[MD] Flying Spaghetti Monsters

[Laycock, Jos (OSPT)]

Platt, Ham

It's funny but I've always seen ease of taking offence as a right wing
trait, going hand in hand with the defence of accepted moral standards?
(conservatism?)
IMO Political correctness is inherently a good thing, ok so people hide
behind it on occasion but what's wrong with making the language we use
appropriate to times in which we live? 
If we called it "political accuracy" instead does it become more palatable?

I suspect the laws in the US might be rather more restrictive than they are
here, but again I see that as the influence of the right wing not the left,
we are afterall socialists and you are not!

No doubt I've spent too much time having my mind poisoned in college
campuses, though I cant actually remember being leafleted on the subject I
think our tutors were more concerned that we learned stuff about our chosen
disciplines.
:

Yes, it's in the nature of man to be selfish, but its also in the nature of
man to be communal, to be violent and to be imaginative etc... 
If were talking about instincts then were looking at biological morality and
its one of Pirsig's basics that moral codes at different levels are
independent? 

For my money people need social control, we need police and we need
governance, teams work better than individuals, and teams with strong
leaders work best of all. Freedom is a completely subjective concept, how
many degrees of freedom do we need in order to feel free? If all the choices
have negative outcomes then what's the point offering the choice at all?

We reverse engineer situations and assign cause and effect relationships to
everything in sight, we perceive a vast array of branching possibilities
available at each instant, but how many were really feasible or useful, and
how much choice do you really have about the ones that are coming up now? 
Who's freer - a person with 2 choices when the outcomes of both look
positive, or a person with ten choices but the outcomes of 9 are bound to be
terrible? We are always constrained by some external factors in any decision
we make, what is the difference between working within constraints imposed
by society and working within constrains imposed by biology or logic?

Jos



> -----Original Message-----
> From: moq_discuss-bounces at moqtalk.org
> [mailto:moq_discuss-bounces at moqtalk.org]On Behalf Of Platt Holden
> Sent: 27 September 2006 14:49
> To: moq_discuss at moqtalk.org
> Subject: Re: [MD] Flying Spaghetti Monsters
> 
> 
> Ham:
> 
> > This is why civilized societies adapt a code of morality to 
> allow the
> > pursuit of individual interests, so long as one's behavior does not
> > offend or injure others or the society as a whole.
> 
> Offend? Everybody is taking "offense" at the most benign 
> behavior these 
> days as witness the left-wing media reaction to the supposed 
> use of the 
> n-word 30 years ago by George Allen, senator from Virginia.  
> As far as 
> I know, there is no law in the U.S. against simply offending 
> someone, . 
> but so called "hate speech" laws are beginning to encroach on free 
> speech, and, of course, political correctness enforced on college 
> campuses outrageously smothers the free exchange of ideas. Offending 
> someone may be discourteous, but hardly immoral.    
> 
> But, your critique of compassionate altruism should be posted 
> in every 
> school room in the country. It's always amazed me that 
> someone could be 
> so egoistic as to think she knows what would be good for 
> somebody else. 
> We should have learned a lesson from the Inquisition which 
> had the best 
> interest of its victims at heart, namely, to save their souls from 
> eternal damnation.
> 
> Thus, your critique bears repeating:
> 
> > 1. Because man values his own life above all, it is the 
> nature of man to
> > be selfish.  Therefore selfishness cannot be immoral.
> > 
> > 2. Altruism implies paternalism -- the assumption that the 
> individual
> > knows the interests of others better than they do themselves.  This
> > fosters dependence on the part of others and works against the
> > altruist's natural self-interest.
> > 
> > 3. As applied to society, altruism establishes an 
> artificial morality
> > which reduces   individual motivation, minimizes the value of his
> > contributions, and stifles development of his sense of 
> moral goodness.
> > 
> > 4. Man is a self-determinate creature with the freedom to choose the
> > values by which he lives.  Since morality is contingent upon related
> > conditions, a "fixed" behavior-based morality system 
> thwarts individual
> > freedom.
> 
> Best regards,
> Platt
> 
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