Posted on 05/16/2002 10:17:31 AM PDT by moyden
Strange dynamics...the more 'individualistic' society becomes the less responsible/more anarchistic---police statish it becomes!
Where does libertarians demand moral responsibility.
Most libraries I have been to...
don't trust anyone to put their books back on the right shelf---
let alone in numerical order!
Where does libertarianism demand moral responsibility?
I'll give it a shot.
Libertarianism demands that individuals take the full consequences of their actions and decisions, while at the same time stating that individuals can make any decision or action that does not directly harm another.
These consequences include death by overdose, starving, or accident in the case of drug use.
Promiscuous sex results in disease or death or pregnancy which lower the quality of life.
Committing crimes and denying others the rights to live in liberty results in imprisonment or death by the defender (victim with a gun).
Our current society provides all sorts of ways that other people must shoulder the consequences of an individual's immorality. This is not done directly, but through a taxing system that punishes good decisions and supports poor decisions.
Remove that system of support for bad (immoral) decisions, and people die due to their immorality. This only happens for a short time though, as people see the consequences are to be borne by the individual, not by society.
The general level of morality in society rises because of the survival factor. Immoral behavior leads to bad or deadly consequences. Moral behavior leads to a good life.
Remove the safety net, as libertarians promote.
After this, increased individual liberty does not lead to immorality because such behavior has undesirable consequences.
We are all keepers-defenders of the bias(ego)...vs reality(honesty)!
Good News For The Day
Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary, and lose heart. In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. (Hebrews 12:3+4)
"Have you observed that when someone has a reputation for being 'good', that person is subjected to a more rigorous public scrutiny. When a well-known cheat is caught out at his old tricks, not much is made of it; no better was expected. But of a civic leader is booked for driving under the influence, or if a clergyman is discovered to be having an affair, the matter is loudly noised abroad."
"There are those in the media, who make it their business to sniff out, and expose the indiscretions of anyone who normally enjoys a high degree of respect. The longer any individual is able to stand against the general human weakness; set new standards of conduct; refuse to be seduced by the manifold rewards of giving in to the mediocre mainstream, the greater is the build-up of pressure for that person to fail."
"Evil is offended by good. This was certainly so with Christ. His detractors eventually brought violence to bear against him. In Pilgrim's progress, one of the jurymen in the courtroom is... Mr. Live---Loose. He condemns Faithful, and wants to put him to death because, "He would always be condemning my way."
"To be the exceptional person that Jesus was, meant for him the enduring of a great deal more than I have ever endured by way of temptation. He felt the tuggings and buffetings of evil more than others because he never gave in to them. His victory over sin was magnificent; it was grand; it was unique-and by it, he championed and lifted the rest of us. Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.?
in the big picture---final results...loser/winners are known!
What would race tracks be like w/o the photo finish...the FR!
You probably could have stopped right there. Imagine, for a moment, a world in which there was truly no moral consequence for one's actions, where one could act upon their basest impulse without any fear of recrimination. It would, quite literally, hell on earth.
There is one addition to this. They would prefer the above situation, but only while there are people to 'do things to' that are constrained by moral conscience. Without that, the 'free' individual would indeed be subject to recrimination, i.e., 'you strike my cheek, I kill you'.
In reality. If there were no consequences for immorality, there would be no need for morality.
Morality is not some arbitrary code of behavior; it is distilled wisdom from God, and from generations of our ancestors who learned the hard way just what was and was not a good idea. It is a rule of thumb that one can use to judge his actions and the likelihood of bad results, even if he is not experienced enough to fully appreciate the full ramifications of his actions. This is why it is useful to teach children morality, and why our society, that has turned away from such things, is in such a mess today.
There are, unfortunately, many who never graduate from 'morality as rules' to 'morality as wisdom'. Some continue to keep the childish view of things as adults, and fall into two categories: tattletales and brats.
Tattletales have not embraced the reasoning behind their morality, they simply obey, and feel compelled to force others to do so, as well. The problem with this, however, is that tattletales cannot fully embrace morality. All of the pieces do not fit together if we try to cram in the notion that we can compel others to behave morally. For example, it is, IMO, immoral to practice violence against someone simply for being foolish, and yet this is precisely what, say, the Drug War does.
On the other hand, we have the brats, who refuse to admit that the countless generations of humanity who have come before them, much less God, might possibly have answers to common human problems. As is typical amongst juveniles, they know everything there is to know. They also see the tattletales deliberately behaving immorally in the name of morality, point to such, and declare morality to be bunk. And then they end up spending years of their lives regretting their stupidity, assuming they even live that long.
I do not understand why so many who call themselves moral cannot appreciate the morality of forbearance. Morality, in the end, is wisdom. One cannot beat wisdom into a man; it is something he must acquire for himself. Attempting to do so will simply make him hate you and everything you stand for, and give him all the more motivation to defy you when your back is turned.
Reality _is_ morality.
Thraka
1 a : designed for or understood by the specially initiated alone
b : of or relating to knowledge that is restricted to a small group
2 a : limited to a small circle b : PRIVATE, CONFIDENTIAL
- es·o·ter·i·cal·ly /-i-k(&-)lE/ adverb
Liberals deny--morph morality--reality...
libertarians inflate--float--bubble it away!
As for my appalling grammar, I agree with you. Fortunately, I am able to get by on my good looks.
Enjoyed your comments. Regards, Moyden.
the word 'free' troubles me!
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