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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: epicure who wrote (4318)	2/1/2001 6:58:49 PM
From: Solon	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 82486

But I would argue rights only exist if someone recognizes them- so a right, without a society to recognize it, would not exist. And I would also argue that a right is totally independent of what anyone else thinks is false. Society can grant any rights it wants no matter how false someone like you thinks they are. And the fact that society recognizes the right, makes it exist- even if you don't want it to. I believe I am someone, and I don't believe that society is. Therefore, I will determine in the realm of ideas (where I live) what rights are. Society can do what it wants. I will obey it or disobey according to what I conceive my self interest to be. If my society decides that I have a right to do medical experiments on people that will kill them, then what? If my society says that all people of a certain color have no right to independent economic status, then what? Once again, I am not equating right wit either power, or with legal prerogative. There are lega; rights which society referees for its members. I am talking about metaphysical ideas of right, which society may or may not recognise, but which I and others do. I would like to have my right to exist recognized by society, but I have no guarantee that an entity so reliant upon noise rather than meaning will do so--or will continue to do so to the degree in which it does. Something came up I gotta run..ill finish later

To: epicure who wrote (4318)	2/1/2001 10:14:43 PM
From: cosmicforce	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 82486

I agree. It may not make people "comfortable" but really we only live by the good graces of others. The problem with moral relativism is that it is true. There is really nothing "wrong" per se with a society that singles out a group for demise. The larger community (like that of the world) can band together and say this is not tolerable but that is really just a larger relativism and not absolutism. As for my cows, if they weren't being exploited, they wouldn't be alive at all probably. No large mammals that humans don't consider "useful" are free from endangered status. I'm really trying but I can't think of one.