Yes.
No.
Schmedlap,
I agree to a large extent, with the caveat that there are religious leaders who enter into politics or political movements with their religious ideal as the political aim. Often, these are radicals or revolutionaries who meet with little success, but sometimes they are relatively successful. Populism, with its appeal to the people's passions IMO is the main driving force of introducing religion into politics, and on some occasions as developments radicalize the followers, religious zeal trumpeting political pragmatism.
When I am weaker than you, I ask you for freedom because that is according to your principles; when I am stronger than you, I take away your freedom because that is according to my principles. - Louis Veuillot
Ken has put us on a real slippery slope. What about the jihadists that sought and had a good death via suicide bombing and not retreating from a fire fight when they could have? How much 'religious' inspiration does that inspire and how could that be measured? I recall as a young teen seeing on tv the buddhist monks immolating themselves in viet nam - how much did that really reverberate? I don't think religion can be easily dismissed from the equation. Look at our own cultural dynamics that unfold in a theatre of war - the band of brotherhood mind-set that develops and can't readily be explained by behaviorism or traditional cultural values. All notions of the flag, democracy, mom and pop back home and apple pie all go out the window in the first fire fight and something quasi spiritual IMO takes its place.
Hi AP,
It's a good idea, but I don't think it holds water - my cat is alive, the viruses currently attacking my wife are alive, so we would have to include all "life" and that, as any biologist will tell you, is a very tricky thing to define . How would we quantify "superiority" based on "life"? By sheer populatiion numbers? If so, bacteria win hands down !
Sic Bisquitus Disintegrat...
Marc W.D. Tyrrell, Ph.D.
Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies,
Senior Research Fellow,
The Canadian Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies, NPSIA
Carleton University
http://marctyrrell.com/
Sic Bisquitus Disintegrat...
Marc W.D. Tyrrell, Ph.D.
Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies,
Senior Research Fellow,
The Canadian Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies, NPSIA
Carleton University
http://marctyrrell.com/
Comparing the poll results to the discussion.
Actually there are two ways that cultures could all be morally equal, the first is if they are all the same. The second is if there is actually no objective moral standard against which to judge them. You could say a third which is that the moral standard is either ambiguous enough or ambivalent enough that there is no way to judge them. While I see the distinction, I believe that is just weaseling out of the question.
Insofar as all cultures are not the same, and I accept a potential objective moral standard against which cultures could be judged, I must accept that all cultures are not morally equivalent. I can do so without positing that "my" culture is morally superior, or knowing or positing any possible morally superior culture.
Last edited by SWJED; 07-28-2009 at 04:14 PM. Reason: Fix Quote tag.
Audentes adiuvat fortuna
"Abu Suleyman"
He wrote in "Rules for Radicals" Do these particular ends justify these particular means?
I'll read up on moral relativism.
I've gone from being concerned about much to being concerned for peace at my address. I don't have much use for absolute belief.
The older I get the more I believe that most things are scams. That might be an absolute belief.
Paradox? Dichotomy?
I believe we're not the Army that manifested destiny.
Meaning is found in Life
And life is what you make of it.
Since it occurred to me that this meant I was the one responsible
for making my own life meaningful I liked it.
Considering that the someone just passed away recently after a very full and meaningful life I definitely think I'll stick with it
Sorry Marct, non of them facts here please
Any man can destroy that which is around him, The rare man is he who can find beauty even in the darkest hours
Cogitationis poenam nemo patitur
There is no meaning to life. Life is just what it is. Meaning is something we add to it, and to everything else. There is no meaning inherent to it.
Life probably was not meant to be ‘solved’ either, just meant to be lived. Problem is that many of us (including yours truly) don’t always get that and spend a lifetime looking for it.
So Ron has probably got the right idea. If we can't help adding meaning to it anyway, we may as well choose a meaning that serves us. And there's the next challenge for many of us.......
Nothing that results in human progress is achieved with unanimous consent. (Christopher Columbus)
All great truth passes through three stages: first it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.
(Arthur Schopenhauer)
ONWARD
And there you have it, ladies and gentlemen, we not only discuss counterinsurgency tactics, but also the meaning of life itself.
I'm curious - since this thread was started by the moderator - what prompted this question?
I'm guessing it has something to do with the implications of trying to impose value "x" on a society that truly believes in value "y".
That would be my guess as well - at least in part. One of the things I've noticed is that it is always a good thing to challenge our own assumptions if for no other reason (and there are others ) than that we will not automatically block our perceptions. I remember reading an interview with a PRT person who said there was no social infrastructrure in Iraq - blithely ignoring the kinship based system that had been operating for millenia because it didn't match his preconceptions of what a social structure should be.
Sic Bisquitus Disintegrat...
Marc W.D. Tyrrell, Ph.D.
Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies,
Senior Research Fellow,
The Canadian Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies, NPSIA
Carleton University
http://marctyrrell.com/
But there were others where the inteviewee had a good handle. Those interviews are good sources of support for a number of positions on a number of the threads here.
Cheers
JohnT
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