[MD] S/O and Morality

[pholden at davtv.com]

Quoting Arlo Bensinger <ajb102 at psu.edu>:

> [Platt]
> I thought we also agreed that in certain cases fear was 
> intellectually justified and that it was often difficult to tell the 
> difference.
> 
> [Arlo]
> I don't know if the use of doomsday rhetoric is every justified, 
> unless one accepts that we as a people are so numb that the only way 
> to get our attention is to shout "the sky is falling!" I would agree 
> that there are things we should be concerned about, and our concerns 
> should be articulated clearly, and without recourse to fear-rhetoric.

Maybe so, but to be concerned about the possibility of atomic warfare
represents a justifiable doomsday scenario IMO. So does the possibility
of global warming in the eyes of some serious people, not necessarily 
politicians. Further, a return of the genocides of the 20th century are
a legitimate doomsday concern for the populations at risk. Sometimes 
fear-rhetoric is required to arose people to real and present dangers,
just as sympathy and similar emotional rhetoric is justified to right
social ills.        

-------------------------------------------------
This mail sent through IMP: http://horde.org/imp/