“no possible act, nor mode of conduct, was forbidden to you, as long as your action did not damage another.”
There is short term (immediate) physical harm resulting from one’s actions. But there is also long term, social and cultural harm of one’s actions. The latter is tough to prove and can only be measured over generations. Gay marriage is one example. When gays started to marry in MA, the sun still rose in the morning and things were still the same as yesterday. But the effect of it 20, 50, 100 years hence is still unknown (and I suspect negative). Of course, the current generation may be so twisted, that they refuse to recognize the rot until it is too late.
These days, of course, no matter what you do, you will find someone to complain that it is damaging them.
48 Right Wing Assault
rbg81
Hmmm...an interesting, but deeply flawed statement.
I am surprised someone as intelligent as Heinlein did not recognize it as such.
There is short term (immediate) physical harm resulting from one's actions. But there is also long term, social and cultural harm of one's actions. The latter is tough to prove and can only be measured over generations. Gay marriage is one example. When gays started to marry in MA, the sun still rose in the morning and things were still the same as yesterday. But the effect of it 20, 50, 100 years hence is still unknown (and I suspect negative). Of course, the current generation may be so twisted, that they refuse to recognize the rot until it is too late.
There may be long term, social and cultural harm of one's actions, -- but under our Constitutions principles, - of due process under rule of law, -- our various levels of gov't cannot make or enforce prohibitive 'laws' that infringe on our individual liberties..
if your actions damage another, a jury of your peers must find you guilty of that actual damage, not some theoretical "long term, social and cultural harm".
Socialism is predicated on the theory that a moral majority can issue decrees-'laws', -- based on long term, social and cultural harm.
Such socialistic theories are a political disease.
I think perhaps, you’re agreeing with Heinlein’s quote...and perhaps noticing that the flaw is (with any material action) there will almost always be a ‘reaction’. The key is ‘no harm, no foul’ is perhaps his message....and as today, too many laws can appear to create a ‘foul’ where there is none!
It's just a reworded Wiccan creed: "So far as you harm none, do what you will."
But gays getting married need not have any effect on your own relationships - unless you want it to.
Free markets are not just about money, but about moral codes and every other aspect of civilization. Edmund Burke himself understood that moral codes are not handed to us by God, but evolve from generations of human trial and error. If gay marriage proves to be one of those errors, the trial itself will have made humanity stronger.