Ed Dodson responding... > Alexander Tabarrok wrote: > > I am giving a talk today in which I point out that virtually every > >moral theory implies open borders are moral and immigration controls > >immoral. ... Yet, ... the > >implications are clearly not accepted by most people - or at least most > >people are willing to ignore the implications. What does this tell us. > >1) Moral theory counts for nothing, 2) We are still tribalist but are > >working away from that, 3) We have the wrong moral theory. 4) ? Ed here: These are important questions, the subject of thousands of books and an endless series of conferences, seminars and advocacies. Centuries after St. Thomas Aquinas, we are still arguing whether there are universal rights attached to our humanness, superior to any social mores (even those accepted by the majority in a society). I earlier offered as a fundamental moral principle that "the earth is the birthright of all persons, equally." To argue otherwise is to argue that some are born into this worth with greater claims on the natural world than others. The reality of our circumstance is that human beings live and have lived for thousands of years in very different physical environments, mostly with modest interaction with other groups (except as opponents in warfare over territorial expansion). Suddenly, with the rapid introduction of new technologies, we are thrust together without having had the opportunity to incrementally solve the socio-political problems associated with cultural relativism. There is a growing transnational community of people working toward the identification and promotion of universal values, to serve as the basis for the socio-political arrangements and institutions in every society. However, this community of people is still a small minority. An enormous educational challenge exists to overcome deeply entrenched and institutionally-supported nurturing that fosters ethnic and racial bigotry, privilege-based societal hierarchies and the continued adherence to tribalism (and its extended imprint on the global village, nationalism).
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