At 08:12 PM 25/02/2007, you wrote:
>So there's nothing intrinsically wrong with
murder,
>rape, racism, and sticking your gum underneath
the
>restaurant table?
Much as I'd like to think that these things are intrinsically
wrong, I have to recognize that there are entire structures
with their moral supports that suggest it's okay to bomb an
entire city in order to kill one person considered to be
evil, that sex is an absolute right and submission a moral
obligation, that slavery or subsistent wages for visible
minorities is an economic necessity and that removing the gum
from beneath restaurant tables can provide meaningful
employment for the unskilled.
The first half of the twentieth century is a history of
deliberate mass slaughter at unprecedented rates. The second
half, as a direct result (technological advance from war
research, war industry investment, rebuilding defeated
economies, population recovery,) has seen unprecedented
economic development, and relatively broadly based, too.
These wars were supported by most of our religious and
governmental institutions. It's this moral dilemma that
inspires much of Hardboiled and Noir crime fiction.
Anyway, in a few years all this speculation about the human
character will be moot. A couple of grad students in some OR
will map the entire human brain with a couple of electric
probes and a cell phone camera. Then we'll have our
absolutes, no?
Best, Kerry
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