RE: If you're pro-life, how far do you take that?
August 8, 2018 at 8:45 am
(This post was last modified: August 8, 2018 at 9:04 am by The Grand Nudger.)
(August 8, 2018 at 7:29 am)vulcanlogician Wrote: I gave two examples of murder that could be said to not harm societies. I don't see how harming an individual is inherently harmful to society. One could argue that robust and powerful societies (like ancient Rome) housed institutions (such as slavery) which were very harmful to individuals within the society. And yet those societies thrived and prospered.I think you're mixing up civilization and society. Society is the aggregate of individuals, and harming one of them does harm the aggregate, even if it doesn't harm the aggregate equally. Some civilizations thrive and prosper in spite of institutions which harm their society, sure. IDK if slavery is the best example, since we understand that slavery has an immense cost to society and civilization.
Take any civilization you had in mind with that..and contend that they could not have been improved by solving their slavery problem...and that's what you would need to maintain in order to say that harming society in such a way was not inherently harmful to their civilization.
A better example -might- be how we do harm to individuals with our police, purportedly on behalf of society...and yet, the militarized police force that does that harm, here..while we prosper, is definitely costing both society and our civilization all the same. Nevertheless...we contend that policing done right, where the harm to the individual and the aggregate is minimized..and more fundamentally where the opportunity to harm the individual or the aggregate is greatly restricted, and further.. whatever harm is done is restricted to those that harm society, or the civilization, would lead to a greater and more prosperous civilization. As a cynic..and with a long view of history, the job is to export your violence outside of the confines of your own society and civilization. Harming -those- individuals is less likely to harm your civilization or society (but it's not a safe bet..every now and again peoples heads get nailed to trees and cities are sacked in retribution).
Or we could just hit all the whores, queers, and darkies with nightsticks , point to our GDP, and say it's not inherently harmful all the way up to the next civil war and/or popular rebellion.
(Your two examples were inherently and categorically harmful to society, imo, even if the civilization could endure them.... which hey..maybe it might...though I doubt very much that it would.)
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