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

To: Neocon who wrote (10626)	4/6/2001 5:12:28 PM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 82486

Third, we are all human beings, with an interest in mutual aid. Gosh, Neo. Pretty soon we'll be hearing you promoting free, nationalized health care. <g> A while back you and I talked quite a bit about our ideal society and how people should treat each other--what they can expect. I remember Solon insisting that he had a right to be left alone. I remember we talked about the Golden Rule. From my POV, this is the same discussion. IMO, you and I are autonomous human entities, peers. Our autonomy is constrained by the law, of course, but other than that, we operate as we choose. I respect you as an independent agent and I expect you to respect me the same way. We don't butt into each other's business. An example might be Greg's pottery, since he and I were just talking about that. I don't give him gratuitous advice on how he can improve his pottery. I might think that his geese would be much more effective in red, but I keep that to myself unless he asks me. And I certainly don't go barging into his studio in the middle of th night, throw out all his blue paint and replace it with red paint. Or paint over all his geese with red paint myself. How incredibly arrogant that would be, how disrespectful! Same goes for countries, which are another form of autonomous entities. Our country doesn't tell its peer, the Brits, that they should drive on the right rather than the left. We don't tell them they should have a House and Senate like us and get rid of the parliamentary stuff. It's none of our business. Countries are different from individuals in that the autonomy of the individual is constrained by law whereas there is no world government to police other countries. But as far as I'm concerned, the Golden Rule still applies. We stay out of their internal affairs as we expect them to stay out of ours. We intervene only when they are imperiling us and we do that only because there's no world government to do it for us. Once the peril to us is over, we go back to minding our own business. Who do we think we are that we should tell other countries how they should operate? That assumes, of course, that the government is legitimate. If it's not, it's a different matter. With individuals, intervention can be appropriate when the person's autonomy is compromised by incompetence. Or when the person is a minor. Other than that, people should be left alone to paint their geese whatever color they damn well please. Karen