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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jill who wrote (10851)	11/19/2001 10:22:38 AM
From: Frederick Langford	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

In my younger days, I taught school for a short time. One thing that has stuck with me all these years is the sad and pitiful existence of the child who wasn't wanted. Believe me, there are worse things than abortion. Fred

To: Jill who wrote (10851)	11/19/2001 8:47:43 PM
From: spiral3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Jill, while issues of Morality are at the core of our individual psycho-political life, I find that a country’s sense of National Sovereignty might be compared to say one’s sense of Self Esteem rather more directly, than say to one's sense of morality. The M word is so wide and deep that discussing it can easily lead this board to utter distraction. In the interests of making this subject somewhat relevant to FADG I'd like to inject a little historical context to some of the issues that have been touched on here. As you ponder this enduring conundrum, put yourself back in time and remember that these events took place nearly 2500 years ago, in a country where slavery was common and acceptable, where there was just no Morality attached to it at all. In brief, Morality was the main issue of concern to Socrates, the father of modern philosophy as we know it. To him, a relative truth meant a moral equivalency that was simply unacceptable. If it was to have any meaning, any meaning at all then Morality had to have an Absolute, or a free-standing Truth all of it’s own. Socrates suggestion and contribution to Morality is that there are such things as Eternal Truths. At the same time, but in complete contrast, the Sophists came along and turned things upside down when Protagoras proclaimed that Man was the Measure of All Things, which meant that in Truth there was no Absolute anything - that mankind established what is right or wrong, not the gods or the existence of a morality independent of man. When Athens, the mighty and sophisticated city, was sacked by Sparta in 405 BC, Greece suffered such a massive blow to it’s confidence that the people set about to question what had gone wrong and to look for a scapegoat. Politicians sought power in the chaos by following the prejudices and passions of the masses, and pointed their finger at Socrates. He ended up being executed, actually it was more like a forced suicide - he was made to drink a cup of poison hemlock, because his powerful views subordinated and therefore threatened the State, whose duty it is to protect us. It was a case of Give me Liberty or give me Death. Of course Plato had quite a bit to say about all of this after his teacher Socrates was killed. Something similar happened to Jesus when he came along some four hundred years later and something similar is going to happen to bin Laden I’m glad to say, I just hope that if he has any surviving followers that they are up to the task ahead. And the beat goes on, la dee da dee da.