[MD] Is Quality Value?

[Ham Priday]

Hi Platt --

> Since Beauty and Perfection are not the same for
> everybody, I don't see the problem. The question is
> who decides what you as an individual are going to
> be held accountable for?  You say it's "consensus,"
> but I don't want morality imposed on my by some
> mob. We've seen what horror that can bring.
> Just consider lynching and slavery for starters.

Joan of Arc was burned at the stake.  Jesus was crucified.  O.J. Simpson was
acquitted of murdering his wife.  What "absolute moral standard" prevented
these mob decisions?

> And pray tell, who decides the moral standards
> that make up what you deem a "civilized society?"
> Marx would argue that the morality of capitalism is
> far from "civilized." We know the horrors his
> followers inflicted on society.

Man's goodness and quest for perfection come from the realization of higher
values than the primitive instincts that incite mob behavior.  Not everyone
has the wisdom and sensibility to be inspired by these values.  Individual
freedom is the ability to decide what's right and act on that decision,
apart from what the "collective" attitudes, public polls, or authority in
power dictate. Autocracies, whether based on religion or the power of the
state, seek to rob man of this autonomy.  So, in a sense, do social
conventions and moral codes.  But, as with individuals, a free society must
accept certain responsibilities, including the maintenance of order and
justice in the community.  This only works when the individuals who make up
the society agree to live by its laws and conventions.  Do you believe that
the moral code of a democratic society should be subject to some universal
mandate rather than by the consensus of its people?  A papal decree,
perhaps?

> Sorry to end on that note, but I see no other outcome
> when morality is thought to be "relative."

We all live in a relational world where the ultimate consequences of our
decisions are an unknown.  That makes individual freedom the ability to
choose one's actions in the context of an indeterminate reality.  So long as
you and the majority of your fellow citizens value that freedom, and are
willing to defend what is just and good in human behavior, I doubt that we
have anything to worry about.

And a very Merry Christmas to the Platt household,
Ham