[B5JMS] And So It Begins...

[b5jms at lists.cs.columbia.edu]

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From: warlock at es.co.nz (Matthew Vincent)
Date: 2 Apr 2003 01:35:25 -0800
Lines: 40

velovich at aol.com (V-Man) wrote: 

>If one is an American, and realises that the purpose o the US 
>government is the protection of Americans and their property & 
>interests, *FIRST*, these aren't nightmares at all. 

Sure, if one is a jingoistic asshole who thinks that the lives of
human beings who don't happen to live within certain politically
defined borders have less value than those who live within those
borders, then I guess there'd be somewhat less cause for concern from
that perspective... but this still leaves the question of how such a
perspective could be morally justified in the first place. Surely the
lives of all innocent human beings are of equal value.

As anyone who's familiar with evolutionary psychology should be aware,
humans are somewhat mentally unstable animals who have evolved animal
instincts for preferencing the interests of our own tribe or group,
due to our evolutionary history. This is a maladaptive animal instinct
that all human beings must strive to transcend as much as possible if
we ever hope to live safely together on this planet.

Furthermore, even if one accepts the jingoistic view that the lives of
US citizens are more valuable than those of other human beings, there
is still the issue of whether the average happiness of all 270 million
or so US citizens is actually being increased to any significant
degree by ShrubGov's imperialistic political, military and economic
activities. Individuals in positions of political and financial power
in the US, such as CEOs of oil companies for instance, gain more from
these policies and actions than the average citizen does.

What's more, the trivial benefit to the US from making more money from
oil is strongly outweighed by the human cost to the civilians in
countries where the US military is taking these actions. Surely
comparatively minor interests such as economic or political interests
must take second place to the value of human lives, regardless of the
geographical locations of the different persons involved.

Matthew



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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
Date: 03 Apr 2003 00:46:55 GMT
Lines: 26

>What's more, the trivial benefit to the US from making more money from
>oil is strongly outweighed by the human cost to the civilians in
>countries where the US military is taking these actions. Surely
>comparatively minor interests such as economic or political interests
>must take second place to the value of human lives, regardless of the
>geographical locations of the different persons involved.
>
>

Interestingly enough, the whole scenario takes on a different feel if you
replace Iraq with, say, Poland, or Austria.  "Today, United States Coalition
forces began bombing Warsaw...."  

Suddenly for a lot of people who find it find to bomb Baghdad, it sounds kind
of uncomfortable when it's a European city.  

 jms

(jmsatb5 at aol.com)
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