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

To: JohnM who wrote (95861)	4/24/2003 9:18:14 AM
From: briskit	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Rosseau, Voltaire and Thomas Paine I would not call bad. Nor their aspirations for the world. Process, politeness, and accommodation are not bad either. Some applications of the ideas might not work so well in various situations. As for myself, John M, I am nobody, with no original thought to contribute. Perhaps the current positions on these issues do not trace back to such roots philosophically, as Sowell attempts to portray. But an attempt to place modern approaches in larger contexts can be instructive. For instance, Paul Johnson in Modern Times, says the modern era began with the theory of relativity. An arbitrary, but perhaps useful starting point. Interestingly as a side bar, he notes the unintended consequence was the popular application as "relativism", which seems to me rules the day in most forms of thought. Johnson says Einstein rued that use of his idea. But back to Sowell, the article might say the one side is concerned about "good and bad", and as a result sometimes avoids what works in order not to be "bad", in your terms. The other side is not so interested in those judgements, but in what will work. I understand that to mean they risk being bad in order to achieve specific results. Appeasement will not risk being bad itself, but assumes the risk of the evil others might produce. How do you stack them up?