(January 31, 2016 at 10:12 am)downbeatplumb Wrote:(January 30, 2016 at 5:04 pm)Drich Wrote: Pop morality is what a given region or generation thinks is moral... So the morality in 1940 germany is one form like the morality in 1940 america is another verse 2016 america.
My question asks which one is right, and how do we know we haven't slipped past the evil of 1940's Germany
Well if I direct my inate empathy at to this question I find that the treatment of the jews and others would make me feel uncomfortable. Empathy is a part of most people without mental disorders. It can be subverted by propaganda. Equating the jews to lesser beings such as "rats" was common in the Third Reich to try and separate them from deserving of empathy. you can see the same propaganda today being used by the right against migrants and muslims. the migrants are a "swarm" (a term usually used for insects) etc.
I would say that it is easy to see that my morals and the morals of the majority here are better than the 1940s NAZI regime. I can't say the same for the religious right, who seem to be right there with the old guard, clinging to their prejudices and hate.
I say again the early part of this century is looking a lot like the early part of the last century. only this time the evil demagogue looks like it might be a US thing, Trump scares me.
Here's the problem with your "moral anchor..."
The German removal of empathy was systematic over a period of 20+ years in that the were being forced to pay for damages cause by WWI that would take them way beyond their life times. Alot of the figure heads/the people that were blamed were the Jews. Because they held pominate positions that did not seem affected. They were not made to endure such hardships.
Now imagine if 'we' were made to feel greater than our great depression level economic down turn brought on by a terrorist act.. Like for instance a nuke was detonated in NYC and the city was uninhabitable. this would destroy our economy. and it would be decades before we recovered.
Imagine your level of 'empathy' after say 25 years of standing bread lines for food, watching your children starve to death and die, poison in the air and water all because of "Radical Muslims".. How long would you have empathy for them? What if DC was next? The maybe LA... How many cities? How many lives would it take before you understood that your 'terrorists' were attempting genocide on people like you?
Now what if as with 9/11 the Muslim community as a whole did not condemn these acts or again as with 9/11 it took years for any of them to say anything condemning?
What then would you say when you found out in the Koran it is permitted to them to condemn and deny their faith and pledge alliance to a foreign government as a means of infiltration?
or never mind all of that,
Let's say you suffered only as much than the typical German citizen after WWI, due to a religious act of terror, do you still think your empathy would be intact?
You can only judge the Germans because you have no Empathy for them. Now who's the sociopath?