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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank

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To: Neocon who wrote (21252)	8/9/2001 6:37:35 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) of 82486

Let us take it a bit further. Is the right of property so absolute that, should all holders of real estate decide not to sell or rent to Jews, the government should tolerate forcing them into the streets? I'll use another analogy to explain my position. Its a rather fantasical one but it will serve. Imagine that the sun is going to go nova in 5 years and everyone knows this. Imagine further that I am the president of the United States and that you own a spaceship which is large and sophisticated enough to carry the world's population to another planet where humans can live or just to support the human population of earth indefinately. Imagine also that you care nothing about the rest of the population of earth and will make no effort to rescue any of them or will just rescue a few that you personally like. Then in this fictional scenario you land a shuttle on earth and put yourself in a situation where I could arrest you and take control of your space ship. I would do so but I would so knowing full well that I am violating your rights and doing you an injustice. The practical benefit of saving a planets worth of people IMO would be more important then respecting your property rights to your starship. Or another example that has been used before. If I knew that stopping the Nazi's before they came in to power would not result in equally horrible things (or even worse) happening as history changes, and I knew that killing Hitler in his youth would stop the Nazis, and I had the ability to travel back in time to before he joined the Nazis, and I could not stop him in any other way but by killing him, then I would kill him. If I killed him before he did all of the horrible things he did while in power it would not be a just punishment, he would have done nothing to desirve that punishment. It would be murder pure and simple, but I would murder him to save millions. My point behind all this is that yes some extreme level of practical benefit can justify violating someone's rights atleast to the extent that I would violate their rights to get that benefit, however it doesn't take away the fact that the right would be violated and it doesn't mean that the action is not evil. It would be a so called "necessary evil". Tim

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