From: Damien Broderick (damienb@unimelb.edu.au)
Date: Sun Jun 08 2003 - 00:03:53 MDT
I said:
>> If your deputy is acting in a way you regard as deplorable, it's up to you
>> to speak out. If someone over in the next town or nation is doing so, you
>> might take a keen interest, but you generally have a lesser moral
>> responsibility to speak out.
>You are basically saying that the more an act directly
>affects your life, the more you are morally required to speak out against
>it. Bullshit.
I am basically saying nothing of the sort. I am basically saying, quite
clearly I hoped, that the more an act *derives* from my lived situation,
the more I am morally involved in its outcome. What happens in Vietnam is
not directly a result of my life as a citizen, not in 2003. What happens in
Iraq, in 2003, does. What happens in Australia, where `boat people' fleeing
oppression are currently treated abominably and penned in concentration
camps, certainly does, and I express my abhorrence for the Australian
government's behavior in that regard, although I lack the moral purity of
Greg Egan who has temporarily abandoned writing in order to do what he can
to help these poor abused people.
Damien Broderick
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