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Pastimes : Don't Ask Rambi
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To: Ilaine who wrote (26179)5/30/1999 1:17:00 AM
From: JF Quinnelly  Read Replies (1) of 71178
 
I would say that the best argument in favor of ethical behavior is that
it works. Society functions best, most efficiently, most orderly, when we all behave ethically. I think the recent demise of the Soviet system is a good example of the unworkability of an unethical society. People act best when they are acting in their own self-interest, balanced against the self-interest of others.

This begs the question of what ethics are, and where they originate. Does each society get to invent their own? What if you have a society like Carthage, where the moral norm was to fry a few human infants alive every Sunday morning in deference to Baal? Carthage was remarkably advanced, maybe more so than Rome. And it chugged along nicely for hundreds of years. It worked. Efficiently and orderly. And what if ethnic cleansing "works" for the Serbs? They are just acting in Their Own Self-Interest, that famous god-phrase of Ayn Rand. It works for them, and it's certainly against the self-interest of the Kosovars.
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