Re: MD Biological - Terrorism?

From: Arlo J. Bensinger (ajb102@psu.edu)
Date: Mon Dec 13 2004 - 22:08:15 GMT

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Dan,

> Do we need to restrict
> specifics for the better ness of our society or do we continue to say that
some
> drug lords are terrorists and others are entrepreneurs?
>
> Please explain!

C'mon, Dan... don't you know the conservatives "know what's best for you"? After
all, you (and I) are too stupid to make decisions about our personal lives. We
need them to tell us what's best for us.

Jabs at Platt's dichotomies aside, I recall the passage from ZMM where Pirsig
talked about "just", as in "quality is just what you like". Pirsig says that
the person who assumes you'd rob banks and rape old ladies is making some
pretty insulting assumptions about you.

As do the "conservatives".

Let's face it, we live in a pill-society. Drugs are advertised on television (in
often bizarre and incomprehensible ads) for everything that ails you. Feeling
sad? Take a pill. Feeling scared about interacting with people? Take a pill.
Want your manhood lengthened? Take a pill. You name it, there's a "legal" pill
for you at several hundred dollars a pop.

Want to smoke marijuana... You are the most evil and vile threat to American
Victorian society that has EVER existed. You should be shot, drawn and
quatered, to serve as an example to what we do to "druggies" in this society.

Which we'd all be... if it wasn't for the conservatives saving us from
ourselves. Or funneling our money through the pharmaceuticals...

Platt will tell you, and he's right, that social quality is more moral than
biological quality, but what's missed is that Intellectual quality is more
moral than social quality.

The litmus test for any "law" endeavor (which is a codeification of static
social pattens) should be whether or not it is (1) truly needed to protect
societal disintigration from biological level patterns, and if so, to restrict,
but if not, to permit, and (2) to ensure that Intellectual value is not
sacrificed to preserve static social patterns, as it is immoral to stifle
Intellectual quality to preserve social quality, even if the threat is real.