Platt,
I do not want to get into the argument between you and Horse, but i do want
to ask you something regarding one of your statements:
For example, if a person resorts to his
biological nature and invades my home, threatening to murder, rape, or
torture me or my family I will, at the risk of my own life, gladly blow his
head off , serene in the knowledge that the morality of the MOQ fully
justifies my act.
"Gladly blow his head off" took me by surprise, and I'm wondering if you
truly meant
that. Would it be better to incapacitate him (shoot him in the leg,
perhaps?) and let the police deal with him?
If you are willing to do whatever is justifiably moral, I would like to give
you a scenario proposed by the Dostoyevskian character Ivan Karamazov. It is
a true story which made me cry. In Russia some time ago there lived a
husband and wife with a five year old daughter. Her body had become bruised
from being kicked and beaten with sticks by the parents, who were sadists.
Late one night, she needed to use the outhouse, so she went. When her mother
found out, she became irate because the girl did not ask permission. So, as
punishment for this, the mother locked her in the outhouse for the entire
freezing cold night and smeared her face with feces, even making her eat it
as well. She beat her chest with her tiny fist and prayed to 'deat God' the
remainder of the night. When at long last this couple was brought to court,
the defense attorney argued that it is the right of the parents to discipline
the child and the fact that this case even came to court is proof of the
warped values of society. The couple was found not guilty. Ivan goes on to
ask his brother, "Imagine that you yourself are in charge of building the
edifice of human destiny with the object of making people happy in the
finale, of giving them peace and rest at last, but for that you must
inevitably and unavoidably torture one tiny creature, that same child who was
beating her little fist, and raise your edifice on the foundation of her
unrequitted tears- would you agree to be the architect on such conditions?"
It would no doubt be justifiably moral, Platt: saving humanity for the price
of one little girl's tears. But we are not so powerful as to be in that
position all the time. Our moralities do not make us gods with the ability
to divine which life is holy and which life deserves to be ended.
Rasheed
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