Practical Morality?

Twink (neptune@mars.superlink.net)
Sun, 30 Nov 1997 19:37:01 -0500 (EST)


At 03:26 PM 11/30/97 -0800, Damien R. Sullivan <phoenix@ugcs.caltech.edu> wrote:
>And what are the odds of a more pragmatic approach? Everyone yaks about
>"human rights", like the Chinese are committing some obvious crime
>against nature, or something. David Brin points out that we can afford
>to have a quasi-religious attitude to free speech because its benefits
>are so miraculous. Perhaps we should be pushing "cultural technology":
>ways of organizing a society, like free speech, mutual accountability,
>private property, as the best means to satisfy their explicit goals,
>like wealth and getting rid of corruption. (And surely they'll care
>about pollution at some point?) People who object to Western culture
>and "values" have no qualms about grabbing our factories and planes.
>Perhaps we should put more emphasis on the practical benefits of our
>societies, and cut the appeals to morals they don't share.

Hate to sound like a dyed in the wool Randroid, but individual rights are
the cause
of prosperity in our various society. To the degree that a society even
implicity
practices them, it does better. And there should be no separation between the
practical and the moral -- if our morality is really one meant to deal with
reality.

Daniel Ust