org
> Mail Archive - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/
> MD Queries - horse@darkstar.uk.net
>
> To unsubscribe from moq_discuss follow the instructions at:
> http://www.moq.org/md/subscribe.html
MOQ.ORG - http://www.moq.org
Mail Archive - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/
MD Queries - horse@darkstar.uk.net
To unsubscribe from moq_discuss follow the instructions at:
http://www.moq.org/md/subscribe.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sat Aug 17 2002 - 16:01:27 BST