Hi Platt,
What I meant is that I regard nothing as more worthy than human life,
and this for the many reasons explained elsewhere. I will never feel
comfortable with the idea that some men are entitled to decide of
another man's life. On the other hand, if human life is so important, in
line of principle I could accept the idea of killing to prevent killing,
in extreme situations where it is absolutely *sure* that if you don't
kill, someone else will be killed (eg, self defense), although this is a
mix of rationality and morals proper, and I thus feel less comfortable
about it, as I don't trust rationality as a source of morals. But death
penalty (ah, are we back to that subject...) is no self-defense. It is
based on a *theory* (and one with no evidence) that execution of a
criminal will prevent yet-unknown, other criminals-to-be to commit the
crime. This theory has many flaws - rivers of ink flew about them. It
nevertheless is one of the legs of death penalty, and the best one
actually. The other leg is that death penalty allows people to take
their vengeance backed up by the state (see Andi's message). They can't
have the satisfaction of pulling the trigger themselves, but they can
watch and cheer. So you have a crippled theory and blood thirst, not a
very nice couple.
About the South-Africa-condom point, first off congratulations for
choosing such a non-obvious example. You are probably aware of the fact
that someone on this planet considers condoms something *against* life,
although I personally am not in that camp. Anyway, the odd thing is
that, having to choose a sign of respect for life, you mention one way
of preventing (miserable?) life - is that all the humanitarian you can
get, Platt? If I could follow your line of reasoning to the subsequent
statement, and then to the next one, I may perhaps reply precisely, but
that is not the case, sorry. But yes, I belong to that share of people
that is beginning to feel guilty about the third world, and the fact
that I don't know what to do about it (and, I am actually doing, or
trying to do, something).
Anyway all these topics have been dealt with to death, I think. Who
wants to be cynical has the right to be. To all cynicals, anyway: some
become cynical because they come to believe into some uneasy truth;
others are cynical to start with and later build their system of beliefs
around it. You usually recognize the latter kind by the fact that they
shoot their cynical statements with little discernment -
A
Platt Holden ha scritto:
> Hi Andrea:
>
> ANDREA:
> > For someone who values life above everything, an opinion or
> > a guess is not enough to execute a man or a woman.
>
> Does this mean YOU value life above everything? Whose life?
> Humans? Animals? Bugs? Trees? If human life, how come you're not
> down in South Africa handing out condoms? Any excuse means you
> value some things (or lives) more than those African lives. I think
> perhaps your statement is too broad to be meaningful.
>
> But, I could be wrong, and stand to be corrected.
>
> Platt
>
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