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"Do not meddle in the affairs of Wizards, for they are subtle, and quick to anger!" |
Testing, 1 2 3...
Posted on 04/16/2002 2:29:49 AM PDT by sourcery
it is in a person's rational self interest to show the same empathy for others, that one would like to experience from others.
That no longer holds if one can be cruel without being seen for what one is--then it is one's rational self-interest to screw whatever poor sod's unfortunate enough to need one's help.
Not so. It's not about who sees, or who knows. It's about the world in which one would like to live.
Do people only pick up trash in a park when there is someone to see? Why, then, do people do it? They do it because they know that if no one ever picks up the trash, their enjoyment of the park will be diminished. So they pick up trash, based on the rationally-justified assumption that the more people there are who voluntarily pick up trash in parks, the greater the chance that yet other people will come to realize that picking up trash is in their rational-self interest.
Uncoerced cooperation, empathy and compassion breeds more of the same--unlike the coerced variety.
The world is much more likely to resemble the way we would like it to be, if we do things that will move the state of the world in that direction. If you want to establish a social habit in the population of picking up trash, your most effective course of action is to pick up trash yourself.
Helping those in need is not morally required
Things that are required incur a penalty--most often in the form of reprobation--if not done, correct? Do we not (justly) call a man cruel who gives no aid to a starving child or a person drowning in a river, especially when such aid is easily within his power?
'A implies B' does not imply that 'B implies A.'
If the fundamental principle of morality is that one must never do anything that someone else doesn't like, then it is just as useless as a system of logic where any propostion that can be proven to be true can also be proven to be false.
Which is why I always say legal aliens (like me) should be allowed to vote. I pay 40% of my income to Uncle Sam but I am not allowed to vote on how my money is spent. (Sound familiar?)
Yes, people have the right to form groups for the purpose of achieving mutual ends (such as self-defense), but no such group has the right to require membership in the group (or payment of the membership fee), because no individual member has any such right. And no such group can rightfully claim any sort of ownership rights over a "national territory," especially when the claim includes property not owned by any voluntary member of the group. The group and its members have the right to deny you the right to enter or be on any property they presently own, but no such right can exist regarding other property--such as property you currently own.
Therefore, the country you live in has no right to evict you from your own property for refusal to pay the group membership fee. The fact that the group in question calls itself a sovereign nation (or a trust) makes no difference whatsoever.
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"Do not meddle in the affairs of Wizards, for they are subtle, and quick to anger!" |
Testing, 1 2 3...
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"Do not meddle in the affairs of Wizards, for they are subtle, and quick to anger!" |
 "Do not meddle in |
Testing 1, 2, 3... |
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Summoning the usual suspects... |
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    Summoning the usual suspects... |
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Summoning the usual suspects... |
| sourcery says:
"Do not meddle in |
Well, yes. Of course, they're a lot more accessible to the rich--I mean the real rich, the ones who don't have to work unless they happen to want to. |
Constitutionally, the government should levy tariffs on imported items. That was originally the sole source of federal funding. (The states were free to do as they pleased in regard to taxation.) Of course, that was before we fought a war to get rid of the 10th Amendment, and before we have the bloated federal monster in existence now.
I wasn't trying to draw attention to this thread. I was just using it as place to test out some html templates for posting stuff to FR. I'm sort of surprised that anyone noticed, actually.
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