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Originally posted by Spanky
I hate to quote that moron tax wonk, but now we are noiw going around in circles.
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I have met this Taxwonk fellow, and he is definitely not a moron.
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The president of Egypt would argue that it could be done under anasthesia, that if done right it has no negative long term health consequences, and that it benefits the society as a whole because it reduces morality. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.
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I don't believe that there is female circumcision in Egypt, but if there were, and they were doing it in this way, and there were no adverse health consequences, and there were some real moral argument rather than some simple assertion about "reducing morality", then maybe the moral calculus would change. I'm a pragmatist. Sometimes the good of the public trumps individual rights, like when club tortures the terrorist to find out where in Manhattan the nuclear bomb is hidden.
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I still stand by my original statement. When telling the leader of any country that we are going to impose our moral will on them (becasuse that is what we are doing) there are only three possible explanations.
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Well, I was talking about trying to persuade them differently, not about imposing our will on them.
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1) It is in our national interest
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A variant of self-defense, perhaps?
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2) Our mutation tells us to do it, so we are going to do it.
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Strangely unconvincing, if you ask me.
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3) There are universal human rights. If there are universal human rights they have to come from somewhere. We will call it the creator (if they don't come from the creator where do they come from?). We feel it is our duty to protect and enforce those rights wherever and whenever we have the ability to do so.
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Why do we have to agree on where they came from? I say a Creator, and you say it derives from a respect for your fellow man, and someone else says 'just because' -- what difference does it make? You can always keep asking "so" or "why" in response to any answer to your question. It proves that you are stubborn, not that you have a monopoly on moral reasoning.
