[MD] Is morality Hard Wired?

[Platt Holden]

> 
> >Platt 
> > Because liberty was more precious than life itself, for themselves 
> > and their families. 
> 
> Platt
> I think the liberty you speak of is a modern concept. Life and survival (
> shelter and food) were a higher priority for the first few thoudsands
> years. The liberty you speak of only came a bout the last few hundred
> years.

Yes, a modern concept that arose with the moral dominance of the 
intellectual level that sanctions an individual's right to seek his own 
happiness instead of being compelled to sacrifice for the happiness of 
others. 

Today, the war between social level collectivism (religious fanaticism and 
national socialism) and intellectual level liberty (individual liberty and 
free markets)  is still being fought with the outcome in doubt. The "mixed 
capitalist system" we live under today is compromise between the two 
forces. Like all compromises, it satisfies few and is thus vulnerable to 
the brutal righteousness of  fundamentalist religious believers.

One need only witness the vacillations of the Bush administration to 
experience first hand the battle between individual liberty (war against 
terrorism) and the collectivist demand to sacrifice for the "greater good" 
(immigration reform).

The history of the 20th century was the victory of intellectual level over 
the forces of socialism and communism. The history of  the 21st century
will be about whether that victory was sustained. 

Platt